BEIJING — In one of China's most politically sensitive corruption cases, the former chief of military intelligence has reportedly been sentenced to 15 years in prison for embezzlement and bribery.
The former intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Ji Shengde, had been mentioned in the United States last year as a figure in the Democratic fund-raising scandals, but there is no indication that his conviction by a military court here was related to those charges.
Ji's case is particularly alarming to the leadership because, while holding a vital national security post, he was also apparently allied with China's most-wanted fugitive, a former smuggling kingpin in southeastern China who has fled to Canada.
And it is embarrassing because Ji is one of the "princelings," the son of a revolutionary hero and former foreign minister, who like many other leaders' offspring used his connections to help gain power and money.
Some officials have reportedly complained that Ji received too lenient a sentence, given the scale of his crimes; other officials have received death penalties for stealing less than the many millions he is said to have amassed illegally.
A report on Ji's sentence appeared Thursday in the Hong Kong newspaper Sing Tao. Two Chinese officials who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed that Ji was given a 15-year sentence by a military court last month.
The Cabinet's information office said it had no information about Ji's arrest or trial.
The secrecy surrounding his case reflects the quandary facing Communist Party leaders: To regain fading public faith, they are making a show of decisive action against corruption. But the scandals have become distressingly widespread, and it appears that some suspect higher officials have been left alone, while other cases are never reported in the official media.
Ji was convicted of accepting huge bribes from Lai Changxing, the reputed mastermind of the $6 billion smuggling operation in Xiamen, a southeastern port, that has brought down scores of senior officials. What help General Ji provided in return has not been disclosed.
Lai is in custody in Vancouver, where he has applied for asylum while China demands his extradition.
Ji also reportedly used his position to embezzle millions of dollars from military-run corporations, using the money to invest in the stock market and real estate.
In a congressional hearing in May 1999, Ji was accused of funneling money to the United States for political donations. Johnny Chung, a former Democratic Party fund-raiser who pleaded guilty to related bank and tax frauds, testified that he met Ji in 1996 in Hong Kong, where the general said of President Clinton, "We hope to see him re-elected," and promised to send $300,000 for the Democratic Party and the presidential campaign.
Chung said he received the money but gave only a small fraction to the party.
The Chinese government has denied making political donations. The extent of Ji's official authorization to send the money, and his possible motives, have never been clarified.
After that congressional hearing, Ji was quietly reassigned from his powerful intelligence job to a lower position at a military research center. Officials denied then that this was linked to the U.S. allegations.
Now it appears that Ji was already under suspicion of corruption at the time. The investigation reportedly intensified after his father, Ji Pengfei, died in February.