Yang Youlin: China Sentences Official to Death for Taking $325 Million in Bribes over 30 Years
- A court in China sentenced former Nanjing official Yang Youlin to death after convicting him of taking bribes over three decades
- The 69-year-old also faced convictions for embezzlement, abuse of power and money laundering
- Yang pleaded guilty, but the court ruled his cooperation with authorities was insufficient to warrant a reduced sentence
A court in Changzhou, eastern China, handed down a death sentence on Monday to Yang Youlin, a former Nanjing city official found guilty of accepting bribes worth more than 2.2bn yuan ($325 million) across 30 years spanning 1993 to 2023.
The 69-year-old was also convicted of embezzlement, abuse of power and money laundering.
Source: UGC
The Changzhou court declared that his crimes were "of an extremely serious nature" and had "caused exceptionally heavy losses to the interests of the state and the people," according to state media reports.
BBC reported that Yang spent the bulk of his career overseeing economic and technological development in Nanjing, where he leveraged his successive positions to benefit third parties seeking engineering contracts, land transfers and access to financing. In return, he accepted cash and valuables, accumulating one of the largest sums recorded in a Chinese corruption case in recent years.
Despite Yang's pleading guilty and expressing remorse in his final statement, the court found that his cooperation with investigators in identifying other offenders fell short of the threshold required to justify any reduction in his punishment. His offences were deemed too "grave" for leniency.
Death sentences for corruption remain rare in China
Capital punishment in white-collar cases is uncommon under China's legal framework, though courts do impose it in especially severe instances, typically where the sums involved exceed 1bn yuan.
In 2021, former finance chief Lai Xiaomin was executed after being found guilty of accepting 1.8bn yuan in bribes over a decade. Three years later, Li Jianping, a former official in Inner Mongolia, was put to death for embezzling and receiving bribes totalling more than 3bn yuan.
In many other cases, courts have issued custodial sentences or suspended death sentences that are later commuted to life imprisonment.
Yang's case was investigated as part of President Xi Jinping's ongoing anti-corruption campaign, which has swept through the military, banking and other sectors of Chinese public life since Xi assumed power. Critics have argued that the campaign has at times been used to remove political opponents, though authorities maintain it reflects a genuine commitment to cleaning up governance.
The outcome of this case has had several people around the world, including Ghanaians, making comparisons on X to the prevalence of corruption in their various countries. "Not in Ghana" was one of the refrains online.
Equatorial Guinea government resigns after missed targets
In a story that also drew comparisons, Equatorial Guinea's government resigned on June 17 after failing to meet its objectives.
Source: Getty Images
Vice-President of the country, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, who is also the son of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, said the prime minister had presented the resignations of all government members because it had barely reached 10% of its targets.
Obiang has been in power since 1979, making him the world's longest-serving president.
Nigerian businesswoman arrested during China trip
YEN.com.gh reported that a 38-year-old Nigerian businesswoman, Iwebema Ogechi Peace, was arrested by law enforcement officers at the airport in Lagos after agents discovered a large cache of illicit substances hidden in her baggage.
She was reportedly preparing to board a flight bound for Beijing, China, when officers flagged her luggage and uncovered 7.5 kilograms of illicit substances concealed within it.
According to reports from several renowned Nigerian media outlets, the seizure was part of a broader enforcement operation at the airport.
Source: YEN.com.gh
