Ex-Shanghai boss jailed for graft

Chen Liangyu was ousted from office two years ago

The former Communist Party chief in Shanghai has been sentenced to 18 years in jail, according to Chinese media.

A court in the northern city of Tianjin found that Chen Liangyu, 61, was guilty of taking bribes and abusing his position, Xinhua news agency said.

He was ousted from office two years ago, after being accused of misusing a multi-million dollar pension fund.

He is the most senior Chinese official to be convicted of corruption in more than a decade.

Corruption has become rampant in China since market reforms opened the economy in the 1980s.

Fall from grace

Chen was once a member of the Communist Party's top decision-making body, the Politburo. He was the most powerful man in China's richest city.

CORRUPT COMRADES 1998: Beijing mayor Chen Xitong jailed for corruption 2000: Scores of officials implicated in smuggling scandal in Xiamen 2001: Mayor of Shenyang and his deputy sentenced to death for land deals

But he was fired in September 2006 following a government investigation into the misuse of hundreds of millions of dollars from the city's pension fund.

The scandal swept up some of the most senior figures in Shanghai. The boss of Shanghai Electric and the man who brought Formula One racing to the city have already both been jailed.

Chen has been found guilty of offering illegal loans to favoured businessmen.

He was also found to have taken bribes, misusing his authority to make his family rich.

As much as $4.7 billion may have been misappropriated by him and others, although the authorities in Shanghai claim they have reclaimed all the money.

Analysts believe Chen's sacking and subsequent trial had a political aspect too - he was out of favour in Beijing, being politically aligned to former President Jiang Zemin.

It is said he ignored calls from President Hu Jintao and others to cool Shanghai's overheating economy.

His sentence could have been harsher, but the BBC correspondent Quentin Somerville, who has followed Chen's fall from grace, says his co-operation with investigators, and his links to Jiang Zemin, probably helped him avoid a death sentence.