China jails officials for leaking economic data

Oct 24, 2011, 12:47 GMT

Beijing - China has sentenced two former officials to prison after convicting them of leaking economic figures that were deemed state secrets, the government said on Monday.

Wu Chaoming, who worked for the central bank, was sentenced to six years in prison for deliberately leaking 25 classified items last year, said Li Zhongcheng, a spokesman for the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

The second official, Sun Zhen, was sentenced to five years in prison for disclosing 27 items of secret economic data while he worked for the National Bureau of Statistics, state media quoted Li as saying.

Li said the two officials were convicted recently by a court in Beijing and had both decided not to appeal their sentences.

The data they were found guilty of leaking included key national economic indicators on gross domestic product, the consumer price index, the money supply and industrial output, he said.

He said both men were motivated by unspecified 'illegal benefits' they gained from leaking the data.

Four employees of security firms were also investigated over the leaks, Li said.

Illegal disclosure of economic data could 'disturb the market order and harm the interests of the country,' he was quoted as saying.