BEIJING—A former senior official once considered a contender for the top leader position admitted to taking bribes of more than 170 million yuan ($27 million), Chinese state media said on April 12.
Sun Zhengcai, 54, was abruptly removed last July from his post as Communist Party chief of southwestern Chongqing, one of China’s most important cities, to be replaced by Chen Min’er, who is close to current leader Xi Jinping.
Sun is the latest casualty of Xi’s unrelenting war on graft—which has also served as a mechanism for Xi to eliminate officials in the Party’s opposition faction who challenge his rule.
Until last year, Sun, one of the youngest of the 25 members of the Party’s decision-making Politburo, had been considered Xi’s successor.
Prosecutors in February had charged Sun with accepting “huge sums” in bribes during various posts going back 15 years in Chongqing, Beijing, the northeastern province of Jilin, and during his term as minister of agriculture.
