China Sentences 2 Ex-Defense Ministers to Death in Xi Purge of Military Elite

A Chinese military court handed suspended death sentences Thursday to two former defense ministers convicted of bribery, the latest and most dramatic move yet in President Xi Jinping's decade-long campaign to reshape and tighten his grip on the People's Liberation Army.

The court found Wei Fenghe guilty of accepting bribes and sentenced him to death with a two-year reprieve, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. Li Shangfu was convicted of both accepting and offering bribes and received the same sentence. Suspended death sentences in China are routinely commuted to life in prison.

The verdicts punctuate a sweeping reorganization of Chinese military power with direct implications for U.S. defense posture in the Indo-Pacific, a theater that determines naval traffic, trade routes and security partnerships.

Wei served as defense minister from 2018 to 2023. Li succeeded him but vanished from public view within months of taking office, formally removed in October 2023. Li had spent most of his career in missile systems and military procurement and carried U.S. travel and financial sanctions over China's purchase of Russian military hardware — sanctions that underscored Washington's concern about the men now being erased from Beijing's power structure.

The Communist Party expelled both men in 2024, a step that in China's system effectively sealed their legal fate before the trial began.

Xi's purge has now hollowed out the Central Military Commission, once an 11-member body that functioned as a collective check on military authority. It now has a single member beyond Xi himself — a concentration of command with no modern precedent in the People's Republic. China's current defense minister, Dong Jun, was not appointed to the commission, a break from standard protocol that experts say signals the body's diminished role.

Whether Wei or Li clashed with Xi over policy remains unclear, officials said. Xi has consistently framed the campaign as anti-corruption, but analysts note it has reliably removed figures whose loyalty was uncertain.

Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and has been vocal on China policy, had not issued a statement as of publication time. Mast's FL-21 district covers Martin and St. Lucie counties. His office has pushed legislation targeting Chinese military-linked entities operating near U.S. military installations — a concern amplified each time Xi consolidates unchecked control over the PLA and its nuclear arsenal.

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