China: Former vice governor gets life term for graft

By Mahmut Atanur

BEIJING (AA) – A former Chinese vice governor was sentenced to life in prison Thursday after being found guilty of receiving bribes worth around $12 million, according to state media.

Xinhua cited a statement from the Guangzhou City Intermediate People's Court as saying that Tan Li, former vice governor of Hainan province, was stripped of his political rights for life with all his personal assets confiscated.

The court, which ruled that his “ill-gotten gains” be turned over to the state, said Tan “took advantage” of his various positions in Sichuan and Hainan provinces from 2001-2014 “to seek benefits for others in respects of enterprise development, project construction and arbitration award implementation”.

He was accused of having accepted money or gifts worth around 86.25 million yuan ($12.8 million) “personally or through some ‘affiliated persons’”.

Tan was placed under investigation in 2014 amid a corruption probe targeting officials linked to disgraced former security tsar Zhou Yongkang, the highest-ranking official to be investigated under President Xi Jingping’s anti-graft campaign.

He was the second Hainan vice governor to be probed, after Ji Wenlin -- who once served as Zhou's personal secretary -- was expelled from the Communist Party of China, according to the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.

Zhou was handed a life term in June 2015 under the anti-corruption campaign.

In March this year, Ji was sentenced to 12 years in prison after being found guilty of receiving bribes and assets allegedly worth around 20 million yuan.

In August, China’s top anti-graft watchdog announced that 163,000 officials -- including 41 at provincial and ministerial levels -- were penalized this year for violating Party political discipline.

According to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, 336,000 people were punished last year, with the cases of 14,000 submitted to the judiciary for suspected criminal activity.