China executed Bai Tianhui, a former senior banker at state-controlled China Huarong International Holdings, on December 9, 2025, for accepting more than 1.1 billion yuan ($155 million) in bribes—making him the second Huarong executive to face the death penalty for corruption in President Xi Jinping’s sweeping anti-graft campaign.
The Execution
Bai Tianhui was executed on Tuesday morning in Tianjin after meeting with close relatives, state broadcaster CCTV reported. The Supreme People’s Court approved the sentence after determining that Bai’s crimes were “extremely serious”and caused “exceptionally significant losses” to state and public interests.
The execution is rare for a corruption case. Death sentences for graft in China are typically issued with a two-year reprieve and commuted to life in prison. But Bai’s sentence, first handed down in May 2024 by the Tianjin Intermediate People’s Court, carried no suspension.
Bai appealed the conviction, but the verdict was upheld in February 2025.
The Crimes
Between 2014 and 2018, Bai accepted bribes totaling more than 1.1 billion yuan while serving as general manager of China Huarong International Holdings (CHIH). He offered favorable treatment in the acquisition and financing of projects in exchange for the payments.
The Supreme People’s Court stated that Bai “accepted bribes of an exceptionally large amount, the circumstances of his crimes were exceptionally serious, the social impact was especially egregious, and the interests of the state and the people suffered exceptionally significant losses.”
China Huarong’s Corruption Crisis
CHIH is a subsidiary of China Huarong Asset Management, one of the country’s largest state-controlled asset management funds focusing on bad-debt management. The offshore unit Bai ran was taken over by Citic Group and renamed China Citic Financial Asset Management in January 2024.
Huarong has been a major target of Xi Jinping’s years-long anti-corruption crackdown. Bai is the second senior Huarong executive to be executed for corruption.
In January 2021, Lai Xiaomin, the former chairman of China Huarong Asset Management and Bai’s former boss, was executed for receiving bribes worth $253 million. Lai was the first official to receive the death penalty for corruption since 2011, when two former deputy mayors of Hangzhou and Suzhou were executed.
Several other Huarong executives have also been ensnared in anti-corruption investigations.
Xi’s Financial Sector Purge
Bai’s execution comes amid an intensifying crackdown on China’s financial sector that has swept up some of the country’s most powerful banking and regulatory figures.
Recent high-profile cases include:
- Liu Liange, former chairman of Bank of China, sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in November 2024 for accepting bribes totaling 121 million yuan ($17 million)
- Yi Huiman, former chief of China’s top securities regulator, placed under investigation for corruption in September 2025
- Li Xiaopeng, former head of state-owned Everbright Group, sentenced to 15 years in prison in March 2025 for taking 60 million yuan in bribes
Strategic Implications
The decision to carry out Bai’s execution—rather than commute it to life imprisonment—sends a stark message about Beijing’s intolerance for elite corruption in state financial institutions.
Supporters say the anti-corruption campaign promotes clean governance and accountability in institutions managing trillions in state assets. Critics say it also provides Xi with the power to purge political rivals.
China classifies death penalty statistics as a state secret, though Amnesty International and other rights groups believe thousands of people are executed in the country each year.
Bottom Line
The execution of Bai Tianhui marks an escalation in Xi Jinping’s decade-long anti-corruption drive. By following through with capital punishment for a senior state banker—rather than the typical commutation to life in prison—Beijing signals that even elite figures at the apex of China’s financial system face the ultimate penalty for graft.
The fact that two senior Huarong executives have now been executed suggests the firm became a focal point of systemic corruption during China’s credit expansion era. With the crackdown continuing to target major financial institutions and regulators, the message to China’s banking elite is clear: the era of impunity is over.
