Chinese Deputy Minister Bags 15 Years Jail For Corruption

China has jailed its former Vice Public Security Minister Li Dongsheng for 15 years, the latest official tied to the ousted security tsar Zhou Yongkang to be sentenced for corruption offences.

Reuters noted that scores of top officials in the ruling Communist Party, the government, the military and state-owned companies had been brought down in a sweeping anti-graft campaign in the past three years since President Xi Jinping came to power.

Li went on trial at a court in the northeastern city of Tianjin in October was charged with illegally accepting about 22 million yuan ($3.5 million) worth of assets.


He was a top official at the powerful Ministry of Public Security, which Zhou oversaw before he was jailed for life in June after a secret trial in China’s most sensational graft scandal in 70 years.

Authorities also confiscated 1 million yuan in personal assets, China Central Television (CCTV) said on its official microblog. Li had accused of abusing the various posts he held since 1996, including as a deputy head at CCTV.

Of the nearly 22 million bribe he took, Li kept close to 5 million yuan and passed the rest to his brother Li Fusheng. “Li Dongsheng expressed in court that he would not appeal,” CCTV said.

Other allies of Zhou have been sentenced in recent months. Former oil executives Jiang Jiemin and Wang Yongchun, an aide from Sichuan province Guo Yongxiang, and Li Chuncheng, the former deputy party boss in Sichuan, had all been given prison terms between 13 and 20 years.

China’s biggest oil company, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), was a power base for Zhou.