A court in China sentenced a former senior official at one of the country's business regulators for 18 years on Friday for corruption.
Sun Hongzhi was a deputy head of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. He was expelled from the ruling Communist Party in 2015 after an investigation.
The court in Tai'an city, Shandong Province, found Sun guilty of corruption, saying he abused his power while holding a series of offices between 2002 and 2014. All his assets have been confiscated.
The court said Sun confessed his guilt and repented, meaning he got a lighter sentence.
In recent years, Chinese President Xi Jinping has focused on rooting out corruption. Sun is the third senior government official to be convicted of corruption within a week.
On Thursday, a court in Tianjin sentenced Xi Xiaoming, the former vice-president of the Supreme People's Court of China, to life in prison, after finding him guilty of accepting over 100 million yuan (about 14.4 million US dollars) in bribes.
A day earlier, Zhou Benshun, former party chief of Hebei Province, was sentenced to 15 years for accepting over 40 million yuan (about 5.8 million US dollars) in bribes.
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