China’s ex-national deputy police chief jailed for 15 yrs in bribery scandal

Former Chinese deputy national police chief Li Dongcheng was sentenced to 15 years in jail on corruption charges, after the court found him guilty of taking millions of dollars in bribes, China Central Television reported.

CCTV had a brief announcement about the sentencing Tuesday morning. Li, 61, was accused of taking nearly 22 million yuan ($3.3 million) in bribes while holding various positions between 1996 and 2013, Xinhua news agency reported earlier.

Li had been on trial in the northeastern city of Tianjin since October. State media added that Li decided not to appeal the verdict.

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The ex-deputy police chief worked at CCTV for 22 years, starting out as a photographer and rising to the ranks of a deputy head.

He also served as a deputy head of the ruling Communist Party’s propaganda department for seven years.

Li is just of latest former senior officials to be jailed under President Xi Jinping’s broad anti-corruption campaign.

Li is also known as the ally of ex-security chief Zhou Yongkang, who received a life sentence in June following a secret trial.

Zhou, 72, is the most senior Chinese official to be involved in a scandal of such magnitude since the Communist Party came to power in 1949. Zhou also decided not to appeal the verdict.

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President Xi Jinping has made battling corruption one of the Communist party’s priorities since he took office in 2012. His fight has touched various powerful state-owned companies in the areas of energy, banking and telecommunications.

Officials now living abroad have also been targeted by the sweep. Since 2014, over 930 suspects have been returned home, according to the Ministry of Public Security. Chinese media have reported that teams of agents have been sent out around the globe.

Chinese state news media even published Interpol alerts for 100 people that Beijing wants to apprehend, describing the people on the list as China’s most-wanted fugitives worldwide.