Two former defense ministers of China have been sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for corruption.

Former Chinese Defense Ministers Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu have been sentenced to death, with a two-year suspension of the execution of the sentence, for corruption charges, according to an announcement made by the Xinhua news agency. They were expelled from the Communist Party in 2024 for 'serious violations of discipline,' a term frequently used in China to describe corruption.

The suspended death sentence is a common practice in the Chinese judicial system, and in cases where the condemned do not commit other crimes during the suspension period, the sentence is usually commuted to life imprisonment. This decision underscores the intensification of measures against corruption among high-ranking officials in China.