Which is more worrisome? The corruption or the disloyalty? Or are they the same thing? It’s hard being a totalitarian dictator.
After reviewing the purges of many People’s Liberation Army officials—
● Prosecutions of high-ranking officers that “increased sharply following the CCDI’s inception in 2013,” shortly after Xi’s ascendancy. (CCDI: Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.)
● One hundred senior PLA officials purged in 2017, 294 to date.
● In 2023, a “40 percent rise in corruption investigations…including 45 senior officials, of whom 27 are retired.”
● The ouster of Li Shangfu as defense minister in March 2023 and of nine other senior PLA officials “again without any explanation.” Li Shangfu and another former defense minister, Wei Fenghe, stripped of military rank and expelled from membership in the National People’s Congress for “seeking personal benefits, resisting investigation, and accepting large bribes.”
—the reporter, Agencies, concludes that Chinese dictator Xi Jinping’s “purges within the PLA and…unwavering objective to eradicate corruption highlight a disruption in the stability of his leadership” (“Is PLA facing distrust of Chinese Communist Party?,” The Shillong Times, August 6, 2024).
Quite inconvenient during a time when “his territorial ambitions in Taiwan and the South China Sea are at their peak, necessitating not only the enhanced combat capability of the PLA but also loyal and obedient officials ready to engage in warfare at his command.”
It’s more than bribes and kickbacks that Xi is trying to extirpate.
Disloyalty among PLA members has been another obstacle, as seen in the case of General Liu Yazhou, a senior Air Force Commander, who faced a death sentence for “serious economic corruption” after expressing disagreement with Xi’s military aggression policy regarding Taiwan.
These military purges can thus be interpreted as Xi’s way of punishing dissenters within the PLA, reflecting his leadership instability and failure to appoint loyalists to top positions despite his personal endorsement.
So the crimes of PLA principals against the state and Xi Jinping seem to involve both standard corruption and insufficient fervor for the dictator and his agenda; with the latter concern, let’s guess, predominating.
Also see:
StopTheChinazis.org: “U.S. and China: Our Navy, Their Navy, and the Parity of Disparity”
