A court in East China has sentenced a former municipal official to death after he allegedly accepted bribes totaling approximately 325 million U.S. dollars over a 30-year period.
The 69-year-old man served various positions in Nanjing between 1993 and 2023. He was found guilty not only of the extensive corruption but also of embezzlement, money laundering, and abuse of power. The amount of his illicit income places it among the largest sums exposed in China in recent years. Specifically, he is believed to have secured lucrative construction contracts, land transactions, and financing deals in exchange for money and valuable items.
This case highlights the ongoing intensity of China’s anti-corruption drive, which has been launched by President Xi Jinping. While the campaign has been widely noted, critics allege that it is sometimes leveraged to systematically eliminate political rivals. Nevertheless, death sentences for economic crimes remain uncommon in China, though they are occasionally handed down, usually reserved for cases involving exceptionally high sums of money.
