{"id":125521,"date":"2026-05-08T11:48:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T06:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=125521"},"modified":"2026-05-08T11:48:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T06:48:31","slug":"china-hands-suspended-death-sentences-to-two-ex-defence-ministers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125521\/","title":{"rendered":"China hands suspended death sentences to two ex-defence ministers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">BEIJING(National Times)- A Chinese military court handed suspended death sentences to two former defence ministers for corruption on Thursday, state media said, in President Xi Jinping\u2019s latest push to root out graft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They are the harshest sentences that Beijing has meted out on high-ranking military officials as part of Xi\u2019s sweeping anti-corruption purge since coming to power in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The sentences against Wei Fenghe, 72, and Li Shangfu, 68, will be \u201ccommuted to life imprisonment\u201d after a two-year reprieve, the&nbsp;<em>Xinhua<\/em>&nbsp;state news agency reported. The ex-ministers, who served between 2018 and 2023, were also former members of China\u2019s powerful Central Military Commission (CMC) , which oversees the military and is headed by Xi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They also appeared regularly on television along with other officials. Wei was convicted of accepting bribes and Li was convicted of accepting and offering bribes, Xinhua said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The pair were also stripped of their political rights for life as well as their personal property. Adam Ni, editor of China Neican, a newsletter on Chinese current affairs, said the ruling against Wei and Li was \u201cpretty extraordinary\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cA death sentence with a two-year reprieve is actually the strongest punishment China gives to its high level leaders nowadays,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wei and Li are the latest military officials to fall in Xi\u2019s anti-corruption purge that has focused on the armed forces in recent years, with several top generals removed. Critics say the crackdown allows the Chinese president to eliminate potential political rivals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BEIJING(National Times)- A Chinese military court handed suspended death sentences to two former defence ministers for corruption on Thursday, state media said, in President Xi Jinping\u2019s latest push to root out graft. They are the harshest sentences that Beijing has meted out on high-ranking military officials as part of Xi\u2019s sweeping anti-corruption purge since coming [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>China hands suspended death sentences to two ex-defence ministers - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125521\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"China hands suspended death sentences to two ex-defence ministers - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"BEIJING(National Times)- A Chinese military court handed suspended death sentences to two former defence ministers for corruption on Thursday, state media said, in President Xi Jinping\u2019s latest push to root out graft. They are the harshest sentences that Beijing has meted out on high-ranking military officials as part of Xi\u2019s sweeping anti-corruption purge since coming [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125521\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-08T06:48:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-08T06:48:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-8-2.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125521\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125521\/\",\"name\":\"China hands suspended death sentences to two ex-defence ministers - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125521\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125521\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-8-2.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-08T06:48:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-08T06:48:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125521\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125521\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125521\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-8-2.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-8-2.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125521\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"China hands suspended death sentences to two ex-defence ministers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"China hands suspended death sentences to two ex-defence ministers - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125521\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"China hands suspended death sentences to two ex-defence ministers - Nation","og_description":"BEIJING(National Times)- A Chinese military court handed suspended death sentences to two former defence ministers for corruption on Thursday, state media said, in President Xi Jinping\u2019s latest push to root out graft. 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