China executes former senior banker for taking $156 mn bribes

BEIJING: China executed a former executive of a top state-controlled asset management firm for corruption on Tuesday, state media reported.

Bai Tianhui, the ex-general manager of China Huarong International Holdings (CHIH), was found guilty of accepting more than $156 million while offering favourable treatment in the acquisition and financing of projects between 2014 and 2018, state broadcaster CCTV said.

CHIH is a subsidiary of China Huarong Asset Management, which focuses on bad-debt management as one of the country’s largest asset management funds.

Huarong has been a major target of President Xi Jinping’s years-long graft crackdown, with its former chairman Lai Xiaomin executed in January 2021 for receiving bribes worth $253 million.

Several other Huarong executives have also been snared in anti-corruption investigations.

Death sentences for corruption in China are often issued with a two-year reprieve and then commuted to life in prison.

But Bai’s sentence, first handed down in May 2024 by a court in the northern city of Tianjin, was not suspended.

He appealed against his conviction, but the original verdict was upheld in February.

The Supreme People’s Court, China’s highest court, confirmed the decision after review, stating that Bai’s crimes were “extremely serious”, CCTV reported.

“(Bai) accepted bribes of an exceptionally large amount, the circumstances of his crimes were exceptionally serious, the social impact was especially egregious, and the interests of the state and the people suffered exceptionally significant losses”, CCTV quoted the SPC as saying.

Bai was put to death in Tianjin on Tuesday morning after meeting with close relatives, the broadcaster said, without specifying how he was executed.

China classifies death penalty statistics as a state secret, though Amnesty and other rights groups believe thousands of people are executed in the country every year.

Bai is the latest high-ranking figure to face punishment in a long-running crackdown on corruption in China’s finance industry.

Yi Huiman, former chief of China’s top securities regulator, was placed under investigation for corruption in September.

In March, Li Xiaopeng, the former head of state-owned banking giant Everbright Group, received 15 years in prison for taking bribes worth 60 million yuan.

Liu Liange, former chairman of the Bank of China, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in November 2024 for accepting bribes totalling 121 million yuan.

Supporters say the anti-corruption campaign promotes clean governance, but critics say it also provides Xi with the power to purge political rivals.