Chinese President Xi Jinping has been on a strident campaign to rid the country’s armed forces of corruption and has powered through with major military reforms.
Since he took over as powerful general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on November 15, 2012, and as the chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), Xi has conducted large-scale purges in the Peoples' Liberation Army (PLA). In this period, he fired two defence ministers and at least two vice chairmen of CMC, in addition to a large number of top officers on grounds of corruption, inefficiency, political rivalry and for resisting reforms in the PLA.
On June 19, addressing a political-military conference at Yanan, Jinping acknowledged that there were “deep-seated problems” in the Chinese military’s politics, ideology, work style and discipline. He was quoted by state-run CCTV saying, “There must be no hiding place for corrupt elements in the army.”
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This is in stark contrast to India, which is still grappling with its armed forces for synergetic theatre commands. Xi, on the other hand, reorganised seven military regions of China into five theatre commands back in 2016.
As per a list of officers facing purges in China compiled by HT through open-source intelligence, close to 52 top generals have faced the axe since 2014.
Another list compiled by HT shows that no less than 65 top PLA officers/ commissars/ commanders/ directors have been purged since 2012, with eight other generals being investigated for corruption and allied charges but not punished.
{{/usCountry}}Another list compiled by HT shows that no less than 65 top PLA officers/ commissars/ commanders/ directors have been purged since 2012, with eight other generals being investigated for corruption and allied charges but not punished.
{{/usCountry}}In fact, a report published in PLA daily in 2015 showed that in just two years, since 2013, 4,024 officers of the rank of Lt Colonel and above, including 82 generals, were the subject of anti-corruption inquiries. As a result of which 21 commanders and 144 officers were demoted and at least 77 were reprimanded.
Generals like Xu Caihou, who was vice chairman of CMC, was expelled from the party in June 2014 on charges of corruption but the charges were dropped after he passed away in March 2015. Another vice chairman Gen Guo Boxiong was purged by chairman Xi in July 2015.
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Defence ministers Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu were expelled from the Communist Party on charges of accepting gifts and facilitating benefits.
According to China watchers in India, the likely reason for purges in PLA, PLA Navy, Air Force or Rocket Forces is that during President Xi’s first term, officers close to or appointed by the previous Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao administrations were at higher echelons of PLA leadership – a position that meant they could exercise influence even after their political mentors went out of power – and that it was to check this that Xi replaced them.
Another key reason for the purge, they said, was the widespread rampant corruption in the PLA as viewed by Xi when he took over as chairman of CMC. In December 2012, Xi emphatically claimed that the PLA should be absolutely loyal to the party, absolutely clean and absolutely reliable. At the first meeting of the CMC under his leadership, Xi stated that the Chinese military, which controls the guns, cannot be a hiding place for corrupt figures.
The third reason for the purge, they added, was the inefficiency and opposition of top commanders to Xi’s modernisation and mechanisation of the PLA.
With Xi determined to make PLA a world-class military rivalling the American armed forces, a large number of generals who were proving to be a hindrance or had performance deemed not up to the mark were fired by paramount leader Xi.