Former China oil firm chairman jailed for corruption

Communist Party authorities have waged a much-publicised campaign against endemic graft since Mr Xi ascended to the organisation’s leadership two years ago.

Jiang Jiemin, the former chairman of China National Petroleum Corp, the nation’s top energy group, and its listed firm, PetroChina, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for graft, Chinese state television said Monday.

Another courtroom in a unique half of Hubei referred to as Xianning sentenced Li Chuncheng, who was a…

Jiang was an ally of former security chief Zhou Yongkang, the biggest official caught in the ongoing corruption crackdown in China.

Another Zhou aide from Sichuan, Guo Yongxiang, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Tuesday in a separate Hubei court for bribery and other crimes.

Jiang had risen through the ranks of state-owned CNPC, which is the parent company of PetroChina, in the late 1990s and 2000s to become chairman.

Instructed by Zhou, Jiang helped with the business activities of others, helping them to illegally obtain huge profits and causing the State big losses between2004 and2008, the Hanjiang court said.

Pictures of Jiang in court published online showed the visibly thinner former official listening to the verdict with an impassive face.

By the end of August, 2013, his personal and family property exceeded the legitimate earnings and he had 14.8 million yuan unaccounted, the court said.

He had served as CNPC chairman from 2011 to 2013 and had gone on trial in April.

His personal property, worth one million yuan ($158,200), was confiscated.

With the support of Zhou, Jiang used his influence at CNPC between 2004 to 2008 to help unidentified sources win bids for oil and gas exploration, gas turbine generation and natural gas supply contracts, the official Xinhua news agency reported in April.

According to his official biography, Ji had worked under Zhou when the latter was the party boss of Sichuan province and the public security minister.