China on Tuesday executed Bai Tianhui, a former government at a significant state-owned asset administration firm, for accepting bribes value US$156 million (₹1,300 crore) between 2014 and 2018.
Former Huarong Worldwide Government Put to Dying
In response to state broadcaster CCTV, Bai Tianhui, former common supervisor of China Huarong Worldwide Holdings (CHIH), was executed on Tuesday morning in Tianjin after being convicted of large-scale corruption.
The court docket discovered Bai responsible of accepting US$156 million in bribes in change for granting favorable therapy in venture acquisitions and financing throughout his tenure from 2014 to 2018.
CHIH is a subsidiary of China Huarong Asset Administration, one of many nation’s largest state-controlled corporations specializing in bad-debt administration.
Courtroom Calls Crimes “Extraordinarily Severe”
Bai’s dying sentence was initially handed down in Could 2024 by the Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate Individuals’s Courtroom. In China, dying sentences for corruption are sometimes issued with a two-year reprieve, after which they could be commuted to life imprisonment. Nonetheless, Bai’s sentence was not suspended.
He appealed the ruling, however the verdict was upheld in February 2025. The Supreme Individuals’s Courtroom (SPC) later confirmed the execution, stating that Bai’s actions had triggered “extraordinarily severe hurt.”
“The quantity of bribes accepted was exceptionally massive, the circumstances of his crimes have been extraordinarily extreme, and the social affect was egregious,” the SPC mentioned in a press release quoted by CCTV. “The pursuits of the state and the folks suffered exceptionally important losses.”
A part of Xi Jinping’s Increasing Anti-Corruption Drive
Bai’s execution marks the most recent transfer in President Xi Jinping’s sweeping anti-corruption marketing campaign, which has focused China’s highly effective monetary and state-owned sectors.
China Huarong Group has been central to a number of of those probes. In 2021, its former chairman Lai Xiaomin was executed for accepting bribes value US$253 million, one of many largest graft instances in China’s historical past.
Latest instances embody:
- Yi Huiman, former head of China’s prime securities regulator, positioned below investigation in September 2025.
- Li Xiaopeng, ex-chairman of the state-owned Everbright Group, sentenced to fifteen years in jail in March 2025 for taking bribes of 60 million yuan.
- Liu Liange, former Financial institution of China chairman, sentenced to dying with a two-year reprieve in November 2024 for accepting bribes value 121 million yuan.
Remaining Assembly Earlier than Execution
CCTV reported that Bai met with shut kinfolk earlier than his execution in Tianjin. The report didn’t disclose the tactic of execution.
China treats all dying penalty statistics as state secrets and techniques, however Amnesty Worldwide and different human rights teams estimate that hundreds of executions happen within the nation every year.
Critics Name It a Political Software
Whereas supporters argue that Xi’s marketing campaign promotes clear governance and public belief, critics contend that the anti-graft drive additionally serves as a political weapon to consolidate energy and remove rivals.
Regardless of such criticism, Beijing maintains that strict enforcement in opposition to corruption—notably in monetary establishments—is crucial to safeguard financial stability and public confidence.
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