China executed its former drug and food safety chief today after he was convicted of taking bribes to approve fake medicines that killed an unknown number of people.

The Supreme People’s Court rejected an appeal by Zheng Xiaoyu, 62, against his sentence in an unusually swift legal process clearly intended to warn other Communist Party officials that those found guilty of corruption will not be spared.

Mr Zheng was the most senior official in China to be put to death since a deputy head of parliament was executed in 2000 on similar charges. While corruption carries the death penalty in China, it is unusual for such high-ranking officials to be executed. Most are sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve that is effectively a life sentence.

During Mr Zheng’s tenure from 1998 to 2005, his agency approved six medicines that turned out to be fake, and the drug-makers used falsified documents to apply for approvals. One antibiotic alone caused the deaths of at least 10 people.

Mr Zheng was convicted of taking bribes worth some 6.5 million yuan (£425,200) from eight companies, and of dereliction of duty. The court said his grave irresponsibility in pharmaceutical safety inspection had seriously damaged the interests of the state and its people. “The social impact has been utterly malign,” it said.

State media did not say how Mr Zheng was executed, but most such sentences in Chinese cities are now believed to be carried out by lethal injection rather than firing squad. Mr Zheng’s appearance in court for the initial May 29 sentencing showed a man transformed from a well-dressed party official into a haggard, grey-haired figure who knew he could expect little mercy. Even so, he looked stunned when court security officers clapped handcuffs around his wrists as the judge read out his sentence.

The supreme court said his confession and return of bribes were insufficient to justify mercy.

Yan Jiangying, a spokeswoman for the State Food and Drug Administration said: “The few corrupt officials of the SFDA are the shame of the whole system and their scandals have revealed some very serious problems.”

The administration has already announced measures to tighten safety controls and has closed factories where illegal chemicals were found. But she acknowledged that the administration had been slow to tackle the problem. “China is a developing country and our supervision of food and drugs started quite late and our foundation for this work is weak, so we are not optimistic about the current food and drug safety situation.”

Officials have already given warning that China faces social unrest and a further tarnished image abroad unless it improves the quality and safety of its food and medicine. The discovery of tainted pet food, poisonous toothpaste and Thomas the Tank Engine toys painted with lead has caused an international uproar.

But corruption is an even more emotive issue, which the Communist Party has warned could undermine its grip on power.

To try to fight the widespread abuse of power by officials and party cadres who use their position to extract cash and to grant favours, the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate yesterday issued new legal interpretations of 10 types of bribery to help to bring charges against officials on the take.

Bribery will now explicitly include the taking of stocks and shares as gifts, buying property or cars at rock-bottom prices and making money from fixed gambling games. In addition, officials can be convicted for granting a special favour even if no money has changed hands.

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