China Sentences Ex-Defense Ministers Wei Fenghe, Li Shangfu to Suspended Death Terms

Two former Chinese defense ministers received death sentences with two-year reprieves on corruption charges, one of the toughest punishments for top military officials in recent years.

Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu got the suspended death sentences on May 7 after graft convictions in China's military court, state media reported. Both men lost their political rights for life and had to forfeit all personal property.

Xinhua News Agency said Wei was convicted of accepting bribes. Li was found guilty of accepting and offering bribes, according to court documents.

Under Chinese law, such a sentence usually turns into life imprisonment if no further crimes occur during the two-year period. Here, the penalties will become life terms without parole or further reduction after the reprieve ends.

Wei Fenghe, 72, served as defense minister from 2018 to 2023. Li Shangfu, 68, succeeded him but held the job for just a few months.

Both had been state councillors and sat on the Central Military Commission, the top military body led by President Xi Jinping. They also commanded the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force, which manages China's nuclear weapons and conventional missiles. The branch dates to Xi's 2015 military overhaul.

The sentences fit Xi's anti-corruption push in the People's Liberation Army, which has hit senior figures since 2012. The effort ramped up in 2023 with probes into the Rocket Force and other key units.

Authorities expelled both men from the Communist Party in June 2024.

James Char, a security scholar in Singapore, called the sentences the harshest ever for Central Military Commission members. "That Wei and Li have been commuted to life imprisonment without parole or commutation underlines the severity of their offences," he told Reuters.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London think tank, has said the purges might weaken China's military command and disrupt its fast-modernizing forces.