China Jails Ex-Security Tsar For Corruption

China's former national security tsar, once one of the country's most powerful men, has been jailed for corruption after a trial was held in secret.

Zhou Yongkang was sentenced to life in prison after reportedly admitting in court that he had leaked state secrets and abused his position of power.

Zhou admitted to charges of "bribery, abuse of power and leaking state secrets" at a secret trial in the northern city of Tianjin, the official Xinhua news agency said in a surprise announcement.

The 72-year-old former member of the ruling Communist party's all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee wielded vast power as the head of the police and courts until his retirement in 2012.

Zhou, who has not been seen in public since October 2013, is the highest ranking ex-official to be investigated for corruption in decades.

Xinhua said Zhou and a number of associates received more than 2.1bn yuan (£218m) in profits from various illegal business activities, with Zhou himself convicted of taking bribes worth about 130m yuan (£13.5m).

It said the trial had not been held in public because some of the accusations involved "state secrets".

The former public servant's wife and child reportedly gave video testimony.

Zhou was a central figure in what some analysts have termed an "oil faction" within the Communist Party, a network of influential politicians who have ties with China's petroleum industry.

His tenure was marked by the brutal use of force in response to civic unrest, and stepped-up controls on dissidents and those publicly challenging the Communist party.

Zhou is the highest-level former official to be charged since the treason trial of Mao Zedong's wife in 1981 after the Cultural Revolution.

He was once a supporter of jailed politician Bo Xilai, whose wife was convicted for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.

China's President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012 promising he would work to clear the regime of corruption through prosecution of high-ranking officials.

A number of former senior officials are under investigation, but critics say the lack of systemic reforms means the pledge is little more than an excuse for political infighting.

The party announced in July after months of rumours that Zhou was being investigated, and he was expelled and arrested last December.

His conviction is seen as the removal of the biggest challenge to Mr Xi's centralisation of power and a victory for the president.

China's courts are tightly controlled by the Communist Party and have a near-perfect conviction rate, meaning it was almost certain that Zhou would be found guilty.