'How did I end up like this'? Liu Tienan repentant as he admits graft charges

The former deputy chief of the National Development and Reform Commission pleaded guilty to taking bribes at the conclusion of his one-day trial yesterday.

A verdict would be announced later, the court said.

"I have been asking myself every time I read the indictment, how did I end up like this?" Liu Tienan said, according to court transcripts. "Each morning as I wake up, I wonder where I am and how I have fallen into this state of depravation."

Liu was an official of vice-ministerial rank at the NDRC, the powerful planning agency charged with steering the world's second-largest economy. The Communist Party's anti-corruption watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, announced in May last year that he was under investigation.

If convicted, he could be jailed from 10 years to life, although prosecutors asked for leniency, citing Liu's cooperative attitude under investigation.

Liu's trial opened at the Intermediate People's Court in Langfang, Hebei according to the court's official microblog. It said Liu was accused of taking 36 million yuan (HK$45 million) in bribes from five companies, including petrochemical producers and carmakers, from 2002 to 2012.