Former Chinese Minister of Agriculture Tang Renjian has been sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for taking bribes, a court in Jilin Province announced today.
According to state news agency Xinhua, Tang accepted cash and property worth more than 268 million yuan (USD 37.6 million) between 2007 and 2024 while holding various official posts.
The court granted a suspended death sentence, noting that Tang confessed to his crimes.
Tang was expelled from the Chinese Communist Party in November 2024, six months after the country’s top anti-corruption body placed him under investigation. He was subsequently dismissed from office.
This ruling comes amid President Xi Jinping’s sweeping anti-corruption campaign, which began in 2020 with the goal of ensuring that China’s police, prosecutors, and judiciary remain “absolutely loyal, absolutely clean, and absolutely reliable.”
Before becoming Agriculture Minister, Tang served as governor of Gansu Province from 2017 to 2020.
In January, Xi warned that corruption remains the greatest threat to the Communist Party of China, emphasizing that it continues to grow despite ongoing crackdowns.
