Yang Weize, former Party chief of Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, was sentenced to 12 years and six months behind bars for taking bribes worth 16.4 million yuan ($2.4 million).

According to Ningbo Intermediate People's Court in neighboring Zhejiang province, Yang used his positions as a member of the Standing Committee of Jiangsu provincial Party committee and the top official of Wuxi and Nanjing to take bribes between 2005 and 2014. =

He sought profits for real-estate developers, business people and government workers by abusing his power, according to the court.

Yang was handed a lighter sentence because he cooperated with investigators, returned bribes voluntarily and showed repentance, the court said. He also confessed to some bribes that investigators were unaware of.

In a documentary produced by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Corruption Fight Is Always Underway, which was broadcast on China Central Television in October, Yang confessed to taking small amounts of money or gifts in the beginning.

"At first I thought I should stay away from bribes," Yang said in the documentary, which was filmed while he was detained. "But gradually, it seemed like I could establish connections with others by taking small gifts."

"In the end, I was willing to take bribes. It resulted in a situation which got out of hand."

Yang, 54, started his career as an office worker at the Jiangsu provincial transportation department in 1981. When he was 36 years old, he became the youngest government official at or above bureau level in the province after he was appointed head of the transportation bureau in 1998.

He became the mayor of Suzhou in 2001 and the Party chief of Wuxi in 2004, before working as the Party chief of Nanjing from 2011 to 2015. He was also an alternate member of the CPC Central Committee.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced in July last year that Yang had been stripped of his position and expelled from the Party, and that the case had been handed over to judicial authorities. He stood trial on corruption charges in August.

Contact the writer at [email protected]