Ex-political star gets life sentence

BEIJING — A Chinese court sentenced former political highflier Sun Zhengcai to life in prison Tuesday for taking more than $26 million in bribes, making him one of the biggest names to fall in President Xi Jinping’s campaign against corruption and disloyalty.

Sun’s sentence handed down by the intermediate court in the northern port city of Tianjin appears to end a career that had once been seen as propelling him to the apex of power in the ruling Communist Party.

In addition to being imprisoned, Sun was deprived of political rights for life and all his personal property was confiscated.

State broadcaster CCTV showed Sun in court accepting the sentence and stating that he would not appeal.

Sun had been elevated to the party’s elite 25member Politburo and was the top official in the western megacity of Chongqing before suddenly being removed in July.

He pleaded guilty to the charges and expressed repentance, according to Tianjin’s No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court.

In return for the bribes, Sun and his associates allegedly provided assistance to unspecified organizations and individuals with engineering contracts, business operations and other matters, the court said.

Despite Sun’s conviction on criminal charges, Chinese leaders and party-run media have made it clear that Sun’s offenses were largely political in nature.

At a party meeting last year, a senior official stated that Sun and other senior figures prosecuted in Xi’s anticorruption crackdown were “conspiring openly to usurp party leadership.”