China executes ex-official in record $421M corruption case

China on Tuesday, December 17, 2024, executed Li Jianping, a former official in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, who was convicted in the country’s largest-ever corruption case involving more than $421 million.

Li Jianping, who previously served as secretary of the ruling Communist Party’s working committee in the Hohhot Economic and Technological Development Zone, was sentenced to death in September 2022.

His appeal was dismissed in August 2024, with the sentence upheld.

The execution, carried out in Inner Mongolia, followed approval from the Supreme People’s Court, according to state-run Xinhua News Agency.

This marks a significant move in China’s ongoing crackdown on corruption, which has been a top priority under President Xi Jinping’s administration.

“Li (64) was found guilty by an intermediate court earlier of embezzling a staggering three billion yuan (more than $421 million) in illegal gains the largest sum involved in a single corruption case in China’s history,” according to earlier reports in the Chinese official media.

Since he came to power in 2012, Chinese President Xi Jinping made the anti-corruption campaign the main plank of his governance model.

Official media accounts say that more than a million party officials, including two Defence Ministers and dozens of military officials, were punished and prosecuted in the campaign.

In his speech delivered at the plenary session of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) in January this year, contents of which were released for the first time on Sunday (December 15, 2024) by party theoretical magazine Qiushi, 71-year-old Xi has called on cadres to confront corruption head-on so that interest groups cannot prey on the ruling Communist Party.

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Mr. Xi said all party members must deeply promote the party’s self-revolution referring mainly to the fight against corruption. Significantly, the number of high-ranking officials undergoing punishments for corruption is on the increase despite the relentless campaign.

Last year, the CCDI announced that it had launched investigations into a record number of 45 “tigers” or high-ranking cadres, but this year the total has already reached 54, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Monday (December 16, 2024.)

Mr. Xi’s anti-graft campaign in the military has drawn global attention, which his critics say enabled him to consolidate his hold on power.