Nanjing Official Sentenced to Death for Accepting 10.4 Billion Yuan in Bribes

A former high-ranking Chinese official has received the death penalty for a massive corruption scheme spanning three decades. Yang Youlin, the former executive deputy director of the Nanjing Economic and Technological Development Zone Management Committee, was sentenced to death by the Changzhou Intermediate People's Court in Jiangsu Province on July 6.

The court found Yang guilty of multiple offenses, including bribery, corruption, extortion, embezzlement, abuse of power, and money laundering. His illicit gains amounted to over 2.214 billion yuan (approximately $305 million USD), making this one of the largest bribery cases ever recorded in China. The sentence also includes the lifelong deprivation of political rights and the confiscation of all personal property.

Yang's corrupt activities reportedly began in 1993 and continued until 2023. During this period, he leveraged his various senior positions in Nanjing to provide assistance to entities and individuals in matters of project contracting, business operations, land transfers, and financing. In return, he accepted bribes totaling over 2.2 billion yuan.

Beyond bribery, the court also found Yang guilty of defrauding public funds of 12 million yuan between 2014 and 2016, and of offering bribes exceeding 25 million yuan to seek improper advantages between 2005 and 2023. He also embezzled 15 million yuan for private business activities in 2001-2002 and abused his power between 2003 and 2009, causing direct economic losses of 23 million yuan to the state through irregular land demolition and illegal refunds of land transfer fees. In 2023, he attempted to launder 1 million yuan in criminal proceeds through a company he controlled.

Despite Yang's cooperation in providing information that helped expose other crimes, which typically warrants a lighter sentence, the court ruled that the enormous scale of bribery, the severity of the crimes, and the extremely negative social impact justified the death penalty. Yang, born in April 1957, had pleaded guilty and expressed remorse during public trials in March and April.