Son and wife of China’s former security chief jailed in corruption crackdown

The son and wife of former Chinese domestic security tsar Zhou Yongkang have been jailed, the latest high-profile figures to be felled in a corruption crackdown. Zhou’s son, Zhou Bin, who had business interests in the energy sector, was jailed for 18 years for taking bribes and engaging in illegal business operations. Zhou Yongkang’s wife, Jia Xiaoye, a former state TV journalist, was jailed for nine years and fined 1 million yuan (£105,608) for taking bribes, the Intermediate People’s Court of Yichang, a city in Hubei province, said. Neither was said to be planning to appeal.

Zhou also decided not to appeal when he received a life sentence last year. It’s likely he reached a compromise with the authorities, in exchange for a light penalty for his wife

Political commentator Zhang Lifan

Zhou Yongkang (pictured) was a member of the party’s elite Politburo Standing Committee and once among China’s most powerful officials. Dozens of his associates have also been arrested, many in the southern province of Sichuan, where he was Communist Party boss from 1999 to 2002. He became embroiled in China’s biggest corruption scandal in more than six decades - the most senior leader targeted in a corruption investigation since the Communist Party took power in 1949 - and was jailed for life in 2015. His son eluded a warrant for his arrest and fled to the U.S. in early 2013 but returned to China after negotiations with Chinese authorities.

zhou yongkang