BEIJING - AN EXECUTIVE at a major Chinese state-owned mining company was sentenced to death for taking bribes and embezzling more than US$10 million (S$14.4 million), state media reported on Monday.

Yu Weiping, deputy manager of Yunnan Copper Group, took bribes of more than 4 million dollars, and embezzled over 41 million yuan (S$8.6 million), the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Yu also misappropriated 27 million yuan and lent the money to others, Xinhua quoted the Intermediate People's Court in Kunming, capital of the southwestern province of Yunnan, as saying.

Yu's boss Zou Shaolu, former general manager of the group, was sentenced to life in prison for taking bribes of more than 19 million yuan between 2003 and 2007, the agency reported.

Zou was given a lighter sentence because he turned himself in, according to Xinhua.

A third executive, Wang Jianwei, the former general manager of a real estate company affiliated to the group, was jailed for 20 years for taking bribes of more than 4 million yuan.

Yunnan Copper Group employs around 20,000 people and made sales of 39.2 billion yuan in 2007, according to Xinhua.

China's ruling Communist Party has struggled in recent years to contain rampant graft involving officials and executives, with leaders regularly warning that such episodes threaten the party's legitimacy. -- AFP