BEIJING – Former Chinese Sports Minister Gou Zhongwen was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for corruption and abuse of power. The death sentence was handed down by a court in Jiangsu Province on Monday.
Citing a report from China Daily, Tuesday (December 9, 2025), the Yancheng Intermediate People’s Court ruled that Gou accepted bribes totaling more than 236 million yuan (more than Rp556 billion) between 2009 and 2024, or over a 15-year period.
According to the verdict, he used his various positions during those years to seek benefits for departments and individuals in business operations and project approvals.
Gou (68) was also stripped of his political rights for life, and all his personal assets were confiscated by the state.
Separately, the court sentenced Gou to five years in prison for abuse of power. It stated that from 2012 to 2013, while serving as Beijing’s deputy mayor, he abused his authority in the acquisition of related projects, resulting in significant losses to public assets and harming state and public interests.
The court combined the sentences for both crimes and sentenced him to a suspended death sentence, ordering all illicit profits and related interest to be transferred to the state treasury. It stated that Gou’s crimes warranted the death penalty because the bribes were “extremely large,” the circumstances were “extremely serious,” the social impact was “extremely negative,” and the harm to state and public interests was “very significant.”
However, the court said they considered the sentence leniency because Gou confessed, revealed bribes unknown to investigators, returned his ill-gotten gains, and made a failed bribery attempt. In China, a suspended death sentence is usually commuted to life imprisonment if no new crimes are committed during a two-year probationary period, and the life sentence can later be reduced for good behavior.
However, the court ruled that Gou would not be eligible for further sentence reductions or parole due to the severity of his offense and its social impact—meaning he would spend the rest of his life in prison if his sentence was commuted. A native of Gansu province, Gou began working in 1974 and joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1976.
He became vice mayor of Beijing in 2008 and served as head of the General Administration of Sport—equivalent to a minister—from 2016 to July 2022. During that period, he also served as executive chairman of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games Organizing Committee and chairman of the Chinese Olympic Committee.
He later served on the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference as vice chairman of the Committee for Ethnic and Religious Affairs. Gou was investigated in May 2024 before being expelled from the party and removed from public office. He was indicted this year on charges of bribery and abuse of power. The court held a public hearing on August 20.
