A Chinese court has sentenced Yang Youlin, a former senior local official in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing, to death over corruption and money laundering. According to the Changzhou Intermediate People's Court in Jiangsu province, Yang accepted bribes worth more than 2.2 billion yuan (around $324 million) while holding various government posts from 1993 to 2023. The court delivered its first-instance judgment on Monday, citing the extremely large amount involved and significant losses to state and public interests as reasons for the severe punishment. Yang was pictured wearing a dark jacket while standing between two uniformed police officers in photos released by court officials, and delivered a final statement that 'expressed his guilt and remorse' as reported by the court.
The court found that Yang used his official positions to help individuals and companies secure 'undertaking projects, business operations, land grants and working capital' in exchange for illegal payments and benefits. As reported by the Changzhou Intermediate People's Court, Yang was convicted of corruption, abuse of power, money laundering, embezzlement, offering bribes, misappropriation of public funds and misappropriation of state assets. According to court documents, the offences occurred while Yang held several government and Communist Party positions over the years, with the court noting that although Yang confessed, admitted guilt and returned some illicit gains, the scale of the corruption warranted the death sentence. The Reuters news agency could not reach Yang or his lawyer for comment, and public hearings for the case were held on two days in March and April with more than 30 people attending.
China's top anti-corruption watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), announced an investigation into Yang in January 2025. He was later expelled from the Communist Party and formally charged with bribery after the disciplinary investigation concluded. Under Chinese law, a death sentence with a two-year reprieve is generally suspended for two years. If the convicted person does not commit intentional crimes during that period, the sentence is usually commuted to life imprisonment, often without the possibility of parole, in serious corruption cases. The court ordered that Yang's personal property would be seized and authorities would try to recover the full amount he received in bribes.
Yang's conviction is part of Chinese President Xi Jinping's long-running anti-corruption campaign, which has targeted officials across all levels of government and state-owned enterprises since 2012. Since the campaign began, hundreds of senior officials have been investigated or punished for corruption-related charges, with China frequently imposing death sentences with reprieve in high-profile corruption cases involving exceptionally large amounts of money. Recent examples include Lai Xiaomin, a party secretary of a state-owned company, who was sentenced to death and executed in 2021 over crimes of accepting bribes, embezzlement and bigamy, and Li Jianping, a local official in Inner Mongolia, who was executed in 2024 after being found guilty of embezzlement and bribery. In another major case, Zhang Zhongsheng, an official from Shanxi province, was sentenced to death in 2018 for accepting more than 1 billion yuan in bribes, though his punishment was changed to a suspended death sentence and life imprisonment in 2021 following an appeal.
