Ex top Chinese General sentenced to life imprisonment

A former top Chinese general has been sentenced to life imprisonment for corruption, Chinese state media reported on Wednesday.

Fang Fenghui, former chief of joint staff of the People’s Liberation Army, was convicted of giving and receiving bribes and obtaining huge sums of money of unknown origin, state-run news agency Xinhua reported, citing a military court.

All of Fang’s assets were confiscated, the report said.

China's military, which is the world's largest and is in the midst of a modernization campaign, has been an important focus of President Xi Jinping's battle to stamp out corruption.

The senior general, Fang, who had accompanied President Xi Jinping to his first meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in 2017, was replaced as chief of the Joint Staff Department of the People's Liberation Army later that year with no explanation.

The government later confirmed he was being investigated on suspicion of corruption.

Fang was subsequently replaced as a member of the Central Military Commission, headed by Xi and which controls the armed forces, at a five-yearly Communist Party congress in October 2017, as part of a sweeping military leadership reshuffle.

Xinhua said a court-martial had found Fang guilty of bribery and having huge wealth that he had been unable to account for.

Dozens of officers have been investigated and jailed, including Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong, both former vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission. Guo was jailed for life in 2017. Xu died of cancer in 2015 before he could face trial.

Zhang Yang, who served on the commission alongside Fang, committed suicide in November 2017 while being investigated for corruption and over his links to Guo and Xu.