Bai Tianhui, Ex-General Manager, Convicted of 1.1 Billion Yuan Bribery, Sentenced to Death

Chinese authorities executed former senior banker Bai Tianhui on Tuesday after the Supreme People’s Court upheld his death sentence for accepting more than 1.1 billion yuan ($155 million) in bribes, marking one of the largest single-person corruption cases in the country’s financial sector.

Bai, the former general manager of China Huarong International Holdings—the offshore arm of state-owned China Huarong Asset Management—was convicted in May 2024 by the Tianjin Second Intermediate People’s Court. The court ruled that the “extremely large” amount of bribes, combined with the “particularly serious” circumstances and “severe social impact”, warranted the death penalty with no reprieve. All of Bai’s personal property was confiscated.

Prosecutors established that Bai abused his position to help companies and individuals secure financing, project cooperation, and job promotions in exchange for massive payoffs. The court stated that his actions “seriously harmed the interests of the state and the people” and undermined the integrity of China’s financial system.

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The execution is the second high-profile death sentence in recent years at China Huarong, following the 2021 execution of Bai’s former boss, ex-chairman Lai Xiaomin, who was found guilty of taking $277 million in bribes and bigamy. The offshore unit Bai once led was taken over by Citic Group last year and renamed China Citic Financial Asset Management.

Bai was detained in 2022 as part of President Xi Jinping’s long-running anti-corruption campaign, which has this year alone seen 54 senior bankers, regulators, and financial executives investigated or punished. While death sentences for non-violent economic crimes remain rare, authorities have signalled zero tolerance for corruption in strategic state-owned enterprises, especially in the finance sector.

The Supreme People’s Court confirmed the evidence was “clear, conclusive, and sufficient” and the punishment “appropriate”. Bai was permitted to meet close relatives before the execution, which was carried out by lethal injection—the standard method in China since 1996.

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