A court in eastern China has sentenced a former city official to death for taking more than 2.2 billion yuan ($325 million; £243 million) in bribes over a 30-year period.
Yang Youlin, who held various positions in Nanjing city from 1993 to 2023, was also convicted of embezzlement, abuse of power and money laundering. His illicit gains rank among the highest recorded in recent years.
The 69-year-old abused his positions to help individuals secure engineering contracts, land transfers and financing in exchange for money and valuable items, state media reported.
Yang was investigated as part of President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign, which has targeted figures across sectors including the military and major financial institutions.
Yang, who spent much of his career working in economic and technological development in Nanjing, committed offences that were “of an extremely serious nature” and caused “exceptionally heavy losses to the interests of the state and the people,” a court in Changzhou city said on Monday, July 6, 2026.
Since taking power, President Xi has launched several waves of anti-corruption campaigns. Critics, however, argue that the efforts have also been used as a means to remove political rivals.
Death sentences for white-collar crimes remain rare in China, although they are occasionally handed down, particularly in cases involving extremely large sums of money, often exceeding 1 billion yuan.
Former finance executive Lai Xiaomin was executed in 2021 after being convicted of taking 1.8 billion yuan in bribes over a 10-year period.
Li Jianping, a former Inner Mongolia official, was executed in 2024 for embezzlement and bribery involving more than 3 billion yuan.
In many other cases, courts have imposed lengthy prison terms or suspended death sentences, which are typically commuted to life imprisonment after a specified period.
Courts have also reduced sentences in some cases where convicted individuals provided information that helped authorities investigate other offenders.
However, although Yang provided similar assistance to investigators, the Changzhou court said his crimes were so “grave” that his cooperation “was insufficient to warrant a more lenient punishment.”
Yang pleaded guilty and “expressed remorse in his final statement,” according to state media.
