Liu Zhaorong, former vice-mayor of Zengcheng city in Guangdong province, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Guangzhou intermediate people's court for taking bribes of 12 million yuan ($1.9 million), the Guangzhou Daily reported.

Liu was also deprived of political rights for life and had property worth 1 million yuan ($160,700) confiscated.

In 2003, Liu took a bribe from a local land developer of 5.8 million yuan, said the report.

From 2004 to 2011, Liu used his power to help a real estate company get a government-sponsored project. Liu took 850,000 yuan from the company. Liu's brother-in-law, Gu En'hong, invested 1.2 million yuan, while receiving 3.84 million yuan in return.

The report also said that from 2002 to 2011 Liu received more than 5 million yuan in commission fees in total in various real estate development projects.