• A military court on Thursday handed death sentences with a two-year reprieve to former Chinese defense ministers Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu for bribery.
  • The sentence means that after two years, the death penalty will be commuted to life imprisonment without the possibility of sentence reduction or parole, and all their personal assets were confiscated.
  • Both were found guilty of bribery, and the announcement follows the recent ousting of several top military figures amid a sweeping anti-corruption crackdown.
  • Wei served as defense minister from 2018 to 2023 and was replaced by Li in March 2023, whose tenure was short as he was dismissed in October 2023 after suddenly disappearing from public life.
  • Chinese President Xi Jinping in February made a rare public reference to the military crackdown, saying the army had ‘undergone revolutionary tempering in the fight against corruption’.
  • Since coming to power, Xi has launched waves of anti-corruption drives, which critics say have also been used as a tool to purge political rivals.

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