Lai Xiaomin, former chairman of China Huarong Asset Management Co., the country’s largest such firm, was executed by a court in Tianjin city on Jan. 29. The firm was founded in Beijing on Nov. 8, 1999. Since September 2012, Lai also served as the company’s Chinese Communist Party chief. Lai was first placed under investigation by China’s anti-corruption watchdog in April 2018.  On Jan. 5, 2021, he was sentenced to death without reprieve by the Tianjin intermediate court, on charges of bribery, embezzlement, and bigamy. The court noted that most of the activity in question took place after the 18th Party congress in late 2012, when Xi came to power. Xi would soon launch a sweeping anti-corruption campaign that has purged many of his political rivals. Lai was purged amid reshuffling within the central government’s finance-related agencies, a hint that authorities would target corruption in the finance sector. Lai appealed …