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Township official Li Peixia was sentenced to three years in prison and fined 200,000 yuan ($27,613) for accepting bribery at the people's court of Hengfeng county in East China's Jiangxi Province on Thursday, and her illegal gains were seized and remitted to the national treasury.

After investigation, it was found that from April 2019 to February 2024, Li, using her position as the Party chief of Shangfang township in Wannian county in Jiangxi, obtained benefits from others in matters such as engineering project contracting and fund disbursement, illegally accepting a total of 1.65 million yuan in bribes, according to the court's statement published on its WeChat account. 

Li's actions were deemed bribery and should be punished according to the law. Given that Li truthfully confessed to her crimes after her arrest, showed a good attitude of admitting guilt and remorse, actively returned the illegal gains, and that all the bribe-related property had been recovered, there were circumstances for both mandatory and discretionary leniency in sentencing. Therefore, the court decided to impose a lighter sentence and Li accepted the judgment in court.

More than 30 people, including Li's family, media representatives and the public listened to the sentence, the Thursday statement said. 

Li first received wide public attention attention when her father posted a video on July 25 alleging that she had a dispute with her superior, Wannian's Party chief Mao Qi. 

Investigation found Mao has used his authority to engage in an inappropriate relationship with Li and other corrupt practices including using his position for personal gain in project contracting and fund disbursement, including unlawfully accepting significant amounts of money, according to a Weibo account affiliated with the Shangrao government in Jiangxi in August. 

Mao has been expelled from the Communist Party of China and dismissed from his post, and his suspected criminal issues had been transferred to the procuratorial authority for legal review and prosecution, Jiangxi provincial discipline inspection commission announced on November 3.

Global Times