Former head of one of China’s top state-owned phone companies sentenced to 16 years for corruption

By The Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese court sentenced the former head of one of the country’s three major state-owned phone carriers to 16 years in prison on charges of accepting bribes and abusing his authority, part of leader Xi Jinping’s politically-tinged anti-corruption campaign. Li Guohua, formerly general manager of China Unicom, was sentenced Tuesday and fined nearly $831,000 and forced to return the roughly $6.2 million that he received in bribes, with interest, the court said. Xi’s campaign has ensnared thousands of Chinese officials and executives of state-owned companies in a long-running crackdown on embezzlement, taking bribes and other misbehavior. It has also allowed the Chinese president to sideline political rivals.