Former Chinese Defense Ministers Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve (life imprisonment) on the same day. Wei was convicted of bribery, while Li was convicted of both bribery and corruption, though the official figures of the amounts involved were not disclosed, sparking speculation among the public. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has not revealed the corruption amounts of the “military tigers” who fell from grace after the 18th Party Congress, with rumored figures being astonishing.
On Thursday (7th), Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, which would be commuted to life imprisonment after the reprieve period expires, with no possibility of commutation or parole. This ruling shattered the previous sentencing records for high-ranking military officials. The former heaviest sentences handed down to two members of the Military Commission—former Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, Guo Boxiong, and former Chief of the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission, Fang Fenghui, were sentenced to life imprisonment in 2016 and 2019, respectively.
The actual amounts Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu were involved in corrupt activities were not officially disclosed. An analysis published in the Hong Kong-based Ming Pao on May 11th suggested that since the 18th Party Congress, corrupt officials who have been sentenced to death had all been involved in corruption amounts exceeding 1 billion yuan (RMB), such as the former chairman of China Huarong Asset Management, Lai Xiaomin, who embezzled over 3 billion yuan, while the former CEO of Huarong International, Bai Tianhui, accepted nearly 1.8 billion yuan in bribes. On the day of Wei and Li’s sentencing, former Vice Chairman of the Anhui Provincial Political Consultative Conference, Zhou Xi’an, was also sentenced to death with a reprieve for accepting 134 million yuan in bribes.
According to the analysis, based on past cases, officials who are sentenced to “death with reprieve + life imprisonment” usually had corrupt amounts ranging between 200 million and 1 billion yuan. For instance, Sun Deshun, former CEO of CITIC Bank, received 979.5 million yuan in bribes, while Zhao Zhengyong, former Secretary of the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee, was involved in bribery of 717 million yuan. Gou Zhongwen, former director of the National Sports Bureau, was implicated in a bribery scheme of 236 million yuan, and Li Wenxi, former director of the Liaoning Public Security Department, received 546 million yuan in bribes. It is likely that Wei and Li’s corrupt amounts fall within this range.
Commentator Chen Xiaoping suggested on X platform on May 10th that based on previous high-ranking officials’ verdicts in the CCP, if the corrupt amounts exceeded 100 million yuan, it would cross the red line for a death sentence, with immediate execution requiring 1 billion yuan as the threshold. Therefore, it was reasoned that the corrupt amounts of Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu were likely between 100 million to 1 billion yuan. However, the CCP Military Court issued two death sentences with a reprieve this time without disclosing the amounts involved by these two individuals. The reasons behind this decision remain unclear, leaving many puzzled about these ambiguously sentenced individuals.
Netizens commented, “They can decide the verdict however they want, did you really expect fairness?””More emphasis seems to be placed on political signals over the amounts; these backdoor dealings are truly baffling.””There are plenty of cases involving sums exceeding 1 billion, yet none end up with a death sentence.”
In fact, compared to the party and government system’s announcement of a suspected “downsized” corruption amount, the anti-corruption operation within the CCP military remains a black box operation. Corruption cases within the military are adjudicated in military courts, with the amounts of corruption not disclosed under the pretext of involving military secrets.
Guo Boxiong, former Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, who fell from power after the 18th Party Congress, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2016. Officially, he was accused of possessing an “especially huge amount” of ill-gotten gains, with no specific figures disclosed, but rumors suggested that assets belonging to Guo and his family involved in the case were seized and frozen, totaling up to 25.873 billion yuan. Some Hong Kong media reports citing information from CCP military officers indicated that through accepting “contributions” from high-ranking officials, Guo Boxiong alone amassed billions of yuan. When including income from selling official positions and land, the estimated value of his illicit gains exceeded a trillion yuan, “enough to rescue two Greece.”
Another former Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, Xu Caihou, died during the investigation period and was not formally sentenced.
Phoenix Weekly reported that cash notes from various currencies and denominations, exceeding a ton in weight, were found stored in the basement of Xu Caihou’s 2,000-square-meter mansion, some still in packages unopened. Additionally, the mansion housed numerous precious metals, gemstones, and over a hundred kilograms of Hetian jade, with an assortment of rare hardwood and jade items. The confiscation of these items was so massive that it required over a dozen military trucks to transport them all.
Fang Fenghui, former Chief of the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2019. Officially, he was indicted for bribery, corruption, and possessing unusually large amounts of unclear origin. Specific figures were not disclosed.
The South China Morning Post once cited a CCP military source claiming that Fang’s corruption case might involve amounts exceeding 100 million yuan. However, sources familiar with the internal affairs of the CCP military indicated that during Fang Fenghui’s term as Commander of the Beijing Military Region, he was involved in selling a significant amount of military land, including the sale of 4.7 billion yuan worth of land owned by the 292 Hospital.
On the morning of November 23, 2017, Zhang Yang, then a member of the Central Military Commission and Director of the Political Work Department, committed suicide by hanging himself during an investigation at his home.
In October 2018, Zhang Yang’s CCP membership was officially revoked, and his assets related to the case were confiscated.
The CCP’s official publication, Global People, mentioned that Zhang Yang had received and distributed money in burlap bags, but his exact corruption figures were not revealed.
Furthermore, Gu Junshan, former Deputy Head of the Chinese military’s Logistics Department, was sentenced to death with a reprieve in 2015. An informed source revealed to Phoenix Weekly that “Gu Junshan’s case involved a value of 30 billion yuan, with embezzlement and bribery totaling 6 billion,” suggesting that this corruption value may be the first in history within the CCP military.
Following the severe sentencing of Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu, a commentary in the CCP Military Newspaper the next day stated that there should be no one with dual loyalty in the military, and no place for corrupt individuals to hide within the military. The article described Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu as having “betrayed their loyalty” and “seriously polluted the political ecology of the military.”
Observers believe that the CCP Military Newspaper explicitly stated that Wei and Li “have dual loyalties,” indicating that they were involved in issues against Xi Jinping’s leadership.
Commentator Zhongyuan wrote on Epoch Times that corruption was merely a pretext. This verdict essentially confirmed the various rumors and speculations over the past two years regarding the intense infighting within the CCP military—a true “life-or-death struggle.” A series of events showed that it was the Chairman of the Military Commission that truly disrupted the “political ecology” of the CCP military.