China sentences ex-defence ministers to death with reprieve over corruption charges

Former Chinese defence ministers Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu have been handed death sentences with a two-year reprieve on corruption charges, China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday.

China’s armed forces have remained a major focus of President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive since he took office in 2012. The crackdown intensified in 2023 when it spread to the elite Rocket Force, the military branch responsible for overseeing China’s nuclear arsenal and conventional missile systems.

The campaign widened further earlier this year with the reported removal of senior military figure Zhang Youxia, a member of the Politburo who had long been regarded as a close ally of Xi.

Previous reports by Xinhua said Li Shangfu had been accused of accepting “huge sums of money” in bribes and bribing others. Investigators also found that he “did not fulfil political responsibilities” and had “sought personnel benefits for himself and others”.

An investigation launched into Wei Fenghe in 2023 concluded that he had accepted “a huge amount of money and valuables” in bribes and had “helped others gain improper benefits in personnel arrangements”, according to Xinhua’s earlier report in 2024.

The agency said Wei’s actions were “extremely serious in nature, with a highly detrimental impact and tremendous harm”.

Under China’s legal system, a death sentence with a two-year reprieve is usually reduced to life imprisonment if the convicted individual commits no further crimes during the suspension period.
Xinhua reported that after commutation, both men would remain imprisoned for life without the possibility of parole or any further sentence reduction.