An Intermediate People’s Court in Changchun, China, has served suspended death sentences to multiple top Chinese officials. Among them are Sun Lijun, the former deputy minister of Public Security, and Fu Zhenghua, the former justice minister. 

In June 2022, Sun had pleaded guilty to accepting bribes worth $100 million in his almost two-decade-long career as an official since he was appointed the foreign liaison officer of the Shanghai Municipal Health Bureau in 2003. Zhenghua was also facing trial after admitting to corruption charges, SCMP reported. 

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The Intermediate People’s Court in Changchun served both Sun and  Zhenghua suspended death sentences with no parole. After two years, it could be revised to life in prison. 

Sun and Zhengua, along with Wang Like, the chief of political and legal affairs in China’s eastern Jiangsu province, were accused of “endangering political security” by forming a clique against president Xi Jinping, according to state media CCTV.

Their sentencing came as part of a series of political purges in China ahead of the upcoming Congress of the Chinese Communist Party starting on October 16, 2022.

Before the top officials were arrested, CCTV reported that three former regional police chiefs were also jailed by the Chinese authorities over corruption charges.

According to SCMP, Sun had admitted to forming a political clique with senior police officials in a documentary co-produced by Central Commission for Discipline Inspection- China’s top anti-corruption watchdog, along with CCTV. He also admitted to taking bribes and gifts in exchange for favors in the documentary.

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Sun was expelled from the Chinese Communist Party in September last year. The CCDI accused him of harbouring “hugely inflated political ambitions” that could cause “extreme danger” to the party, according to SCMP.  The CCDI said that Sun never had “real faith or ideals”.

President XI Jinping has taken a strong stand on corruption, and with a series of arrests preceding the upcoming party congress, corruption will most likely be one of the top agendas for the Chinese Communist party.