China sentences former asset manager to death for ‘huge’ bribery

Shanghai: A Chinese court on Tuesday (May 28) sentenced a former executive of one of the country’s largest state-owned asset management companies to death for accepting “huge” bribes, state media reported.

Bai Tianhui, the former general manager of a subsidiary of bad debt management company Huarong Asset Management Co., was found to have accepted bribes equivalent to more than 1.1 billion yuan ($151.9 million) while using his managerial position to give others preferential treatment in “matters such as project acquisitions and corporate financing,” according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Huarong has been a focus of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign for years, and its former chairman Lai Xiaomin was executed in January 2021 for accepting $260 million in bribes.

Supporters say the anti-corruption campaign is conducive to clean governance, but critics say it also gives Xi Jinping the power to eliminate political opponents.

According to CCTV, the court sentenced Bai Yunshan to “death penalty, deprivation of political rights for life, and confiscation of all personal property.”

The court ruled that “Bai Tianhui’s bribery crime was of an extremely large amount, the circumstances of the crime were extremely serious, the social impact was extremely bad, and it caused extremely serious damage to the interests of the state and the people,” the radio station reported.

“Those who fail to perform their duties must be held accountable and severely punished,” China’s top leaders said at a Politburo meeting on Monday to discuss financial risks, Xinhua news agency reported.

In recent months, several figures in China’s financial and banking circles have become targets of anti-corruption authorities.

In April this year, Liu Lianget, who served as chairman of the Bank of China from 2019 to 2023, pleaded guilty to charges including “accepting bribes and illegally issuing loans.”

In the same month, Li Xiaopeng, former chairman of China’s state-owned banking giant Everbright Group, was investigated for “serious violations of law.”

China keeps death penalty statistics a state secret, although Amnesty International and other human rights groups believe thousands of people are executed each year.