UPDATE 2-China sentences former defence ministers to death with reprieve

Former Chinese defence ministers Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu were both sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve over graft charges, state news agency Xinhua reported on Thursday, underscoring the severity of the purge in the ‌military. The armed forces have been one of the main targets of a broad corruption crackdown ordered by President Xi Jinping after coming to power in 2012.

Former Chinese defence ministers Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu were both sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve over graft charges, state news agency Xinhua reported on Thursday, underscoring the severity of the purge in the ‌military.

The armed forces have been one of the main targets of a broad corruption crackdown ordered by President Xi Jinping after coming to power in 2012. The purges reached the elite Rocket Force, which oversees nuclear weapons as well as conventional missiles, in 2023. Earlier this year they escalated further, resulting in the removal of the top general in the People's Liberation Army (PLA), Zhang Youxia, ‌who was a Politburo member and was long seen as an ally of Xi. Past reports in Xinhua said Li had been suspected of receiving "huge sums of money" ‌in bribes as well as bribing others, and an investigation found he "did not fulfil political responsibilities" and "sought personal benefits for himself and others". An investigation launched into Wei in 2023 found that he had accepted "a huge amount of money and valuables" in bribes and "helped others gain improper benefits in personnel arrangements", Xinhua reported in 2024, adding that his actions were "extremely serious in nature, with a highly detrimental impact and tremendous harm". A death sentence with reprieve in China ⁠is typically ​commuted to life imprisonment if the offender commits no ⁠crimes during the period of reprieve. After the commutation, Wei and Li will be imprisoned for life without the possibility of further commutation or parole, Xinhua said.

Commutations for minister-level convictions in China are not unusual. Fu Zhenghua, a former ⁠justice minister, was sentenced to death in 2022, with the sentence later commuted to life in prison. The same happened with Liu Zhijun, a former railways minister who was convicted in 2013. CAUTIONARY EXAMPLES

The PLA in ​its official newspaper called on party members and its military cadres to heed the lessons from the two cases, warning against harbouring "divided loyalties towards the Party", referring to ⁠China's ruling Communist Party. "Party members and cadres in the military, particularly senior officers, must take corrupt officials such as Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu, who have been investigated and punished, as cautionary examples," the PLA Daily said in ⁠a ​commentary published on Friday.

The military said Wei and Li had caused great damage to the party's cause, national defence and military construction, as well as the image of senior leaders. Singapore-based China security scholar James Char said the suspended death sentence was the most severe sentence handed down to a member of the Central Military Commission, the Communist Party's supreme military leadership ⁠body, in recent history.

"That Wei and Li have been 'commuted to life imprisonment without parole or commutation' underlines the severity of their offences given that such sentences are typically reserved for serious crimes," ⁠said Char, an academic at the S ⁠Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Foreign diplomats and analysts are watching the ongoing corruption purges closely.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think tank, said earlier this year the purges were leaving serious deficiencies in the military's command structure and were likely to have hampered the readiness ‌of its rapidly modernising armed forces.