Senior China official gets life in prison for $22M in bribes
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BEIJING -- The former head of China's statistics bureau has been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of taking bribes equivalent to more than $22 million over more than two decades.
National Bureau of Statistics head Wang Baoan was accused of trading political favors for money, sex, property and business concessions, according to a court in Hebei province and the official Xinhua News Agency.
Control over information such as bank lending and local economic growth is enormously valuable in China, where the government often operates in secret and officials are mainly evaluated on their ability to meet economic development targets.
