A former vice president of a prominent defense company in China has been sentenced to a two-year suspended death sentence for bribery involving an amount in the hundreds of millions of won.
According to China Central Television (CCTV) and Reuters on the 21st, the Intermediate People's Court of Zhangjiakou City in Hebei Province has sentenced He Wenzhong, a former deputy general manager (vice president) of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC), to a two-year suspended death sentence for bribery.
He was also permanently deprived of political rights and ordered to forfeit all his property. In China, a suspended death sentence typically reduces to life imprisonment if no additional offenses are committed within two years.
He was indicted on suspicion of accepting bribes and rebates valued at 289 million yuan (approximately 559 million won) during his tenure at CETC, a state-owned defense enterprise directly under the jurisdiction of the central government of China from 2006 to 2023.
He is accused of providing business convenience, such as product delivery and payment arrangements to corporations and individuals while holding various positions, including deputy director and director of a research institute and chief engineer at CETC, and accepting bribes.
Founded in 2002, CETC develops a variety of technologies in the fields of defense, telecommunications, artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, and information technology (IT) and electronics.
The fact that he became the subject of an anti-corruption investigation was revealed through the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China in April.