Former Nanjing official sentenced to death in massive bribery case

A court in eastern China has sentenced former Nanjing official Yang Youlin to death after finding him guilty of taking more than 2.2bn yuan in bribes over three decades. The ruling was handed down by a court in Changzhou city and relates to conduct the court said took place while Yang held a series of posts in Nanjing from 1993 to 2023. The case is one of the largest corruption convictions reported in recent years.

Sponsored

According to the court, Yang also used his positions to help others secure engineering contracts, land transfers and financing in exchange for money and valuables. He was additionally convicted of embezzlement, abuse of power and money laundering. State media said the court described his offences as of an extremely serious nature and said they caused exceptionally heavy losses to the interests of the state and the people.

Yang, who is 69, worked for much of his career on economic and technological development in Nanjing. The court said he pleaded guilty and expressed remorse in his final statement. It also said he had assisted investigators, but that his help was not enough to justify a more lenient punishment.

Death sentences for white-collar crimes are rare in China, although they are sometimes imposed in cases involving very large sums. The ruling comes amid President Xi Jinping's long-running anti-corruption campaign, which has reached across the military, banking and local government sectors. Supporters of the drive say it is necessary to curb entrenched graft and restore public trust.

Sponsored

Critics, however, have argued that anti-corruption investigations can also be used to sideline political rivals, a claim that has followed the campaign for years. The scale of the alleged bribery places the case among the most severe corruption cases seen in recent years. Chinese courts have in some cases handed down suspended death sentences in major financial crime cases, which can later be commuted to life imprisonment.

In other cases, defendants who cooperated with investigators have received reduced sentences, but the Changzhou court said Yang's offences were too grave for that approach here. It is not yet clear whether Yang will appeal or whether any further details of the judgment will be released. The case will be watched for what it suggests about the continuing reach of China's anti-graft drive and the treatment of major economic corruption cases.

It also adds to a pattern of high-profile punishments that have become a recurring feature of the campaign.

#China #corruption #bribery #deathsentence #anticorruption

Sponsored