Yang unlawfully received funds and property exceeding 2.2 billion yuan ($324 million) while serving in various government roles from 1993 to 2023, the Changzhou Intermediate People’s Court in Jiangsu province noted in its initial judgment announced on Monday.
Reuters has been unable to contact Yang or his legal representation for remarks.
In a sweeping anti-corruption campaign initiated by President Xi Jinping, countless individuals within China’s extensive bureaucracy have been investigated.
However, many inquiries conclude with disciplinary measures, and actual death sentences for corruption are still infrequent, with only a few known instances in over a decade. Suspended death penalties, usually commuted to life terms, tend to be handed to officials who have accepted significant bribes.
The court stated that Yang, who served as the former executive deputy director of the Nanjing Development Zone’s administrative committee, “accepted bribes in an especially massive amount, with notably severe circumstances and a particularly detrimental social effect.”
“Yang Youlin made a concluding statement and acknowledged his guilt, expressing remorse in court,” the statement from the court read.
In prominent recent corruption cases, the death penalty has been enforced when the amounts involved exceed 1 billion yuan ($147.24 million). In 2024, an official from Inner Mongolia, Li Jianping, was executed after being convicted in a case that involved over 3 billion yuan.
In a significant prior case, Zhang Zhongsheng, an official from Shanxi province, was convicted of receiving over 1 billion yuan in bribes and sentenced to death in 2018; however, this was later changed to a suspended death sentence and life imprisonment in 2021 upon appeal.
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($1 = 6.7916 Chinese yuan renminbi)
