In brief
A former Nanjing city official, Yang Youlin, was sentenced to death in Changzhou after a court found him guilty of taking more than 2.2 billion yuan ($325 million) in bribes over 30 years. He also faced charges of embezzlement, abuse of power, and money laundering. The case underscores President Xi Jinping’s hard‑line anti‑corruption campaign, which has led to rare but severe punishments for top‑level white‑collar crimes. Former officials like Lai Xiaomin and Li Jianping were executed in earlier years for similarly massive corruption. Yang pleaded guilty and expressed remorse, yet the court deemed his cooperation insufficient for leniency.
A former city official in eastern China was executed after a court verdict in Changzhou that found him guilty of accepting more than 2.2 billion yuan (about $325 million) in bribes over his 30‑year career.
Yang Youlin, who served in various posts in Nanjing from 1993 to 2023, also faced convictions for embezzlement, abuse of power, and money laundering. He used his positions to help companies secure engineering contracts, land transfers and financing, in exchange for cash and valuables, state media reported.
The case comes amid President Xi Jinping’s sweeping anti‑corruption campaign, which has targeted the military, banking and numerous other sectors. While death sentences for white‑collar crimes remain rare, they are imposed when corruption involves sums exceeding 1 billion yuan.
Previously, former finance chief Lai Xiaomin was executed in 2021 after taking 1.8 billion yuan in bribes, and Inner Mongolia official Li Jianping received the death penalty in 2024 for embezzling and accepting over 3 billion yuan.
In many similar cases, courts have issued jail terms or suspended death sentences, later commuted to life imprisonment. In Yang’s instance, although he provided assistance to authorities, the court judged his crimes as “extremely serious” and deemed his cooperation insufficient for a milder penalty.
Yang pleaded guilty and expressed remorse in his final statement, yet the sentence was deemed unavoidable by the Changzhou court.
