China has executed a former top executive of a major state-owned financial company for corruption, according to state media reports on Tuesday. Bai Tianhui, the former general manager of China Huarong International Holdings, was found guilty of taking bribes worth more than $156 million between 2014 and 2018. In return, he gave special favours in project approvals and funding, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported.
China Huarong International Holdings is a unit of a large government-backed company that mainly manages bad loans and distressed assets. The group has been under the scanner for several years as part of China’s massive anti-corruption drive.
Earlier, the former chairman of the parent company was also executed in January 2021 for accepting bribes worth $253 million, making it one of the biggest corruption cases in China’s financial sector.
Bai was first sentenced to death by a court in Tianjin in May 2024. He later filed an appeal, but the verdict was upheld in February this year. China’s top court, the Supreme People’s Court, reviewed the case and cleared the execution, calling his crimes “extremely serious” with a huge negative impact on society.
CCTV said Bai was executed in Tianjin on Tuesday morning after being allowed to meet his close relatives. However, the exact method of execution was not disclosed. In China, death sentences in corruption cases are often given with a two-year suspension, which is later changed to life imprisonment. But Bai did not receive this relief.
China does not share official execution numbers, calling them a state secret. But human rights groups believe thousands of executions take place in the country every year.
This case is part of a wider crackdown on corruption in China’s financial system under President Xi Jinping. Tianhui is the latest high-ranking figure to face punishment in the running Chinese era in the country’s finance industry. In March, Li Xiaopeng, the former head of state-owned banking giant Everbright Group, received 15 years in prison for taking bribes worth 60 million yuan. Liu Liange, former chairman of the Bank of China, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in November 2024 for accepting bribes totalling 121 million yuan.
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