In a stunning move amid a continued purge of its military, China on Thursday gave two former defense ministers suspended death sentences for corruption.

Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu were both convicted of bribery and given the death penalty with a two-year reprieve by the country’s military court, according to state media. The court announced that the two former generals’ sentences will be commuted to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole after two years.

Wei, 72, served as defense minister from 2018 to 2023. Li, 68, succeeded Wei and held the position for less than eight months in 2023. Both men were placed under investigation by the military’s anti-graft arm in 2023.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has taken his purge of the armed forces to the very top, most recently targeting his highest-ranked general with the removal in January of Zhang Youxia, who outranked Wei and Li and once oversaw the military’s day-to-day operations.

Xi’s shake-up has cut across a wide swath of China’s 2 million-strong People’s Liberation Army (PLA) –– with more than 100 officers potentially ousted since 2022.

Thirty-six generals and lieutenant generals have been officially purged since 2022, while another 65 officers are listed as missing or potentially purged, according to a report published in February by Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

When accounting for positions that have been purged more than once, 52% of the PLA’s top leadership positions have been affected, the report found.

The sweeping clear-out is part of Xi’s longstanding drive to clean up the PLA as he continues to tighten his grip on power and drives forward a major military modernization.

But the scope of this “unprecedented purge” raises questions about the military’s readiness to carry out complex operations, the report’s authors wrote.

Following the downfall of Zhang and his lieutenant in January, an editorial published by the official PLA Daily newspaper accused the two former military leaders of undermining Xi’s ultimate authority while also reinforcing Xi’s message of zero-tolerance on corruption.

Their investigations will “remove toxic influences” within the PLA and “help the people’s armed forces undergo a thorough renewal, injecting powerful momentum into the drive to build a strong military”, it said. (CNN)

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