BEIJING: A Chinese court has handed a suspended death sentence to Teng Renjian, former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, after convicting him of accepting massive bribes over the span of nearly two decades.
As reported by Chinese state media, Changchun Intermediate People’s Court in Jilin province ruled that Teng took bribes worth $37.6 million (approximately 268 million yuan) in property and cash between 2007 and 2024 in the various important government posts he held.
The court declared that the sentence of death is put on hold for two years, a norm in Chinese laws, and pointed out that Teng had confessed to the crime.
Prior to serving as Agriculture Minister, Teng Renjian served as Governor of Gansu province between 2017 and 2020. In November 2024, he was expelled from the Communist Party, and six months afterward was officially investigated and ousted by the nation’s anti-graft watchdog.
Teng’s situation has been compared to high-profile probes of other senior officials, such as previous Defence Minister Li Shangfu and his predecessor Wei Fenghe, both of whom have also been questioned in President Xi Jinping’s expansive crackdown on corruption.
The sentence is another milestone in President Xi Jinping’s campaign to rid corruption from the political and security systems of the country. Xi has made a string of warnings that corruption poses the biggest threat to the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party and has pledged to establish a clean and open governance system.
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Investigation and trial in the case of Teng were exceptionally quick, a reflection of the zero-tolerance attitude of the Chinese leadership towards top-level corruption.
