A court in Changzhou, eastern China, has sentenced former Nanjing city official Yang Youlin to death after convicting him of accepting bribes totalling 2,2 billion yuan — approximately 325 million US dollars — over a period of thirty years. The 69-year-old was also found guilty of embezzlement, abuse of power and money laundering, with the scale of his illicit gains ranking among the largest recorded in China in recent years.

According to state media, Yang exploited a series of senior positions held in Nanjing between 1993 and 2023, primarily in economic and technological development, to facilitate the award of engineering contracts, land transfers and financing arrangements in exchange for cash and valuables. The Changzhou court described his offences as being of an “extremely serious nature” that caused “exceptionally heavy losses” to the state and the public.

The case was pursued as part of President Xi Jinping’s long-running anti-corruption campaign, which has reached into the military, banking sector and local government across the country. Critics have argued the campaign has at times served as a vehicle for removing political rivals alongside genuine enforcement.

Death sentences for white-collar offences remain uncommon in China but are periodically applied in cases involving particularly large sums, typically exceeding 1 billion yuan. Precedents include the 2021 execution of former finance official Lai Xiaomin for 1,8 billion yuan in bribes, and the 2024 execution of Inner Mongolia official Li Jianping for offences totalling over 3 billion yuan. Although Yang cooperated with investigators, the court ruled that the gravity of his crimes made leniency unwarranted.