China jails former graftbuster for life over corruption

BEIJING (Reuters) - A senior Chinese official who worked in anti-corruption departments for almost 20 years has been jailed for life for graft, state news agency Xinhua said on Friday. Jin Daoming was put under investigation by the ruling Communist Party in 2014 while serving as a deputy head of the provincial legislature in northern Shanxi, one of the focus spots for President Xi Jinping's war on deep-rooted graft. He had previously worked in the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the party's main anti-graft watchdog, rising at one point to the position of deputy secretary general. He had held several other anti-corruption positions starting from 1987, his official resume showed. Jin was found guilty of taking more than 120 million yuan ($18.00 million) in cases involving coal mine projects, promotions and anti-corruption investigations, Xinhua said, citing a court in the eastern city of Zhenjiang. As Jin had admitted his guilt and cooperated with the investigation he had received a lighter sentence, Xinhua added, meaning he avoided the death penalty. It was not possible to reach Jin's family or lawyers for comment. Shanxi, one of China's top coal producing provinces, has been among the epicenters of Xi's battle on corruption. In June, its provincial party boss said parts of the region had been "disaster areas" when it came to corruption, but the situation was improving. Shanxi has experienced an economic boom fueled by soaring energy demand over the past decade, one of the reasons state media have identified behind the corruption. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)