Tong Daochi, a former senior official in China’s southern Hainan province and an ex-securities regulator, was sentenced to death for bribery and insider trading, with a two-year reprieve, according to state media. Tong, also former Communist Party secretary in the Hainan city of Sanya, received bribes worth 274 million yuan (US$41 million) between 2004 and 2020, official news agency Xinhua reported on Thursday. When Tong was vice head of the issuance department at the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) in 2006 and 2007, he obtained 3.38 million yuan of illegal profit through insider trading, the report said. The reprieve means the sentence could be commuted to life imprisonment or to a fixed term at the end of the two years if he is not convicted of further crimes or has performed “meritorious service”. Tong joined the CSRC in 2000 after stints at the World Bank and the Rand Corporation, the US public policy think tank. Tong, who graduated from Peking University, holds a master’s degree in public administration from Canada’s Carleton University, and a PhD in policy analysis from the Rand Graduate School. Chinese President Xi Jinping has launched several anti-corruption campaigns that have brought down government officials, regulators, bankers and senior company executives. Also on Thursday, China’s anti-graft watchdog said that Wang Zongcheng, former head of the CSRC accounting department, was being probed for suspected violations of laws and regulations. Previously, Wang was head of the CSRC’s bureau in eastern Zhejiang province between July 2016 and December 2018, according to the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.