Military targets 16 officials for graft as Xi widens probe

China’s military announced the names of 16 senior officials who were put under investigation for graft, including the deputy head of its nuclear forces, signaling President Xi Jinping is widening his probe of corruption in the armed forces.
All of the officials to be snared were generals of various ranks, with the People’s Liberation Army taking the unusual step of releasing their names in a public statement on its official website.
“This is the first time in the PLA’s history it has announced more than a dozen senior officer’s corruption cases in a single public statement,” said Yue Gang, a retired PLA colonel. “It shows military corruption is in such a critical condition that Xi has to make those cases public to seek the support of the people.”
Xi has warned that corruption is a threat to the survival of the Communist Party, which has ruled the country for 65 years, and his anti-graft campaign has already snared 100,000 officials of various levels. Xi has warned that corruption also threatens combat readiness, and the anti-graft effort is increasingly focusing on the military.
“If you want a military that is up to the standards of the great power that China aspires to be, you need to have a credible, reliable, military force,” said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, director of government and international studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. “If the top level is just interested in making money and trading promotions the system is going to be completely rotten.”
Among the names revealed for the first time yesterday were Yu Daqing, deputy political commissar of the Second Artillery Corps, China’s nuclear forces and Liu Zheng, the deputy head of the PLA’s Logistics Department.
Also targeted are Fan Changmi, deputy political commissar of Lanzhou Military Region; Fu Linguo, vice chief-of-staff of the logistics department; and Zhang Daixin, vice commander-in-chief of the Heilongjiang Provincial Military Command, according to a statement.
Yesterday’s announcement comes after Xu Caihou, a former vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, the highest military body, was expelled from the party last June. That marked the highest-level military graft probe since 1949. His case has been handed over to military prosecutors. Bloomberg