Swapna Kumbar , Bengaluru - A Chinese court has sentenced former Nanjing official Yang Youlin to death after finding that he accepted more than 2.2 billion yuan, or about $324 million, in bribes over three decades. The ruling is one of the harshest recent punishments in China’s long-running anti-corruption campaign.

According to reports, Yang took money and property from 1993 to 2023 while holding a series of government posts in Nanjing, including a senior role in the city’s economic development zone. The court also convicted him of abuse of power, embezzlement, misappropriation of public funds and money laundering, saying the corruption was especially serious and had a severe social impact. Yang reportedly confessed in court, admitted guilt and expressed remorse.

The sentence stands out because Chinese courts more often hand down suspended death sentences in major graft cases rather than immediate executions. That makes this ruling unusually severe and reinforces the message that Beijing is still using high-profile corruption cases to discipline officials.

Yang’s sentence is a striking example of how aggressively China continues to pursue corruption cases under Xi Jinping. It also shows that, in especially large and politically sensitive cases, the punishment can still reach the highest level.