Former China official admits to bribery

Xu Caihou admitted to "the crime of taking bribes," the Communist Party said in a statement following a key meeting last week.

China's state-run Xinhua news agency, which published the above statement, also added that "the probe by the military prosecutors ascertained that Xu Caihou (pictured) took advantage of his position to assist the promotion of other people, accepting massive bribes personally and through his family."

Military prosecutors had meanwhile completed their investigation and Xu would most likely be court martialled, Xinhua added.

Xu, a senior military officer, was the former deputy chairman of the Communist Party's Central Military Commission and a member of the politburo until 2012. He ranked second to Hu Jintao, who was China's president at the time.

The probe against the top military officer began in March this year and Xu was stripped of his title and expelled from the military in June. He was since kept under house arrest and assisted authorities in a corruption probe into another officer of the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

His expulsion from the Communist Party was also finalized, marking another step in President Xi Jinping's campaign to end corruption in one of the world's largest economies.

The Communist Party, of which Xi is the head, said in a separate statement that it would speed up its anti-corruption drive so that government officials would "dare not" give into bribery.

mg/se (AP, Reuters)