China jails ally of former security czar: Xinhua

An ally of China's jailed former security chief Zhou Yongkang was sentenced Wednesday to 12 years in prison for corruption, state media said.

Ji Wenlin, former deputy governor of the island province Hainan, is the latest ex-official to be sentenced in a crackdown on corruption since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012.

Ji received bribes and assets which could be worth around 20 million yuan ($3.1 million), the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing a court in the port city of Tianjin.

He was seen as an ally of Zhou, the highest ranking ex-official prosecuted by Beijing for corruption in decades, who was jailed for life last year.

Ji and Zhou worked together when the latter was the top party official in Sichuan province in the southwest.

Another ally of the country's ex-security czar, Li Dongsheng, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for corruption in January, accused of taking nearly 22 million yuan in bribes.

Xi has warned that rampant graft threatens the survival of the ruling Communist Party and has waged a much-publicised campaign against the scourge.

The crackdown has swept up scores of senior officials in the party, the government, the military and state-owned companies.

With graft widespread in China, critics say there is a lack of transparency around Xi's campaign and it has been used for political infighting.