Former Chinese Agric Minister gets death sentence with reprieve for bribery

China’s former Agriculture Minister, Tang Renjian has been sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for bribery, state-run news agency Xinhua reported on Sunday.

The Changchun Intermediate People’s Court in Jilin province found Tang guilty of accepting bribes worth more than 268 million yuan ($37.6 million) between 2007 and 2024.

According to the judgment, the bribes included both cash and property received during his various official postings.

The court said Tang confessed to his crimes and showed remorse, leading to his suspended death sentence.

“Given his cooperation and confession, the sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment after the reprieve, provided there are no further violations,” the court noted.

Tang’s downfall was unusually swift. He was placed under investigation in May 2024 and by November that year had been expelled from the Communist Party and dismissed from office.

His case came in the wake of similar probes into senior figures such as former defence ministers Li Shangfu and Wei Fenghe.

“Tang Renjian’s case underscores the seriousness of the anti-graft campaign,” Xinhua reported, adding that it reflects the Party’s resolve to purge corruption at the highest levels.

Tang served as governor of Gansu province from 2017 to 2020 before being appointed Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. He held the ministerial role until his removal last year.

President Xi Jinping has made anti-corruption a central theme of his leadership.

Since 2020, his administration has targeted officials across China’s domestic security apparatus, with Xi declaring that police, prosecutors and judges must be “absolutely loyal, absolutely pure and absolutely reliable.”

In January this year, Xi warned that corruption remains “the biggest threat to the Communist Party” and insisted the fight against graft would continue.

“The rise of corruption poses a fundamental danger to the survival and legitimacy of the Party,” he said.

For many analysts, Tang’s conviction highlights Xi’s zero-tolerance campaign against corruption.