• Former Chinese defense ministers Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for corruption.
  • The sentence is likely to be commuted to life imprisonment without parole.
  • The convicts were members of the Central Military Commission, and this is the harshest penalty imposed on a member of that body in recent history.
  • The purge in the Chinese military, ordered by President Xi Jinping, has escalated and reached the elite Rocket Force.
  • The military urged party members to learn from these cases and remain loyal to the Party.
  • Analysts warn that the purges leave serious gaps in the command structure and hinder the readiness of the armed forces.

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