{"id":86066,"date":"2026-05-08T10:29:51","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T04:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kalopati.com\/?p=86066"},"modified":"2026-05-12T18:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T12:37:13","slug":"china-sentences-2-ex-defence-ministers-to-death-on-corruption-charges-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.kalopati.com\/news\/86066","title":{"rendered":"China sentences 2 ex-defence ministers to death on corruption charges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kathmandu. China has sentenced two former defense ministers, Li Tsangfu and Wei Fenghe, to death for corruption. According to the state-run Xinhua news agency, both will be jailed for the first 2 years. <\/p>\n<p>If they do not commit any new offences for those two years, the sentence can be commuted to life imprisonment. <\/p>\n<p>Li Sangfu was abruptly removed from office last year, while Wei Fenghe was also under investigation for military corruption. Both were expelled from China&#8217;s ruling Communist Party in 2024. <\/p>\n<p>According to experts, this action is part of President Xi Jinping&#8217;s anti-corruption campaign. Over the past few years, several senior officials associated with China&#8217;s military and defense have been prosecuted. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Li Sangfu accused of bribery and indiscipline violation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>China&#8217;s former Defense Minister Li Shangfu (right) takes oath at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in 2023. <\/p>\n<p>China&#8217;s former defense minister Li Shanfu was abruptly removed from his post in October last year. He did not appear in public for nearly two months, sparking a lot of speculation. <\/p>\n<p>For the first time, Chinese authorities have officially acknowledged that he is being investigated for corruption. <\/p>\n<p>According to a CCTV report, the Military Discipline Investigation Agency found that Lee had &#8220;seriously violated party discipline and laws&#8221;. He has been accused of taking large bribes, bribing others and abusing his position. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Lee&#8217;s activities have caused significant damage to the military&#8217;s weapons development and image of military equipment,&#8221; the report said. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Former Defense Minister Wei Fenghe also takes action<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>}<\/p>\n<p>China&#8217;s former defense minister Wei Fenghe has been accused of taking bribes and abusing his position. A Chinese military court has found him guilty of corruption. <\/p>\n<p>According to the investigative report, Wei Fenghe took bribes to benefit from decisions related to the Ministry of Defense and the military. <\/p>\n<p>Wei Fenghe was one of China&#8217;s most senior military officers. He is the former Defense Minister of China and also the commander of the &#8216;Rocket Force&#8217; of the Chinese Army. The rocket force handles China&#8217;s missile and nuclear weapons systems. <\/p>\n<p>Wei Fenghe was China&#8217;s defense minister from 2018 to 2023. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Rocket Force research target<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>}<\/p>\n<p>According to the report, the PLA Rocket Force and the Army&#8217;s Arms Procurement Department are considered to be the biggest centers of corruption investigation in China. The PLA Rocket Force is the body responsible for handling the country&#8217;s nuclear missiles and long-range ballistic missiles. <\/p>\n<p>It is considered a very important part of China&#8217;s military power, because it has the ability to launch a nuclear attack if necessary. <\/p>\n<p>Investigative agencies suspect large-scale corruption in arms procurement, defence contracts and supplies of military equipment for the army. Several officers are accused of awarding contracts and taking bribes in large military contracts. <\/p>\n<p><strong> Central Military Commission conducted research <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the case of Li Sangfu and Wei Fenghe, the investigating agencies of the Central Military Commission (CMC) investigated allegations of corruption and bribery. <\/p>\n<p>The CMC is China&#8217;s supreme military body, which controls the military on behalf of the Communist Party of China (CCP) and the Chinese government. Chinese President Xi Jinping is the chairman of the CMC. <\/p>\n<p>The People&#8217;s Liberation Army (PLA), the People&#8217;s Armed Police (PAP) and the militias operate under it. <\/p>\n<p>Over the past year, dozens of senior officials associated with China&#8217;s military and aerospace sectors have been removed from their posts. Experts say the crackdown is part of President Xi Jinping&#8217;s crackdown on corruption and antitrust.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kathmandu. China has sentenced two former defense ministers, Li Tsangfu and Wei Fenghe, to death for corruption. According to the state-run Xinhua news agency, both will be jailed for the first 2 years. If they do not commit any new offences for those two years, the sentence can be commuted to life imprisonment. Li Sangfu<a href=\"https:\/\/english.kalopati.com\/news\/86066\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;China sentences 2 ex-defence ministers to death on corruption charges&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":85506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1391],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized-en"],"acf":[],"publishedDateNp":"\u0968\u096b \u092c\u0948\u0936\u093e\u0916 \u0968\u0966\u096e\u0969, \u0936\u0941\u0915\u094d\u0930\u092c\u093e\u0930 \u0967\u0966:\u0968\u096f","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86067,"href":"https:\/\/kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86066\/revisions\/86067"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/media\/85506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}