China executes official involved in country's largest corruption case

Beijing: China on Tuesday executed Li Jianping, a former official in the north Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, who was convicted in the largest-ever corruption case in the country totalling to over $421 million.

The death sentence of Li, former secretary of the ruling Communist Party working committee of the Hohhot Economic and Technological Development Zone, was initially issued in September 2022 and upheld on appeal in August 2024.

Tuesday's execution followed the approval of the Supreme People's Court and was carried out by a court in Inner Mongolia, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Li, 64 was found guilty by an intermediate court earlier of embezzling a staggering three billion yuan (over $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 over 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 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.

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.

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