China executes former senior banker for taking $156m bribes

China executed a former executive of a top state-controlled asset management firm for corruption on Tuesday, state media reported. Bai Tianhui, the ex-general manager of China Huarong International Holdings (CHIH), was found guilty of accepting more than $156 million while offering favourable treatment in the acquisition and financing of projects between 2014 and 2018, state broadcaster CCTV said. CHIH is a subsidiary of China Huarong Asset Management, which focuses on bad-debt management as one of the country's largest asset management funds.

Huarong has been a major target of President Xi Jinping's years-long graft crackdown, with its former chairman Lai Xiaomin executed in January 2021 for receiving bribes worth $253 million. Several other Huarong executives have also been snared in anti-corruption investigations. Death sentences for corruption in China are often issued with a two-year reprieve and then commuted to life in prison. But Bai's sentence, first handed down in May 2024 by a court in the northern city of Tianjin, was not suspended.The Supreme People's Court, China's highest court, confirmed the decision after review, stating that Bai's crimes were "extremely serious", CCTV reported.