Rapid News Network
Jake Carter
August 12, 2015
Gu Junshan was also stripped of his rank of lieutenant general, the official Xinhua news agency reported, but there is little chance he will be executed as the suspended penalty is nearly always converted into a life sentence after two years.
Gu’s sentence came with a two-year reprieve; suspended death sentences in China are typically commuted to life if no further charges are brought after that period.
Several reports last year claimed that investigators needed multiple trucks to remove all personal property from Gu’s mansion in central China’s Henan province, which included a gold boat, a gold wash basin and a gold statue of PRC founder Mao Zedong, as well as expensive art pieces and crates of expensive liquor.
This April, Dong Mingxiang, another former military logistics chief, was reportedly taken away for corruption, according to Caixin.
Sichuan borders Tibet region and the Chengdu Military Area Command oversees the security of Tibet and the India-China border in that area.
The People’s Liberation Army revealed earlier this year that it had commenced additional corruption investigations against dozens of senior officers, including Major Generals.
The anti-graft drive in the military, part of a broader campaign against corruption, comes as Xi steps up efforts to modernise forces that are projecting power across the disputed waters of the East and South China Seas, though China has not fought a war in decades.
After assuming office in 2012, Chinese President Xi Jinping launched a large-scale campaign against corruption, targeting primarily high-level officials in the Communist Party, the armed forces and state-run enterprises.
This follows the sacking of Guo Boxiong.
Gu Junshan is connected to the Jiang clique both through Xu Caihou, and his other patron, general Jia Tingan, the former deputy director of the General Political Department of the People’s Liberation Army and close ally of Jiang.
