Yang Fan and Ho Shan
Asia Times
March 3, 2015
The ruling Chinese Communist Party is investigating 14 generals for corruption as a nationwide anti-graft campaign widens to encompass the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), official media reported on Monday.
Among those under investigation is navy Rear Adm. Guo Zhenggang, son of a former vice-chairman of the party’s Central Military Commission (CMC), which commands the armed forces headed by President Xi Jinping, the country’s defense ministry said in a statement.
In a brief statement on its website, the ministry said Guo, the 45-year-old son of former CMC vice chairman Guo Boxiong, is suspected of “violating the law,” a phrase that is often used to refer to corruption.
Leading officers at provincial level in the PLA’s navy and in the missile corps and the National Defense University were also named in the “list of tigers,” inspired by President Xi’s launch of a campaign targeting graft among high-ranking “tigers” and low-ranking “flies” alike.
In a commentary published separately on the same website, the official Xinhua news agency wrote: “We must act masterfully if we are to build the political will needed to reduce corruption and to curb its growth, to purge us of this disease.”
“Neither tigers nor flies should have anywhere left to hide,” the article said. “Only the cleansing wind of severe punishment can restore social order.”
The announcement came after the CMC’s former second-in-command Xu Caihou was indicted last year on bribery charges, signaling a political shift in a campaign that had previously been limited to civilian targets.
Former journalist Xu Xiang, who has reported on corruption in the PLA, and who has been following the campaign closely, said Guo Zhenggang’s investigation suggests that Guo Boxiong is also likely to be implicated.
“If his own son has become a target of the anti-corruption campaign, then Guo Boxiong can’t stay out of this for much longer,” Xu said.
Former control weakened
The news followed months of speculation surrounding the Guo family, and Xu said it wasn’t unexpected, as Xi seeks to consolidate power of his own, loosening the behind-the-scenes influence of former president Jiang Zemin.
“The PLA has always been under the control of Jiang Zemin, and nobody has been able to mess with it,” Xu said. “Since Xi Jinping took office, the alternative to the anti-corruption campaign would be to take orders from Jiang behind the scenes.”
Xu said corruption is so deep-rooted in the PLA that it will be hard to eradicate.
“It’s extremely serious, because the network of vested interests forms a long chain, so that grassroots level troops bribe the middle-ranking commanders in exchange for benefits, and then the middle-ranking commanders use that money as a tribute to even higher-ranking officials,” he said.
Veteran political affairs commentator Antonio Chiang said Guo’s investigation could be a tactical move in a behind-the-scenes political game of smoke and mirrors.
“It’s likely to be a smokescreen, and they probably won’t even open a case against him,” Chiang told RFA. “Both factional politics and military corruption have got so bad that no other country can match it anywhere else in the world, nor at any other time in history,” he said.
Long-standing problem
Retired former Shandong University professor Sun Wenguang said the problem is a long-standing one for China’s military.
“It’s said that a lot of soldiers pay bribes to get an officer’s commission,” Sun said. “If a regular soldier wants to command a platoon, he has to pay for it. The problem of military corruption is definitely the worst it has ever been in history.”
But he said an anti-corruption campaign like Xi’s likely won’t solve the endemic problem.
“The system of oversight is weak, so that it’s hard to say if a lot more cases won’t emerge once this campaign is over, because they haven’t been properly eradicated,” Sun said.
The PLA was banned from engaging in business activities during the 1990s, but has gradually begun to ignore the ban in recent years.
While China hasn’t fought a war in many years, concerns are growing over its growing military assertiveness in the region, especially over disputed areas in the East and South China Seas. Critics have said corruption in the PLA could seriously affect its military capabilities.
