Former Chongqing Party Leader Jailed For Life

A former top Chinese Communist Party official who was once tipped for a top leadership post was sentenced to life in prison for bribery, mainland state media said on Tuesday, the latest senior cadre to fall in President Xi Jinping's sweeping anti-corruption crusade.

Sun Zhengcai, a former Politburo member and party chief of the southwestern mega-city of Chongqing, was found guilty of taking over 170 million yuan in bribes, the official Xinhua news service said, adding that his "illegal gains" would be confiscated.

Sun's sentence was handed down by the intermediate court in the northern port city of Tianjin and appears to mark the end of a career that had once been seen as propelling him to the apex of power in the ruling Communist Party.

He was also deprived of political rights for life and had all his personal property confiscated.

His actions had "gravely damaged the normal work order of national organisations and harmed the integrity of conduct by national employees," the court statement said.

He pleaded guilty to the charges during a one-day trial in April. Despite Sun's conviction on criminal charges, mainland leaders and party-run media have made it clear that Sun's offences were largely political in nature.

At a party meeting last year, a senior official stated that Sun and other senior figures prosecuted in President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption crackdown were "conspiring openly to usurp party leadership".

Sun had been expelled from the party and dismissed from public office in September. He was replaced in Chongqing by Xi protege Chen Min'er, who was subsequently promoted to the Politburo.

Sun had been identified most closely with the party's China Youth League faction associated with Xi's predecessor, Hu Jintao, which Xi – who also heads the ruling party – has effectively sidelined in his consolidation of power. (AFP, AP)

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