China jails former nuclear boss to life for corruption

A Chinese court sentenced the former head of the country's foremost nuclear firm for life for corruption. Kang Rixin, the former general manager at the state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), was convicted of accepting a bribe of approximately $1 million during his tenure.

The Beijing First Intermediate People's Court ruled that Kang abused his position and enabled others to profit. Media reports suggest that the details of the investigations or the charges could remain confidential as they involved fraud surrounding bids for nuclear power projects.

Kang, who was dismissed last year, escaped a death penalty after he agreed to cooperate with the investigations and pay back the misappropriated funds. The 57-year-old nuclear engineer from Shanghai Jiao Tong University was heading CNNC since 2003. Chinese state media also reported that his personal assets have been confiscated by the authorities and he has been stripped off his post and membership from the Communist Party of China last month. The case has been in the spotlight with the country's political party leading a crackdown on corrupt high-ranking officials.

The plenum of the party (on Thursday), examined and approved a report of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection on the issue of Kang Rixin. It decided to expel Kang from the CPC Central Committee, and also endorsed a decision, made by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on Dec. 29, 2009, to strip Kang of his CPC membership, a translation of the Communiqué of the Fifth Plenum of the 17th Central Committee held in October said.