Beijing - China on Tuesday executed Zheng Xiaoyu, the former director of its State Food and Drug Administration, six weeks after convicting him of corruption. Zheng was executed on Tuesday morning following the approval by the Supreme People's Court of the death sentence passed against him on May 29, the government's official Xinhua news agency said.
The agency gave no details of the execution, which came amid a growing list of scandals involving fake or poor quality food and drug products in China.
Zheng, 63, was convicted by a Beijing court of "taking bribes and dereliction of duty" and accused of illegally taking cash and gifts worth more than 6.49 million yuan (850,000 dollars).
Earlier reports said he had accepted about 5 million yuan (651,000 dollars) in bribes from pharmaceutical firms to certify new and only partially tested medicines.
At least 10 people died as a result of the use of improperly tested drugs, state media reported.
Government legal experts said the harsh sentence would have a "strong warning effect" and reflected the ruling Communist Party's determination to fight corruption, especially among top officials.
The court said the death sentence was appropriate because of the "huge amount of bribes involved and the great damage inflicted on the country and the public."
More than 30 others are implicated in the scandal, including several more high-ranking officials and Zheng's wife and son.
Zheng, who was also accused of "leading a dissolute life," led the State Food and Drug Administration from its establishment in 1998 until his dismissal in 2005.
China executes more people annually than the rest of the world put together, but the exact number remains a state secret.
Most of those executed in China are convicted of crimes such as murder, rape and robbery, and many people are also executed for economic and other non-violent crimes.
Most of the hundreds of executions annually in China are still carried out by firing squad, but lethal injection is also used.
