(TibetanReview.net, May08’26) – Two recent former defence ministers of China, Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu, have been given suspended death sentences after being found guilty of corruption on May 7, the state news agency Xinhua has reported.
A military court found Wei guilty of accepting bribes, while Li was found guilty of both accepting and offering bribes, the scmp.com May 7 cited a two-paragraph statement released by Xinhua on late May 7 afternoon as saying.
While the statement did not specify the bribe amounts involved, both men were also deprived of political rights for life, with all their personal property confiscated.
After the two-year reprieve period, their sentence would be commuted to life imprisonment without the possibility of commutation or parole, the reports said.
Their sentences are stated to be the heaviest seen among senior military officers since Chinese President Xi Jinping started his anti-corruption campaign in 2012.
China’s state media previously reported that the two men were accused of corruption that was “of extremely serious nature [which] caused extremely egregious impact and exceptionally detrimental harm”.
Wei served as defence minister from 2018 to 2023 and was replaced by Li in Mar 2023. Li was dismissed in Oct 2023, two months after he suddenly disappeared from public life.
Several top Chinese generals have been put under investigation in recent years, including former CMC (Central Military Commission) deputy chairmen Zhang Youxia and He Weidong, as well as former CMC members Liu Zhenli and Miao Hua, noted the scmp.com report.
Zhang and He were the first and second-ranked vice-chairmen of the CMC respectively, while Liu was chief of its Joint Staff Department and Miao was head of its political work department.
Their downfall marks an unprecedented near-total wipe-out of the CMC formed after the 20th national party congress in late 2022, leaving Zhang Shengmin as the only uniformed official on the commission, the report noted.