A Chinese court has found a former senior official of the eastern province of Zhejiang guilty of bribery and sentenced him to death with a two-year reprieve.

Zhou Jiangyong is a former party chief of the province's Hangzhou City.

The state-run Xinhua news agency says the court ruled on Tuesday that Zhou abused his senior position and accepted bribes of over 182 million yuan, or about 25.5 million dollars, over a period of 20 years.

Zhou was found to have received the payments in return for granting favors related to construction, land procurement and other matters to both individuals and businesses.

Xinhua said the court ruled that "Zhou accepted particularly large sums of bribes, and his actions caused significant losses to the interests of both the state and the people."

Reuters news agency and Hong Kong media report that his suspended death sentence is likely to be commuted to life in prison after two years.

Hangzhou City is home to the head offices of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and its subsidiary, Ant Group.

Zhou was alleged to have colluded with such firms when he first came under investigation in 2021. But Chinese media did not refer to these allegations when they reported on Tuesday's ruling.