Three top Chinese military officers held in graft probes
Detention of major generals from Lanzhou and Beijing highlights persistent problems in the logistics departments of the armed forces
PUBLISHED : Monday, 27 April, 2015, 12:56am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 28 April, 2015, 11:32pm
Staff Reporter
(From left to right) Dong Mingxiang who is being held for suspected violations of law, Zhan Guoqiao who is in detention for serious violations of discipline, Zhan Jun who is handed over to military prosecutors. Photo: SCMP PicturesThree senior People's Liberation Army officers, including one from retired military chief Guo Boxiong's former power base, were detained by military prosecutors, the armed forces announced on Sunday.
The detention of Zhan Guoqiao, the former head of logistics for the Lanzhou Military Area Command, and Dong Mingxiang, who held the same post in Beijing, underscores the graft problem in that military arm.
Zhan Jun, a former deputy provincial commander in Hubei, had also been detained by military prosecutors, a statement on the PLA's official news portal said, citing an "authoritative military department". All three are of major-general rank.
Since the PLA changed tack earlier this year and started releasing updates on the graft crackdown in the military, five of the army's seven area commands have lost their logistics chiefs to corruption investigations. The exceptions are Nanjing and Jinan . Graft probes have also claimed former deputy logistics chief Gu Junshan and his successor Liu Zheng at the PLA's headquarters.
The announcement on Sunday said that both Lanzhou's Zhan Guoqiao and Hubei's Zhan Jun were investigated in December for suspected serious violations of discipline and their cases were handed over to military prosecutors last month.
It confirmed the South China Morning Post 's report on March 2 that Zhan Guoqiao was among more than a dozen major generals being investigated.
Xu Caihou. Photo: Reuters
The statement said Dong was investigated by military prosecutors in March for suspected violations of law. Prominent mainland news outlet Caixin reported two weeks ago that Dong was suspected of bribing his superiors for promotions.
President Xi Jinping's administration has vowed to keep going after corrupt military top brass after the death last month of Xu Caihou , the disgraced retired vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission. Sources told the Post this month that Beijing had decided to launch an investigation into Xu's counterpart Guo. Guo and Xu both served under former president Hu Jintao .
A commentary by "Xie Zhengping" published on the military portal shortly after yesterday's announcement argued that the PLA had been tarnished by corrupt "defectors" before - including ones as senior as marshal Lin Biao who was once heir apparent to chairman Mao Zedong - but the troops had never betrayed the Communist Party or the people.
Lin died in a plane crash in Mongolia in 1971 at an apparent attempted defection to the Soviet Union.
Gu Junshan. Photo: SCMP Pictures
The article said the ongoing graft crackdown had revealed deep-rooted problems in the military but the PLA should not dismiss the achievements it made in the decade "between the party's 16th and 18th national congresses" - the period when Xu and Guo were in top office.
Some officers who were promoted counter to military rules had been demoted in the anti-graft campaign, the article said, while criticising claims that "all PLA ranks have a price and are up for grabs" as rumours peddled by "foreign enemies" with "ulterior motives".