Two former Chinese defence ministers, Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu, have been handed suspended death sentences on corruption charges, according to Chinese state media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China\u2019s official Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday that a military court sentenced both men to death with a two-year reprieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under Chinese law, the sentences are expected to be commuted to life imprisonment after two years without the possibility of parole or further sentence reduction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Xinhua said both former ministers were convicted of accepting bribes and that all of their personal assets had been confiscated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The convictions come amid a sweeping anti-corruption campaign within China\u2019s military establishment that has resulted in the removal of several senior officials in recent months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wei Fenghe served as China\u2019s defence minister from 2018 until 2023, when he was succeeded by Li Shangfu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Li\u2019s tenure proved considerably shorter. He was removed from office in October 2023 after disappearing from public view two months earlier, prompting widespread speculation regarding his political future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reuters previously cited reports from Xinhua stating that Li had been accused of accepting \u201chuge sums of money\u201d in bribes and offering bribes to others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Investigators reportedly concluded that he had \u201cnot fulfilled political responsibilities\u201d and had sought \u201cpersonal benefits for himself and others\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An investigation into Wei, launched in 2023, reportedly found that he had accepted \u201ca huge amount of money and valuables\u201d in bribes and had assisted others in obtaining improper advantages in personnel appointments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The cases form part of Chinese President Xi Jinping\u2019s broader anti-corruption campaign, which has targeted senior figures across the military and political establishment since he came to power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In February, President Xi made a rare public reference to the military purge following the removal of senior military official Zhang Youxia, stating that the armed forces had \u201cundergone revolutionary tempering in the fight against corruption\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Critics of the campaign have argued that the anti-corruption drive has also been used to sideline political rivals and consolidate President Xi\u2019s authority within the Chinese Communist Party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two former Chinese defence ministers, Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu, have been handed suspended death sentences on corruption charges, according to Chinese state media. China\u2019s official Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday that a military court sentenced both men to death with a two-year reprieve. Under Chinese law, the sentences are expected to be commuted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,2,23,6],"tags":[136,137,138],"class_list":["post-46","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-news","category-top-stories","category-world-news","tag-china","tag-corruption","tag-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetimesnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetimesnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetimesnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetimesnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetimesnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetimesnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetimesnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions\/48"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetimesnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetimesnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetimesnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetimesnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}