Chinese President Xi Jinping, during an “inspection” he carried out in November 2024 at the Institute for Industrial and Development Innovation in Wuhan, where he met with researchers and leaders of the China business environment, photo: Xie Huanchi / Xinhua News / Profimedia Images
A Chinese Court on Wednesday pronounced a death sentence for suspension for Zhao Weigoo, former president of the Tsinghua Unigroup semiconductor company, after being found guilty of corruption and misappropriation, reported the public CCTV television station, quoted by Reuters.
The court of Jilin province, located in northeastern China, sentenced Zhao to death with a term of two years. After two years, the punishment will be switched to life imprisonment.
The court also fined it with a total amount of 12 million yuans ($ 1.67 million) because it illegally obtained profits for the benefit of its family and friends and has harmed the interests of a company listed.
Reuters failed to contact Zhao for a point of view. He was first accused of corruption in 2023.
Tsinghua Unigroup, created as a branch of the prestigious Tsinghua University in China, was established in 1988 as a potential national champion of the Chinese semiconductor industry, which is significantly after the West at that time.
However, under the leadership of Zhao, the company spent billions on semiconductor purchases, but also on business unrelated to the field and which have proven to be unprofitable-from real estate to online gambling. They finally led to the inability to pay several bonds, at the end of 2020, and at the bankruptcy of the company.
In 2022, Tsinghua Unigroup completed a restructuring plan that placed it under the control of an investment fund administered by Wise Road Capital, Jianguang Asset Management and Chinese financial entities.
What does death sentence mean with suspension
The sentence to death with suspension is a unique provision of the Criminal Code of China, which means that the execution of the sentence is postponed for a period of two years.
If the defendant is found guilty and other offenses in the respective time, the punishment is implemented. Otherwise, it is automatically switched to life imprisonment.
The courts in China often pronounce this type of sentence compared to the convictions to direct death, being used to emphasize the seriousness of the crimes imputed to a convicted, but also the “clarity” of the Court.
But in recent years the number of sentences in this category has multiplied, against the background of the anti -corruption campaign ordered by President XI Jinping.
China sentenced to death with suspension of former Citic Bank president
In November 2023, a court in the province of Shandong pronounced the death sentence in the case of Sun Deshun, the former president of the Chinese Bank Citic Bank.
The court noted in the decision given on Friday that Sun took advantage of his position as vice -president and then president of several banks in China to intermediate illegal loans and other forms of help in which he accepted properties whose total value amounts to 979,500,000 yui, the equivalent of about 134 million.
A year before, Zhenghua, former Chinese Minister of Justice and a high official police, was sentenced to death with suspension for corruption.
The court established that the 67 -year -old at the time of the conviction, he “used” from 2005 to 2021 by his various functions to “help” persons and companies to bypass the law in exchange for a fee.
