A Chinese court has sentenced Jiang Jiemin, one of the most senior officials to be charged with graft during a two-year anti-corruption campaign, to 16 years in jail, state television said on Monday.
Mr Jiang’s detention in August 2013 kicked off the anti-corruption campaign that has decimated the Chinese oil industry and destroyed the patronage base of Zhou Yongkang, the formerly powerful energy and security tsar. Mr Zhou was handed a life sentence in June after a secret trial.
The anti-corruption drive has been accompanied by a consolidation of power and crackdown on civil society under Xi Jinping, the head of China’s ruling Communist party. Mr Zhou had backed Bo Xilai, the charismatic princeling who failed in his attempt to join the top ranks of the party shortly before Mr Xi took power.