Former Regional Leader Sentenced for Two-Decade Bribery Scheme

A Chinese court sentenced a 73-year-old former senior regional official to death with a two-year reprieve on Tuesday, concluding that he accepted more than 111 million yuan ($15.3 million) in bribes over nearly two decades.

Qi Tongsheng, the former chairman of the People’s Political Consultative Conference in the Ningxia region, is the oldest high-ranking official to be sentenced since the Communist Party’s 20th National Congress. The Intermediate People’s Court of Nanning in the Guangxi region handed down the sentence for bribery, stripping Qi of his political rights for life and ordering the confiscation of all his personal property. The court ordered that all illicit gains and accrued interest be turned over to the state treasury.