A former Chinese deputy policing minister has been jailed for life in a huge crackdown on dissent by Chinese despot Xi Jinping.
Sun Lijun was handed life imprisonment, with no possibility of parole, but did have his death sentence commuted ahead of a Communist Party conference next month.
State press agency Xinhua reported that Sun, 53, was convicted of collecting 646 million yuan ($91 million) in bribes, leading a crime gang of government officials, and manipulating the stock market.
He also denounced for ‘seriously damaging the unity of the party’ by state media CCTV.
In the run up to the once-every-five-years congress, the party likes to take the opportunity to arrest and sentence high ranking officials to remind them of their place.
Xi is also hoping to break with tradition and award himself a third five-year term at the congress which no leader has done since Chairman Mao.
The Telegraph reported that a ‘military coup’ which was claimed to have put Xi under house arrest on Saturday was not true amid fears that he will not get his wish to stay Chinese president.
In January, China’s Public Security Ministry, where Sun was a deputy minister until 2020, held a meeting to denounce him and vowed to eradicate the ‘venomous’ influence of his ‘political clique’.