China’s leadership on Thursday accused two former defense ministers of accepting “huge” bribes and other acts of corruption that compromised military promotions and the nation’s weapons production complex.
Two announcements from the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo, a council of 24 senior officials, laid out multiple accusations of crime and insubordination against the general. Li Shang Fudefense minister for much of the past year, and Gen. Wei Feng Heminister from 2018 to 2023. The statements suggested that more heads could roll in the expansion of the investigations.
Since last year there has been speculation that China’s leader Xi Jinping had launched investigations into corruption and military misconduct, after senior officers in the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force were abruptly replaced or disappeared. The dismissal of General Li as defense minister in October, after having disappeared from public view for months, added weight to the rumors. But only now have China’s leaders revealed the range of allegations involved in the investigations.
He Announcement on General Li said he was found to have accepted bribes in exchange for abusing his powers, including through corrupt personnel decisions, and that he had bribed others and tried to obstruct the investigation into him. He Announcement on General Wei He made similar allegations, saying he had been harassed with valuables and money.
Both men were stripped of their military ranks and expelled from the Communist Party, and their cases were sent to military prosecutors, meaning, almost inevitably, that both will be tried, found guilty, and sentenced to harsh penalties, including death sentences. if their crimes are considered especially serious. The statements also suggested that his misdeeds amounted to a betrayal of Mr. Xi, who is chairman of the Central Military Commission and party leader.
Both generals had been members of the commission. General Li “betrayed the founding aspirations and principles of the party, and his actions betrayed the trust of the party’s Central Committee and the Central Military Commission,” the party said. General Wei was also accused of a “collapse in faith” in the party.
The announcements may lead to broader investigations that could, at least temporarily, slow the pace of China’s rapid military modernization. The ads said investigators were pursuing more leads and that General Li’s corruption had “seriously tainted” the military equipment sector and companies. Before his appointment as defense minister, he had risen as a specialist in military equipment, a sector that has enjoyed decades of spending expansion.
“The ads seem to point to something very serious,” Andrew ND Yang, an expert on the Chinese military who previously served in Taiwan’s Defense Ministry, said in a telephone interview.
Yang said the generals’ apparent resistance to investigators and claims that they lost faith in the party would be especially disturbing to Xi, because the details could indicate broader discontent or insubordination in the People’s Liberation Army’s senior ranks.
“I think we can expect comprehensive investigations into the military, not only in the Rocket Force, but also in other sectors,” Yang said, referring to China’s military forces.
Xi underlined his determination to root out misconduct and perceived disloyalty in the Chinese military earlier this month when he met with commanders in Yan’an, an officially sacred area in northwest China where Mao Zedong gathered forces during the revolution and war against Japan.
Xi had held a similar “political work” conference for the military in 2014, when he was rooting out corruption that had taken root over previous decades, including the buying and selling of promotions.
But problems apparently persist and on his last trip Xi invoked the spirit of Mao’s army as inspiration and warning.
“Senior officers throughout the military should keep in mind the founding aspirations and lead the way in promoting the Yan’an spirit,” Xi said, according to the official. Summary of the three-day meeting. “Ensure that the people’s army always retains its true nature and mission, and always dares to fight and win.”
The military is crucial to Mr. Xi’s political power and his vision of China as a resurgent global power.
At home, the People’s Liberation Army is a pillar of Communist Party rule, which has sworn absolute loyalty to Xi. Externally, the military is key to Xi’s efforts to project influence and diminish American dominance in Asia and the Pacific. It is also crucial to China’s efforts to absorb Taiwan, the democratic island about 100 miles off the mainland coast that Beijing claims as its territory.
But the fall of the two former defense ministers indicated that Xi’s ability to choose and promote the right commanders may be questioned within the People’s Liberation Army, said Yang, the Taiwanese military expert.
An engineer, General Li, 66, rose in rank In rocketry, weapons development and China’s manned space program, he was the first deputy commander of the Strategic Support Force, which Xi created in late 2015 as part of a reorganization of the Chinese military. In April, Mr. Xi disbanded the force. in three separate units.
General Wei, 70 years old, was the first commander of the Rocket Force, custodian of most of China’s nuclear weapons, as well as thousands of conventional missiles. Xi founded Rocket Force in late 2015, upgrading the former missile arm called the Second Artillery Corps.
“They were both promoted by him, so how can he say he is choosing the right people for the right positions?” Mr. Yang said. Still, Yang said he did not expect any major disruption to China’s plans to build more and more military ships, planes and missiles.
“Xi Jinping’s goal is to create the most effective military,” Yang said. “That won’t change.”