China hands death sentence to Nanjing official over $325M in bribes

A court in Changzhou has sentenced Yang Youlin, a 69-year-old former Nanjing city official, to death for accepting more than 2.2 billion yuan ($325M) in bribes across three decades of public service. Alongside bribery, he was convicted of embezzlement, abuse of power, and money laundering. Prosecutors said he traded his influence over engineering contracts, land transfers, and financing for cash and valuables, spending much of his career in roles tied to Nanjing’s economic and technological development.

The case is among the largest corruption prosecutions in recent memory and stems from Xi Jinping’s long-running anti-corruption campaign, which has reached into the military, banking, and other sectors. Critics argue the drive doubles as a mechanism to remove political rivals. Capital punishment for white-collar crime remains uncommon in China, generally reserved for sums exceeding 1 billion yuan — as with former finance chief Lai Xiaomin, executed in 2021, and ex-official Li Jianping in 2024.

Though Yang pleaded guilty, expressed remorse, and cooperated by informing on others — factors that have brought leniency or commuted sentences in comparable cases — the court ruled the severity of his crimes outweighed any mitigating cooperation.