BEIJING: China’s anti-corruption probe into top general Zhang Youxia and other senior officials will “remove roadblocks” and strengthen the country’s military, state media said on Monday (Feb 2).
The defence ministry said last month it was investigating Zhang, the vice chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC), as well as Liu Zhenli, chief of staff of the CMC’s joint staff department, which oversees combat planning.
The pair are the latest to fall under a sweeping drive to root out graft at all levels of the Chinese Communist Party and state since President Xi Jinping came to power more than a decade ago.
The ministry did not say why the probe into Zhang and Liu had been opened.
However, the PLA Daily – the Chinese military’s mouthpiece – said they were “corrupt elements” in a front-page editorial published on Monday.
The “resolute investigation and punishment” of Zhang and Liu “removes roadblocks” and “squeezes out the water diluting combat effectiveness”, it said.
Proponents say China’s corruption purge promotes clean governance, but others say it also serves as a tool for Xi to oust political rivals.
Dylan Loh, an associate professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, said it was “somewhat telling” and unusual that PLA Daily editorials had written about Zhang and Liu more than once.
“The reference to ‘combat effectiveness’ is an admission that corruption at the highest levels has affected combat readiness and also indicates a resolve by Xi to root them (corrupt officials) out, however rough it may be,” he told AFP.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/china-top-general-probe-military-zhang-youxia-5901331
