Former Chinese senior banker executed for taking US$155 million in bribes

You have to really fuck up to actually get executed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_sentence_with_reprieve

Death sentence with reprieve […] is a criminal punishment found in chapter 5 (death penalty), sections 48, 50 and 51 of the criminal law of the People's Republic of China. It is a two-year suspended sentence where the execution is only carried out if the convicted commits further crimes during the suspension period. After the period the sentence is automatically reduced to life imprisonment, or to a fixed-term based on meritorious behavior. The reprieve is integrated into the sentence, unlike a pardon which occurs after the sentence.

Chinese courts hand down this form of sentencing more often than actual death sentences. The sentence emphasizes the severity of the crime and the mercy of the court, and comes from traditional Chinese jurisprudence. According to researchers, the post-2007 death penalty reforms resulted in a larger proportion of death sentences becoming suspended.

Based on the 2024 sentencing of Yang Hengjun to death with reprieve for espionage charges, Ryan Mitchell, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong, stated that death with reprieve was used in recent years to reduce the rate of executions without abolishing capital punishment. He also stated that such sentences were typically reserved for serious crimes with potentially serious social consequences, and that they were rarely commuted to fixed-term imprisonment.

executive executed 💯

More evidence of the DotP in place, as this isn't an isolated incident.