A Shenzhen court sentenced a company manager to death for smuggling vegetable oil through Guangdong Province and bribing customs officers to help him.

Yang Gaiqing, 48, a resident of neighboring Hong Kong and former general manager of Shenzhen Huiwei Industry and Trade Co. Ltd., was sentenced to death Sunday by the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court.

Yang was convicted of evading more than 2.4 billion yuan (US$290 million) in tariffs by smuggling 827,000 tons of edible oils into the Chinese mainland, including olive, soybean and rapeseed oil, from 1996 to 1998.

The court found he had paid nearly US$1 million in bribes to the former head of Shenzhen Customs, Zhao Yucun and his relatives.

Yang also paid more than US$300,000 in bribes to Zhu Haotang, the former head of Huizhou Customs, and his relatives.

Zhao and Zhu have been jailed for taking the bribes.

Yang plans to appeal his sentence.

(Agencies via Xinhua January 20, 2004)