The former vice-director in charge of foreign trade in Hebei province was yesterday sentenced to death for corruption, Xinhua reported. Li Youcan , a former vice-director of Hebei Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation Department, was found guilty by the Intermediate People's Court in Hengshui City of accepting more than 47 million yuan in cash and another 200,000 yuan worth of gifts from 2001 to last year. According to Xinhua, Li took the money from Ding Ning , a car company manager in Beijing, and in return directed a Hebei government company to buy cars from Ding. Li was also convicted of accepting a golf cart and 24,000 yuan in cash from an electrical company in Tangshan . The Xinhua report, however, did not say what favour Li offered to that company. Nor did it explain what happened to Ding or the Tangshan company. It said that since his arrest, Li had surrendered cash and property worth 28.4 million yuan to the state. Li is the latest senior official convicted for graft. In December, former vice-governor of Anhui province, Wang Huaizhong , was found guilty of embezzling 5.17 million yuan. To counter a growing wave of corruption among cadres and their families, party officials have given stiff sentences to officials found guilty of corruption.
