China hands suspended death sentences to former defence ministers for graft

BEIJING: A Chinese military court handed suspended death sentences to two former defence ministers for corruption on Thursday, state media said, in President Xi Jinping’s latest push to root out graft.

They are the harshest sentences that Beijing has meted out on high-ranking military officials as part of Xi’s sweeping anti-corruption purge since coming to power in 2012.

The sentences against Wei Fenghe, 72, and Li Shangfu, 68, will be “commuted to life imprisonment” after a two-year reprieve, the Xinhua state news agency reported.

The ex-ministers, who served between 2018 and 2023, were also former members of China’s powerful Central Military Commission (CMC) , which oversees the military and is headed by Xi.

They also appeared regularly on television along with other officials.

Wei was convicted of accepting bribes and Li was convicted of accepting and offering bribes, Xinhua said.

The pair were also stripped of their political rights for life as well as their personal property.

Adam Ni, editor of China Neican, a newsletter on Chinese current affairs, said the ruling against Wei and Li was “pretty extraordinary”.

“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.”

Wei and Li are the latest military officials to fall in Xi’s anti-corruption purge that has focused on the armed forces in recent years, with several top generals removed.

Critics say the crackdown allows the Chinese president to eliminate potential political rivals.

In January, Beijing’s defence ministry said it was investigating China’s most powerful general Zhang Youxia, a vice chairman of the CMC — the highest-ranking military figure to be brought down in recent decades.

The same probe is targeting Liu Zhenli, chief of staff of the CMC’s joint staff department, which oversees combat planning.

Xi praised the fight against corruption within the army a few days after that investigation was announced.

In another high-profile case in 2016, former CMC vice-chairman Guo Boxiong was jailed for life, also for corruption.

China Neican’s Ni said the sentences served as a “deterrence” to ensure “military leaders know what awaits them if they continue to engage in serious corruption, which has been an epidemic in the PLA (People’s Liberation Army)”.

Wei served as China’s defence minister from 2018 to 2023, with Li serving briefly as his successor.

Both were expelled from the ruling Communist Party over corruption allegations — a fate synonymous with political death in China.