What’s new: Sun Guoxiang, a former top provincial lawmaker in Northeast China’s Liaoning province, has been sentenced to life in prison for taking nearly 1 billion yuan ($139 million) in bribes, according to a court ruling.
The former deputy head of the Standing Committee of Liaoning Provincial People’s Congress has become the latest in a string of high-ranking officials sentenced this year in the rust belt province, which has been particularly plagued by corruption scandals.
Sun accepted more than 97 million yuan in bribes while in several positions from 2008 to 2018, including mayor and Communist Party chief of Panjin, Liaoning, according to a court statement published Tuesday. In exchange for the bribes, he helped companies obtain bank loans among other things.
The court also stripped him of his “political rights for life” and confiscated all of his personal assets, the statement said.
The background: The graft investigation into Sun began in June 2022, nearly two months before he was expelled from the party and removed from public office.
A native of Liaoning, the 58-year-old spent more than two decades in positions such as deputy party chief of the Liaoning provincial branch of Communist Youth League. In 2008, Sun became acting mayor of the corruption-hit Panjin and served as its party secretary from 2010 to 2016. During his tenure in the city, numerous municipal officials were investigated for corruption.
Since 2017, the anti-graft campaign has caught up several officials who were once top city leaders, including one who went on to become vice governor of Liaoning.
Contact reporter Wang Xintong (xintongwang@caixin.com) and editor Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com)
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