On December 9th, Bai Tianhui, former Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, Director of the Board, and General Manager of Huarong International Holdings Limited, was executed. Bai was closely associated with the former Chairman of Huarong Corporation, Lai Xiaomin, and played a significant role in Lai’s numerous illegal activities.
Bai Tianhui was sentenced to death for bribery on May 28, 2024. His appeal was rejected, and the court upheld the original verdict, which was approved by the Supreme People’s Court of the Chinese Communist Party.
According to the Supreme Court’s review, from 2014 to 2018, Bai Tianhui abused his power to seek benefits for relevant units in project acquisitions and corporate financing, receiving bribes totaling over 1.108 billion Chinese Yuan.
In January 2019, Bai Tianhui was arrested along with other individuals, including Wang Pinghua, former Chairman of Huarong Real Estate Co., Ltd., Guo Jintong, former Deputy General Manager of Huarong International, and Zhao Zichun, former Deputy General Manager of Huarong Guiyang Real Estate Co., Ltd.
The case of Bai Tianhui is closely linked to the case of Lai Xiaomin. In January 2021, Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court pronounced Lai Xiaomin guilty of bribery, corruption, and bigamy. Lai Xiaomin was sentenced to death for bribery (1.788 billion yuan), 11 years for corruption, and 1 year for bigamy, with the death penalty being carried out on January 29, 2021.
Bai Tianhui once appeared in a documentary about the Chinese Communist Party’s anti-corruption efforts, stating, “Many projects were directly instructed by Lai Xiaomin, who is his friend. Sometimes, in order to fulfill the tasks assigned by the leadership, many factors and points that should be considered from a market perspective were either ignored or embellished.”