Within a span of 24 hours two top Chinese officers have been sentenced to death by courts for bribery and other crimes, signalling a major crackdown on corruption within the Communist nation. A top cop in the southwestern province of Chongqing and a vice president of a bank were handed out death sentences. A Beijing court handed out a suspended death sentence to 54-year-old banker Wang Yi for taking bribes totalling 1.8 million dollars between November 1999 to February 2008. The official Xinhua news agency reported that the officials' personal assets were confiscated. The rogue cop Wen Qiang, 55, was sentenced to death after being found guilty of taking bribes running into 2.4 million dollars, protecting five organised gangs, rape and property scams. His wife who was his accomplice was sentenced to eight years. The case was given good publicity in the media to project that government was acting against corruption, which apparently is causing increasing concern as fast developing China opened up more and more to private property and private asset accumulation.