Two former defense ministers of ChinaWei Fenghe y Li Shangfu, han sido convicts this Thursday at death suspended for two years corruption by a Chinese military court. His dismissal had been announced with a couple of aseptic paragraphs in the official press in 2024; Today, another couple of paragraphs have revealed a conviction that was taken for granted. The suspension formula, common in Chinese criminal justice, provides that the execution is commuted after two years by life sentence. The statement in the official Xinhua agency specifies that They will not be able to enjoy further reductions or parole. This is the harshest punishment received by the military commanders since the president, Xi Jinping, began the purges of the Army in 2012.
The note is short on details, alludes to corruption in general and, contrary to casuistry, does not clarify the amount of the bribes. The official press described its illegalities months ago with unusually harsh language. Li was accused of pocket “large amounts of money”of bribing and being bribed. “He abandoned his original mission and misplaced the principles of the party”he added. Wei accepted excessive gifts and was paid in exchange for favors. “His faith collapsed, he lost loyalty and seriously contaminated the Army’s political ecosystem,” they said of him. The sentence was a formality because 99% of criminal cases in China lead to it.
Wei held the position from 2018 to 2023 and was replaced by Li. Just seven months later, he disappeared from the public eye. The protocol explanations of “health problems” after his stubborn absences in international forums and the rumors about his fate that concluded with his dismissal. It was the corollary to four decades of brilliant career. The aeronautical engineer had joined the Army in 1978, supervised the first Chinese space missions and ended up in logistics. Between 2017 and 2022, he chaired the Equipment Development Department, in charge of material purchases. There, presumably, he filled his pockets.
Shady reputation
Xi inherited an Army in urgent need of modernizing and cleaning it up. For the first, he cut the number of troops and switched from the Soviet model to the American one. For the second, he undertook an unprecedented anti-corruption campaign in an establishment with a well-deserved shady reputation. The auctions of high officials and bribery in the numerous associated businesses were known. The cleanup reached the Missile Force in 2023, an elite body that supervises the nuclear arsenal. And in January the biggest piece fell, Zhang Youxia, a member of the Central Military Commission, the seven-member body at the top of the Army. Zhang, on the brink of retirement, was also the highest-ranking general under investigation and a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo. For decades it was Xi’s personal friend and their research made it clear that no one is safe.
The dismissal of Wei and Li barely disrupted Beijing’s plans. Chinese Defense Ministers lack political leadership functions, reserved for the party. It’s a protocol charge which is in charge of representing the Army and relations with the press and its international counterparts. His statements reveal the positions of the political elite on military issues. But the flow of dismissals generates serious gaps in the command structure and slows down the modernization of the Army, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said this year.
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