SHANGHAI, August 11. /TASS/. A Chinese court sentenced Long Xiang, former chairman of the Standing Committee of the Nanjing Municipal People’s Congress, to death with a two-year reprieve for taking 261 million yuan (about $39 million) in bribes, Xinhua reported.

He was also convicted of embezzling 12 million yuan ($1.8 million) from a fund supporting the Nanjing Economic and Technological Development Zone, as well as insider trading involving 10.5 million yuan ($1.6 million).

From 2009 to 2025, Long held senior posts in the government of Nanjing, the administrative center of the eastern province of Jiangsu.

Long cooperated with the investigation, admitted guilt, expressed remorse and disclosed previously unknown crimes. This resulted in a mitigated sentence with a two-year reprieve. The sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment if it is not determined that he committed other crimes.

China’s anti-corruption drive intensified after Xi Jinping became Chinese president in 2012. "Corruption is a cancer that threatens the vitality and combat capability of the Party," he has said. In recent years, the large-scale anti-corruption campaign has led to the dismissal and imprisonment, including life sentences, of senior officials, heads of major companies and rank-and-file civil servants.