Former senior Taiwan affairs official sentenced to 15 years for graft

ZHENGZHOU, April 20 -- Gong Qinggai, a former senior official with the Chinese mainland's Taiwan affairs body, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for accepting bribes totaling nearly 53.53 million yuan (around 7.78 million U.S. dollars) on Thursday.

Personal assets worth five million yuan held by Gong, former deputy head of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, were confiscated, according to a statement from Anyang Intermediate People's Court in Henan Province.

His ill-gotten gains must be turned over to the state, the court ruled.

Gong was found guilty of taking advantage of his positions in southeast China's Fujian Province to help entities and individuals in land acquisition, construction projects and plan adjustment between 1996 and 2015, it said.

The court issued a lesser punishment as Gong admitted his crimes, surrendered all his illicit gains and provided clues to crimes committed by others.