Beijing - Xu Maiyong and Jiang Renjie, former vice-mayors of Hangzhou and Suzhou respectively, were executed on Tuesday morning for taking huge amounts of bribes and abusing their official powers, according to the Supreme People's Court.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Sun Jungong, spokesman for the court, announced the executions and said the Supreme People's Court will continue to battle corruption by meting out harsh punishments to those who are convicted of it.

"For crimes in which a person takes advantage of his office, especially for cases of corruption and bribery that are so severe that they can be punished by the death penalty, the court will not be soft but will instead approve executions decisively," Sun said.

Since 2007, the Supreme People's Court has had the right to review every death penalty case and give final approvals to planned executions.

According to the verdict on Tuesday, Xu, 52, interfered with real estate contracts and helped companies and persons obtain land, promotions and tax breaks.

At the time of the alleged crimes, Xu was the vice-mayor of Hangzhou, capital city of Zhejiang province; the chief of Hangzhou's Xihu district government; and the vice-mayor of Xiaoshan, also in Zhejiang province.

From 1995 to 2009, Xu sought and accepted about 145 million yuan ($22.2 million) in bribes and embezzled another 53.6 million yuan from a State-owned property-development company where he served as the board chairman.

In addition, Xu took advantage of his official powers to illegally return 71.7 million yuan of land purchase payments - money the government collects from property sales - to a property development firm in which he held a stake.

Convicted of bribery, embezzlement, and abuse of power, Xu was sentenced to death by the Intermediate People's Court of Ningbo, Zhejiang province, on May 12.

As for Jiang, who is 63, he too accepted large amounts of bribes from real estate developers.

From 2001 to 2004, when Jiang was the vice-mayor of Suzhou, in Jiangsu province, he helped to ensure certain property developers had an advantage in obtaining land and project contracts. In return for that assistance, he received more than 108 million yuan in cash.

Gu Wenbin, a property developer in Suzhou, gave Jiang 82.5 million yuan after Jiang had helped him obtain a piece of State-owned land.

Jiang then gave the money to his son, who later used it to register a company in Shanghai.

Jiang was convicted of bribery by the Intermediate People's Court of Nanjing in April 2008 and sentenced to death.

Both Xu and Jiang appealed to higher courts after their trials but were unsuccessful at having the previous verdicts overturned.

Pei Xianding, a senior judge from the Supreme People's Court, said the country's fast urbanization and economic development have made instances of corruption involving real estate more common.

Pei said defeating corruption in China will still require hard work and the court will continue to punish severely those who commit such crimes.

"No matter how high in the ranks these criminals have risen, once they are convicted, we will adhere to the law and punish them accordingly," Pei said.

Statistics compiled by the Supreme People's Court show that 28,708 officials were convicted in 2010 of abusing their official powers. Of them, 5,906 were sentenced to more than 5 years in jail.