Former top Chinese general sentenced to life for corruption

BEIJING — A former top Chinese general has been given a life sentence for taking and distributing bribes and possessing a large amount of property whose origins he could not account for.

Fang Fenghui, former chief of the People’s Liberation Army’s joint staff department, is the latest military figure to fall in President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on graft and waste at all levels of the government and military.

Fang was expelled from the Communist Party and stripped of his rank in October ahead of his court-martial, more than a year after dropping out of view.

A brief report Wednesday by the official Xinhua News Agency gave no details of the accusations against him.

Some top Chinese generals are reported to have accumulated vast fortunes, including golden statues of Mao Zedong. / gsg