China Gives Former Governor Suspended Death Sentence in Bribery Case

Beijing: The former governor of a northern Chinese province was handed a suspended death sentence on Tuesday for accepting bribes worth millions of dollars.

Jin Xiangjun, 62, is the latest to be swept up in President Xi Jinping's wide-reaching anti-corruption campaign, which has brought down huge numbers of high-ranking officials.

Jin, the ex-governor of Shanxi, took advantage of various government positions from 2004 to 2025 to accept bribes totalling more than 148 million yuan ($22 million) for promotions and contracts, the court in central Henan province said.

Jin's actions involved "an especially large amount and caused particularly large losses" to the country and other citizens, the court added in its statement shared on social media.

He was thus sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve -- a punishment that is typically commuted to life imprisonment after two years if no further crimes are unearthed.

Jin was also denied political rights for life.

Images released by the court showed a pale and spectacled Jin, wearing dark colours, standing unsmiling before a panel of judges and flanked by police officers.

The court said it held a public hearing in June during which Jin "expressed guilt and remorse", and this confession -- plus his voluntary disclosure of various details -- were the reason it had decided not to carry out the death sentence immediately.

The funds and property illegally obtained by Jin have been partially recovered, it added.