China hands suspended death sentences to two former defence ministers

BEIJING: A Chinese military court on Thursday handed suspended death sentences to two former defence ministers in a corruption case, according to state media, in what was described as President Xi Jinping’s latest move in a broader anti-graft campaign.

The sentences were issued to Wei Fenghe, 72, and Li Shangfu, 68. Xinhua reported that the punishments will be commuted to life imprisonment after a two-year reprieve.

The two former ministers served between 2018 and 2023 and were also former members of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC), the powerful body that oversees the armed forces and is led by Xi. Both men had also regularly appeared on television alongside other officials.

According to Xinhua, Wei was convicted of accepting bribes, while Li was convicted of both accepting and offering bribes. Both men were stripped of their political rights for life and had their personal property confiscated.

Harshest punishment in recent military anti-graft drive

The penalties are the toughest handed down by Beijing against senior military officials as part of Xi’s sweeping anti-corruption campaign since he came to power in 2012.

Wei and Li are the latest senior military figures to be caught up in the anti-corruption purge, which in recent years has increasingly focused on the armed forces. Several top generals have also been removed as part of that campaign.

Adam Ni, editor of China Neican, a newsletter focused on Chinese current affairs, said the ruling was unusually severe.

"A death sentence with a two-year reprieve is actually the strongest punishment China gives to its high level leaders nowadays," he told AFP. "It's a loud message from Xi."

Ni also described the ruling against the two former ministers as pretty extraordinary.

The case marks another high-profile development in Xi’s long-running anti-corruption drive, which has targeted officials across different levels of the Chinese system since 2012. In this instance, the focus was on two men who once held one of the country’s most senior defence portfolios and sat on the military body that supervises China’s armed forces.

Xinhua said the suspended death sentences would automatically be reduced to life imprisonment after the two-year reprieve period. In addition to the prison terms, the court also imposed lifetime political penalties and ordered the loss of their personal assets.

The convictions of Wei and Li underscore the scale of the anti-graft campaign within China’s military establishment, where senior officials have faced investigation, removal and punishment in recent years.