China safety boss sacked over Tianjin blasts jailed for corruption
Yang Dongliang given 15-year prison term after he was convicted of taking bribes worth over US$4 million
China’s former top work-safety official has been jailed for 15 years for corruption a year and a half after he was sacked over a giant industrial explosion that killed 173 people.
Yang Dongliang, now 63, was head of the State Administration of Work Safety in August 2015 when a series of mammoth blasts at a dangerous chemicals storage facility rocked the northern port of Tianjin.
Yang was quickly removed from his post after the disaster and subsequently placed under investigation for corruption.
A court in Beijing announced Yang’s sentence in a statement late Tuesday, saying that from 2002 to 2015 he took bribes totalling 28.5 million yuan (US$4.14 millon) in exchange for project contracts.
The court also said he bought a 270,000-yuan apartment in Tianjin in 1999 using government funds.
