July 7 (UPI) — A Chinese court has sentenced a former executive deputy director of a government management committee to death for taking bribes worth more than $323.7 million in property over a 30-year period.

Yang Youlin, the 69-year-old former executive deputy director of the Nanjing Economic and Technological Development Zone Management Committee, was sentenced by the Changzhou Intermediate People’s Court over the scheme on Monday, the court said in a statement. All his personal property was also confiscated.

The court said he illegally accepted the bribes from corporations and individuals whom he helped “in matters including undertaking projects, business operations, land transfers and capital turnover” from 1993 through 2023.

He also received a number of sentences ranging from six months to 11 years and six months, along with fines, on related charges, including embezzlement, offering bribes, misappropriating public funds, abuse of power and money laundering.

Yang was sentenced after public hearings held March 18 and April 28, during which prosecutors presented evidence, and Yang’s defense cross-examined evidence. According to the court, Yang made a final statement in which he pleaded guilty and expressed remorse over his actions.

The court said that although Yang exposed the criminal conduct of others, “considering the facts, nature and circumstances of his bribery offense and the degree of harm it caused to society, this was insufficient to warrant lenient punishment.”

“The court said Yang’s bribery amount was especially huge, the circumstances of his crimes were especially serious, the social impact was especially egregious and his actions caused especially major losses to the interests of the state and the people,” the statement said.

“His crimes were extremely serious and, according to law, warranted the death penalty.”

Yang was tried amid President Xi Jinping’s yearslong anti-corruption campaign that, according to a March 2025 report from the United States’ Office of the Director of National Intelligence, has seen nearly 5 million officials investigated and found guilty since 2012.

While ostensibly an anti-corruption campaign, the DNI report said that it targets “political indiscipline and ideological impurity,” particularly at the highest levels of government, to preserve the Chinese Communist Party’s domestic control and legitimacy.

China does not make its executions public but is widely believed to lead the world in this category.

In 2024, Li Jianping, a former Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region official, was executed for bribery and other related charges, including collusion with a criminal syndicate.

In late January 2021, China executed Lai Xiaomin, former board chairman of China Huarong Asset Management Co., after being found guilty of bribery, embezzlement and bigamy.