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Chinese tax official jailed for life over bribery

BEIJING: China has sentenced the former tax chief of the northeastern city of Daqing, centre of the country's largest oilfield, to life in prison for accepting bribes, the China Youth Daily reported on Saturday.

A court found Na Fengqi, former head of the State Taxation Bureau in the city, guilty of taking 384,465 yuan ($46,432) in bribes, the newspaper said.

The court in Harbin, the provincial capital of Heilongjiang, had confiscated his personal property worth 2.5 million yuan, it said.

Corruption, virtually eliminated in the years after the Communists came to power in 1949, is rife and President Jiang Zemin has said it threatened the credibility of the ruling Communist Party.

State media reported earlier this week that China had sentenced a former vice governor of central Jiangxi province to death for taking more than $650,000 in bribes.-Reuters