The Wei and Li death sentences are a big deal for a number of reasons.

-China very rarely sentences generals to death. The is first instance under Xi.

-They are the first known cases of Chinese MinDefs receiving death sentences (with reprieve)

-The last case death sentence of a PLA General was former LTGEN Gu Junshan (谷俊山), who received a suspended death sentence in August 2015 for corruption-related crimes.

-The only cases of CMC members being sentenced are previous CMC VC's Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou. Guo received life imprisonment in 2016, not a suspended death sentence. And Xu died of cancer in 2015 before trial proceedings concluded.

-The closest comparison of this magnitude was in the wake of the Lin Biao purge in the 1970s. Huang Yongsheng reportedly received a death sentence with reprieve during “Lin Biao clique,” purge by Mao, later commuted. and Wu Faxian, also reportedly sentenced to death with reprieve after the Lin Biao affair, later commuted.