During this week’s meetings of the Chinese regime’s rubber-stamp legislature, the National People’s Congress, when media journalists asked military delegates about the military’s anti-corruption efforts, they refused to answer the questions.
The elephant in the room is that many high-level military officials have recently been sacked.
For example, on Feb. 20, China’s former top general Fang Fenghui was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of accepting bribes, bribery, and procuring large assets with unknown sourcing of funding, according to a Chinese military court ruling.
Fang’s sentencing cast a shadow over the proceedings in Beijing, when Party officials meet annually to pass legislation and set agendas already approved by the Party leadership.
Fang was Chief of the General Staff at the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) from October 2012 to August 2017. He had visited U.S. Pentagon several times, and attended high-level meetings at the U.S. Department of State.
State-run media Xinhua reported that all of Fang’s personal properties will be expropriated to the state treasury.
Xi Jinping, who as leader of the Chinese Communist Party also serves as the commander-in-chief, has repeatedly spoken about the military’s serious “peace disease” since 2015—referring to military officials’ sense of complacency and corruption. Fang’s case is a good example.
Fang Fenghui
Fang, 67, joined the PLA at 16 years-old, and became a Party member at 24 years-old.
After graduating from the PLA National Defense University in Beijing, he began his military career.
A former assistant to Guo Boxiong, a former vice chairman of the Party’s top agency for managing military affairs, the Central Military Commission, published an online article in September 2017 exposing that Fang was personally promoted by Guo to become his subordinate. Guo is key member of a political faction loyal to former Party leader Jiang Zemin, which is opposed to the Xi leadership. Guo was sacked in 2015 amid Xi’s sweeping anti-corruption campaign.
In June 2017, troops from China and India had a standoff at the border for 71 days. Abruptly amid the conflict, general Li Zuocheng replaced Fang at a meeting. Fang then disappeared for 141 days.
By August, Chinese authorities announced that Fang was being investigated by the Party’s anti-corruption watchdog. Hong Kong media Oriental News reported that Fang was sacked because he was involved in a plan by the Jiang faction to use the China-India conflict as an excuse to stage a coup against Xi.
