Zhang Guoguang, former deputy secretary of the Hubei Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), was sentenced Thursday to 11 years in prison for taking bribes

Zhang, also former governor of Hubei, was found guilty of illegally accepting RMB and gifts worth 572,288 yuan (69,200 US dollars) while on leading positions in northeast China's Liaoning Province from 1989 to 1999, according to the Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Court.

Zhang was also convicted of misusing power to help a company in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province, obtain bank loans and construction projects through under-the-table trading and of seeking personal benefits by promoting some local officials, including former Shenyang vice-mayor Ma Xiangdong.

Dozens of Shenyang officials have been brought down for bribe-taking and other offenses since 2000.

Former Shenyang Mayor Mu Suixin was sentenced to death and given a two-year reprieve in 2001. Ma Xiangdong, convicted for gambling away millions of dollars in public funds in Macao, was sentenced to death and executed in December 2000.