China's Guohua Energy Co., Ltd. denied involvement in the bribery case of US firm Control Components Inc. (CCI), which has admitted bribing Chinese companies, The Beijing News reported Tuesday.

"After strict verification, we found no business connections- direct or indirect- with CCI, thus it's impossible for us to have taken bribes from the company," Guohua Energy said in a statement sent to the newspaper.

CCI, a California-based supplier of service control valves, admitted to the US authorities it had paid bribes to employees of state-owned enterprises in 36 countries. Six Chinese companies appeared on CCI's bribery list, including PetroChina, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), Jiangsu Nuclear Power Corporation, China Oil Materials and Equipment Company, Dongfang Electric Corporation, and Guohua Electric Power.

Some Chinese media reports identified Guohua Energy as the company called "Guohua Electric Power" in the statement released by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). However, sources with Guohua Energy told the newspaper they suspect "Guohua Electric Power" refers to Shenhua Beijing Guohua Electric Power Co., Ltd. (GHEPC), a fully-owned subsidiary of Shenhua Group.

Huang Qing, Secretary of the Board of Directors of Shenhua Group, said he had just heard the news and could not confirm whether the DOJ statement was referring to GHEPC.

For more details, please read the full Chinese coverage at:

http://epaper.thebeijingnews.com/html/2009-08/18/content_397788.htm

(China.org.cn by Yan Pei August 18, 2009)