Death for bribery: China shows it has teeth on corruption
A Chinese court has sentenced a former senior official in Nanjing to death after finding he accepted more than 2.2 billion yuan ($325 million) in bribes over three decades, in one of the country's biggest corruption cases in recent years.
Yang Youlin, 69, was convicted of bribery, embezzlement, abuse of power and money laundering for offences committed while serving in a series of government posts in the eastern Chinese city between 1993 and 2023.
According to Chinese state media, Yang abused his positions to help individuals and companies obtain engineering contracts, land transfers and financing in exchange for cash and other valuables.
The ruling was handed down by a court in Changzhou, which described Yang's crimes as "extremely serious" and said they had caused "exceptionally heavy losses" to the interests of the state and the public.
Although Yang admitted his offences, expressed remorse and cooperated with investigators, the court said the scale and severity of his crimes meant he did not deserve a reduced sentence.
Yang's case forms part of President Xi Jinping's long-running anti-corruption campaign, which has targeted officials across government, the military and the financial sector. While Beijing has portrayed the drive as an effort to root out corruption, critics have argued it has also been used to sideline political rivals.
Death sentences for white-collar crimes remain uncommon in China but can be imposed in cases involving exceptionally large sums. Former banking executive Lai Xiaomin was executed in 2021 after taking 1.8 billion yuan in bribes, while former Inner Mongolia official Li Jianping was executed in 2024 over corruption offences involving more than 3 billion yuan.
This story is written and edited by the Global South World team, you can contact us here.
