Former city official sentenced to death in China for taking $325 million in bribes over 3 decades

A supermoon rises over the city in Nanjing, in east China's Jiangsu province, on Sept. 17, 2024. (Chinatopix Via AP)

WASHINGTON — A former economic development official in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing was sentenced to death Monday for taking bribes worth US$325 million over three decades.

Yang Youlin also was convicted of embezzlement, offering bribes, misappropriation of public funds, abuse of power and money laundering in one of the most dramatic corruption cases in recent years in terms of the sheer scale of the bribes involved.

He was investigated as part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s long-running anti-corruption campaign that critics say has been used partly to remove Xi’s political rivals.

The bribes were paid to Yang in exchange for help with “undertaking projects, business operations, land grants and working capital,” the Changzhou Intermediate People’s Court said in a statement.

Yang “illegally accepted property and assets” worth more than 2.21 billion yuan ($325 million) from 1993 to 2023, the court said.

Yang delivered a final statement in court that “expressed his guilt and remorse,” the court in Jiangsu province said. In the photos released by the court, a gray-haired Yang is wearing a dark jacket and standing between two uniformed police officers.

Public hearings for the case were held on two days in March and April, with more than 30 people attending, the court said.

It said Yang’s personal property would be seized and authorities would try to recover the full amount he received in bribes.

Yang was the latest official sentenced to death for corruption in recent years in China.

In 2021, Lai Xiaomin, a party secretary of a state-owned company, was sentenced to death and executed over crimes of accepting bribes, embezzlement and bigamy. In 2024, Li Jianping, a local official in Inner Mongolia, was executed after being found guilty of embezzlement and bribery.

Fu Ting, The Associated Press