Former Chinese chip boss gets suspended death sentence in corruption case
Summary
Zhao Weiguo is the former chairman of a once-highflying semiconductor firm that Beijing backed as part of a push to catch up with the West on technological capabilities.
China convicted the former chairman of a once-highflying computer-chip conglomerate on corruption charges and gave him a de facto life sentence, concluding a high-profile case that had shaken the country’s semiconductor industry.
The verdict against Zhao Weiguo, former chairman of government-supported Tsinghua Unigroup, came more than two years after Chinese authorities first announced a corruption probe against him.
Zhao stepped down as chairman in 2022, around the same time when Chinese media outlet Caixin reported that he had been taken away by Chinese authorities for investigation.
Prosecutors accused Zhao of abusing his power to provide benefits to relatives and friends, as well as illegally acquiring state assets valued in 2023 at more than 470 million yuan, equivalent today to $65 million. He was also charged with arranging improper transactions that incurred losses for a listed company and resulted in more than 890 million yuan in economic losses for the state, equivalent today to $124 million.
On Wednesday, more than 19 months after Zhao stood trial in September 2023, the Intermediate People’s Court in the northeastern city of Jilin sentenced the former executive to death with a two-year reprieve, according to state broadcaster China Central Television.
Such penalties are typically commuted to life imprisonment.
The court said that Zhao’s corrupt activities involved sums that were “extremely huge, and caused especially severe losses to state interests," according to CCTV. The broadcaster said Zhao admitted guilt, expressed remorse and actively tried to return his illicit gains—qualifying him for a degree of leniency.
Zhao couldn’t be reached for comment. Tsinghua Unigroup didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Tsinghua Unigroup was once hailed as one of China’s chip-making champions, with subsidiaries that produced chips for computers and mobile devices as well as cloud-computing infrastructure.
Zhao, who first joined the company in the 1990s, helped build Tsinghua Unigroup into a major player in semiconductors through an aggressive series of acquisitions—part of a government program to catch up with the West in chip-making capabilities.
To fund its chip expansions, Tsinghua Unigroup relied heavily on government support. Under Zhao, the company also invested in other sectors such as finance, education and media. Zhao stepped down as chairman in 2022.
In recent years, Tsinghua Unigroup has undergone a series of bankruptcy reorganizations after defaulting on billions of dollars in bonds. In 2022, the company completed a restructuring process that officially replaced its two former owners—China’s elite Tsinghua University and a holding entity owned by Zhao—with a consortium led by two state-backed semiconductor venture-capital firms.
The case against Zhao, first announced in early 2023, was among a series of corruption probes that snared leading figures in China’s semiconductor industry at the time, following years of aggressive investments that sometimes failed or stalled.
Write to Chun Han Wong at chunhan.wong@wsj.com
