Chinese financial firm’s former top official executed in $157 million corruption case

China on Tuesday (December 9, 2025) executed a former top official of a State-owned financial firm for accepting bribes totalling $157 million.

Bai Tianhui, former general manager of China Huarong International Holdings Limited, was executed after he was convicted for illegally accepting bribes, State-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

The execution was carried out by a court in north China’s Tianjin Municipality, following the approval of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC). The execution was rare as the death sentences were carried out in criminal cases, while officials involved in corruption cases were given reprieve.

Tianhui was sentenced to death, with political rights deprived for life, all of his personal property confiscated, and all his illegal gains recovered and turned over to the State Treasury, according to the verdict of the No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court of Tianjin in May 2024.

Tianhui appealed the sentences, but his appeal was rejected by the Higher People’s Court of Tianjin in February 2025. Reviewing the case, the SPC found that he had taken advantage of his various positions between 2014 and 2018 to assist others in matters such as project acquisitions and corporate financing, illegally accepting bribes totalling about $157 million, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The SPC held that the crimes committed by Tianhui were extremely serious in that the total amount of bribes was particularly huge and the circumstances especially severe, while these crimes have had an extremely adverse social impact and caused great damage to the interests of the State and the people. The SPC approved the ruling of the Higher People’s Court of Tianjin to uphold Tianhui’s death penalty during the first instance. He was allowed to meet his next of kin before the execution, the report said.

Since he came to power in 2012, Chinese President Xi Jinping has made the anti-corruption campaign the main plank of his governance. Official media accounts say over a million party officials, including two Defence Ministers and dozens of military officials, were punished and prosecuted in the campaign. State media has previously reported that Mr. Xi told anti-corruption officials at the meeting last year that China’s fight against corruption is “severe and complex” and that “no mercy” should be shown in eradicating the problem.