BEIJING, China- A Chinese court has sentenced a former senior city official to death after convicting him of accepting more than 2.2 billion yuan (about $325 million) in bribes over a period spanning three decades.
Yang Youlin, 69, was found guilty of bribery, embezzlement, abuse of power and money laundering in a judgment delivered by the Intermediate People’s Court in Changzhou, eastern China.
According to Chinese state media, Yang abused various public offices he held in Nanjing between 1993 and 2023 to help individuals and companies secure engineering contracts, land transfers and financing in exchange for money and other valuables.
Court cites ‘extremely serious’ offences
The court ruled that Yang’s crimes were of an “extremely serious nature” and had caused “exceptionally heavy losses to the interests of the state and the people.”
Although Yang pleaded guilty, expressed remorse and cooperated with investigators during the case, the court found that the scale and gravity of his offences outweighed any mitigating factors.
State media reported that his assistance to investigators was “insufficient to warrant a more lenient punishment.”
Part of Xi’s anti-corruption campaign
Yang’s prosecution forms part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s long-running anti-corruption campaign, which has targeted senior officials across government, the military, state-owned enterprises and the financial sector since Xi assumed office in 2012.
Supporters of the campaign argue it has strengthened public accountability and curbed corruption, while critics contend it has also been used to sideline political opponents.
Rare punishment for financial crimes
Death sentences for economic and financial crimes remain uncommon in China but are imposed in cases involving exceptionally large sums or particularly serious offences.
In 2021, former China Huarong Asset Management chairman Lai Xiaomin was executed after being convicted of accepting 1.8 billion yuan in bribes over a decade.
More recently, former Inner Mongolia official Li Jianping was executed in 2024 after being found guilty of embezzlement and accepting more than 3 billion yuan in bribes.
In many other corruption cases, Chinese courts impose suspended death sentences, which are typically commuted to life imprisonment after a prescribed period if the offender commits no further crimes.
Yang’s case ranks among the largest corruption scandals prosecuted in recent years, underscoring the continued focus of Chinese authorities on high-level graft and abuse of public office.