A Chinese court sentenced the former head of one of the country's three major state-owned phone carriers to 16 years in prison Tuesday on charges of accepting bribes and abusing his authority, part of leader Xi Jinping’s politically-tinged anti-corruption campaign. 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.
He was also fined 6 million yuan and forced to return the roughly 45 million yuan that he received in bribes, with interest, the court said. While “the amount of bribes Li Guohua accepted was particularly huge and the abuse of power was particularly serious,” he confessed to his crimes, aided in the investigation and showed contrition, earning himself a relatively lighter sentence, the court said.