China has handed suspended death sentences to two of its former defence ministers, Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu, after they were convicted of bribery in one of the most high-profile corruption cases linked to its ongoing military purge.
The sentences were issued on Thursday by a military court, according to Chinese state media, marking a dramatic escalation in President Xi Jinping’s long-running anti-graft campaign within the armed forces.
The two former officials, Wei Fenghe, 72, who served as defence minister from 2018 to 2023, and Li Shangfu, 68, who held the position for less than eight months in 2023, were both found guilty of corruption charges and sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve.
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Under the ruling, both men will have their sentences automatically commuted to life imprisonment without parole after the two-year suspension period.
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Both former generals had been placed under investigation in 2023 by the military’s anti-corruption unit as part of a widening crackdown targeting senior figures in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
According to data cited by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, 36 generals and lieutenant generals have been formally removed since 2022, while another 65 officers are either missing or believed to have been purged.
The report further suggested that more than half of the PLA’s top leadership positions have been affected when accounting for repeated removals and restructuring.
