Li Youcan, former deputy director of the Hebei Provincial Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau, was sentenced to death by a local court in Hengshui City for taking huge bribes on Friday.

The Intermediate People's Court in Hengshui City, in north China's Hebei Province, also deprived Li of his political rights for life and confiscated all his personal property.

The court found that Li, who was then also head of the Hebei Provincial Office for Electromechanical Import and Export, took bribes totaling 47.23 million yuan (US$ 5.7 million) from August, 2001 to April, 2003, to provide automobile quotas to a Beijing-based car trade company.

In April, 2002, Li asked for a sedan from Jidong Electromechanical Equipment Company, based in Tangshan city, also in Hebei Province. Involved money totaled 210,000 yuan (US$25,400).

(Xinhua News Agency September 10, 2004)