By Timothy S. Donahue

Top Takeaways:

• Senior conviction: A former deputy head of China’s tobacco regulator received 12 years for accepting nearly $5 million in bribes.
• Broad misconduct: Payments were tied to contracting, hiring and promotion decisions over a 19-year period.
• Anti-corruption signal: The case underscores Beijing’s continued scrutiny of senior officials within major state-controlled industries.

A former senior official at China’s State Tobacco Monopoly Administration has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after a court found that he accepted more than 34 million yuan (US$4.98 million) in bribes over nearly two decades.

Zhang Tianfeng, 62, was convicted by the Ganzhou Intermediate People’s Court in Jiangxi province of bribery, according to a ruling issued Thursday. In addition to the prison term, the court imposed a 2 million yuan (US$292,000) fine and ordered the confiscation of all illicit gains and related interest, directing the funds to the state treasury.

The court found that from 2004 through 2023, Zhang used his official positions to assist with project contracting, hiring decisions, job transfers, and promotions in exchange for payments totaling more than 34.07 million yuan (US$4.98 million).

Judges said the conduct constituted serious bribery and warranted significant punishment. However, the sentence reflected mitigating factors, including Zhang’s voluntary disclosure of certain bribes previously unknown to investigators, his admission of guilt, and the return of illicit proceeds.

Zhang spent decades working in regional tobacco monopoly offices in Shaanxi province and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region before joining the national administration in 2017. He was appointed deputy head of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration — the regulatory arm that operates alongside China National Tobacco Corp. (CNTC) in February 2020 and served until June 2023.

In January 2025, Chinese authorities placed Zhang under investigation as part of the country’s broader anti-corruption campaign targeting senior government and state-owned enterprise officials. He was expelled from the Communist Party of China six months later. Prosecutors formally indicted him in November, and the case was publicly heard on Jan. 8 before sentencing.

China’s State Tobacco Monopoly Administration oversees the world’s largest tobacco market, regulating production, distribution, and sales within the country’s state-run tobacco system.