In a landmark ruling that underscores China’s sweeping anti-corruption campaign targeting high-ranking military officials, two former national defense ministers have received suspended death sentences for conviction on corruption charges, according to Chinese state media reports.
A military tribunal handed down the sentence on Thursday: both Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu, who held the defense minister portfolio in succession, were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve. As outlined by China’s official news agency Xinhua, this sentence structure mandates that the capital punishment will automatically be converted to life imprisonment after the two-year probation period, with no eligibility for future sentence reduction or parole for either man.
Court documents confirmed that both former top military officials were found guilty of accepting bribes. In addition to the prison sentence, the ruling ordered the full confiscation of all personal assets belonging to the two men.
Li Shangfu, the most recent of the two to hold the defense minister post, served in the role from March 2023 to October 2023, before stepping down as part of a broader reshuffle that removed several senior military leaders from their positions. This latest verdict comes in the wake of a series of high-profile ousters of top military figures, all part of a wide-ranging anti-corruption crackdown that has reshuffled senior ranks of China’s armed forces in recent months.
The case marks one of the most high-profile anti-corruption actions against former top national security officials in recent Chinese history, sending a clear signal of the ruling Communist Party’s commitment to rooting out graft within the military establishment.