China's ex-securities regulator gets suspended death sentence for bribery

The Chengdu Intermediate People's Court on Tuesday sentenced former China Securities Regulatory Commission official Wang Huimin to death with a two-year reprieve for bribery. The court also stripped him of political rights for life and ordered the confiscation of personal assets after finding he accepted over $65 million in illicit payments between 1998 and 2025.

Details of conviction

The court in southwest China's Sichuan Province determined that Wang abused positions at the CSRC and within the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region administration to accumulate cash and property worth 436 million yuan, according to Xinhua. He served as head of a discipline inspection team dispatched by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Commission of Supervision, the country's top anti-graft body, the agency said.

Mitigating factors

In issuing the suspended sentence, judges cited Wang's confession, disclosure of previously unknown offenses, and expression of remorse as grounds for the reprieve. The court noted that some offenses remained attempted rather than completed, and that he had returned part of the illicit assets.

Sentence terms

Under Chinese law, the death sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment if Wang commits no further crimes during the two-year period. The ruling represents one of the most severe penalties handed down in Beijing's ongoing anti-corruption campaigns targeting financial sector regulators.