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By Antoni Slodkowski<\/p>\n
BEIJING, May 7 (Reuters) – Former Chinese defence ministers Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu were both sentenced to death with \u200ca two-year reprieve over graft charges, state news agency Xinhua reported \u200con Thursday, underscoring the severity of the purge in the military.<\/p>\n
The armed forces have been \u200bone 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.<\/p>\n
Earlier \u200cthis year they escalated \u2060further, resulting in the removal of the top general in the People’s Liberation Army, Zhang Youxia, who was a Politburo \u2060member and was long seen as an ally of Xi.<\/p>\n
Past reports in Xinhua said Li had been suspected of receiving “huge sums of money” in bribes as \u200bwell \u200bas bribing others, and an investigation found \u200bhe “did not fulfil political responsibilities” \u200cand “sought personnel benefits for himself and others”.<\/p>\n
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 \u200cdetrimental impact and tremendous harm”.<\/p>\n
A death sentence with \u200breprieve in China is typically commuted to \u200blife imprisonment if the offender \u200bcommits no crimes during the period of reprieve.<\/p>\n
After the \u200ccommutation, they will be imprisoned for life \u200bwithout the possibility \u200bof further commutation or parole, Xinhua said.<\/p>\n
China’s ongoing military corruption purges are leaving serious deficiencies in its command structure and are likely to \u200bhave hampered the \u200creadiness of its rapidly modernising armed forces, the International Institute for \u200bStrategic Studies said this year.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Antoni Slodkowski and Beijing Newsroom;Editing \u200bby Peter Graff and Alison Williams)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n