The former vice-governor of East China's Anhui province, Wang Huaizhong -- found guilty of corruption -- was on Thursday executed by administering lethal injection.
He becomes the highest ruling Chinese communist party leader to be punished in this manner.
Wang, 57, found guilty of taking more than five million Yuan (US$600,000) in bribes and possessing 4.8 million Yuan that he could not account for.
He was executed after losing an appeal for lighter penalty in January at the Shandong provincial higher people's court, Xinhua news agency reported.
He was put to death by lethal injection at the approval of China's apex court, the supreme people's court and was allowed to meet his family before the execution.
Wang was sentenced to death in December 2003 by the intermediate people's court of Jinan, capital of the eastern Shandong province.
He was also deprived of political rights and the court ordered confiscation of all his properties.
The former official was detained and investigated in September 2002 by the Supreme people's procuratorate for suspicion of taking bribes, and was arrested in October.
His case was handled by the neighbouring people's procuratorate of Shandong province, to ensure impartiality of investigation.
"Instead of confessing to his crimes, Wang had stood against the public prosecutors and even continued to seek bribes during the investigation from some private business owners," said Wang Huanhai, head of the investigation team.
According to the prosecutor, Wang attempted to use the bribe to buy over more relations, hoping the central commission for discipline inspection of the Chinese communist party would spare him from prosecution.
During the first trial on Dec 29, 2003, Wang denied all the allegations, but in the latest trial confessed to most of the crimes and argued for a light penalty on the grounds that the bribes he had taken were not big enough to justify a death penalty.
His request was turned down, given the amount involved in the case as well as his resistance to investigation.
Wang became vice-governor of Anhui province in 1999. Before that, he was secretary of the municipal committee of the Communist Party of China in Fuyang city of Anhui.
