China Sentences Former Official to Death for Accepting Rp 5.8 Trillion in Bribes

A court in eastern China has sentenced a former municipal official to death for accepting bribes totalling more than 2.2 billion yuan (Rp 5.8 trillion) over a 30-year period. Yang Youlin, who held various positions in Nanjing from 1993 to 2023, was also found guilty of embezzlement, abuse of power, and money laundering. The amount of illicit funds involved is one of the largest in recent years. According to state media, the 69-year-old used his positions to help other parties obtain project contracts, land transfers, and funding in exchange for money and valuables. The Changzhou court stated on Monday that Yang’s violations were ‘extremely serious’ and ‘caused exceptionally large losses to the interests of the state and the people’. Yang was investigated as part of President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign, which has reached across various sectors, including the military and banking. Death sentences for white-collar crimes are typically handed down in cases involving sums exceeding 1 billion yuan. For instance, former financial executive Lai Xiaomin was executed in 2021 for accepting 1.8 billion yuan in bribes over a decade, and former Inner Mongolia official Li Jianping was executed in 2024 for embezzlement and bribery totalling more than 3 billion yuan. In many other cases, courts impose prison terms or suspended death sentences, which are usually commuted to life imprisonment after a period. Sentences can also be reduced if the convicted individual reports other offenders. However, the Changzhou court stated that although Yang provided similar assistance to authorities, his offences were so ‘severe’ that his help was ‘not sufficient to justify a lighter sentence’. State media reported that Yang pleaded guilty and ‘expressed remorse in his final statement’.