Xu Mangang (FILE)	Zuo Lin (FILE)

Two former senior officials with the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) have been handed jail terms on bribery charges.

Xu Mangang, former Director of the Supervision and Inspection Department, has been sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for taking 3 million yuan ($439,368) in bribes between 2005 and 2008 in return for helping three businesses involved in illegal foreign exchange deals circumvent investigations against them.

Xu, 42, joined SAFE in 1989. He participated in drafting the Foreign Exchange System Regulations, People's Bank of China Law, Commercial Bank Law and a number of rules concerning foreign exchange process.

Zou Lin, former spokesman and Director of the General Affairs Department of SAFE, received six years for taking 550,000 yuan ($80,527) in bribes in a separate case.

Zou, 42, joined SAFE in 1988. He had headed the administration's Balance of Payments Department, Capital Accounts Management Department and General Affairs Department and was appointed its spokesman in late 2008. He was among drafters of the Administrative Measures for the Provision of Foreign Guarantees by Domestic Institutions and Procedures on the Administration of Borrowing of International Commercial Loans.