A former Chinese police chief was sentenced to death on Wednesday, the state-run Xinhua news agency said. The case of the police chief, Wen Qiang, 55, has been the biggest in a series of gang prosecutions in the southwestern city of Chongqing that have exposed links between government officials and police officers who sought to provide cover for the crime syndicates. Prosecutors accused Mr. Wen of taking bribes worth more than $2.4 million from gang members he protected as director of the Chongqing Municipal Judicial Bureau.