President Xi Jinping takes aim at more top Chinese generals as anticorruption drive rolls on
Punishment meant to weed out remnants of influence of two former military leaders, insiders say
Three senior Chinese generals have been either severely punished or detained as part of a corruption investigation this week, multiple sources said, as President Xi Jinping sent a strong message to the military that his crackdown on graft is far from finished.
Two generals who at different times held top military jobs in the country’s south, including overseeing the sensitive South China Sea, were demoted by seven grades to become deputy regimental officers, the sources said.
At the same time, the man who was once the youngest lieutenant general in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and a former military spy chief, was taken away by investigators on Wednesday.
Sources close to the PLA told the South China Morning Post that the latest moves underscored Xi’s determination to eradicate the remaining influence among the troops of two corrupt former top military leaders.
“Xi wants to use the three senior generals’ downfall as a warning to all military officers that the anti-graft campaign has not stopped,” a retired senior colonel said. “It’s foreseeable that more senior officials will be investigated because it takes time to eradicate an evil legacy.”
At a high-level military meeting last weekend, Xi, who is also chairman of the Central Military Commission, told dozens of senior generals that the anticorruption campaign must be continued unswervingly and there “would not be any change in direction” in the drive to make the PLA a “politically loyal and clean” armed forces.
