Corruption in the sense of taking bribes or otherwise illegally making money and thus undermining an organization seems to be a problem in the Chinese military.
According to The New York Times, the fact that “two generals were accused of taking huge bribes and of corruption that reached into the armaments sector” indicates “that the country’s military has not shaken off old habits” (“China Levels Graft Charges Against Former Defense Ministers,” June 27, 2024). These generals, Li Shangfu (shown above, left) and Wei Fenghe, are former defense ministers.
China’s leadership accused two former defense ministers on Thursday of taking “huge” bribes and of other acts of corruption that compromised military promotions and the nation’s weapons production complex….
Speculation has built since last year that China’s leader, Xi Jinping, had begun inquiries into military corruption and misconduct, after senior officers from the People’s Liberation Army’s Rocket Force were abruptly replaced or had disappeared. General Li’s removal as defense minister in October, after he had vanished from public view for months, added weight to the rumors. But only now has China’s leadership revealed the range of allegations involved in the investigations.
The announcement about General Li said he was found to have taken bribes in return for abusing his powers, including through corrupt personnel decisions, and that he had bribed others and tried to obstruct the investigation into him. The announcement about General Wei made similar accusations, and said that he had been plied with valuables and money….
The statements also suggested that their misdeeds amounted to a betrayal of Mr. Xi, who is chairman of the Central Military Commission as well as party leader.
Trials and prison time or even death sentences await. According to the Chinese Communist Party’s formal statement, Li “betrayed the party’s founding aspirations and party principles, and his actions betrayed the trust of the party’s Central Committee and the Central Military Commission,” which you’re not supposed to do, apparently.
The Times reporter, Chris Buckley, speculates that these cases could lead to “wider investigations that could, at least temporarily, slow the clip of China’s rapid military modernization drive.” Even more than massive quality-impairing corruption and power struggles have slowed the rapidity.
Is corruption all that’s happening here? Buckley talks also about the problem of “perceived disloyalty” to the dictator, not exactly the same complaint as bribe-taking.
Not long before the official accusations of Li and Wei, Xi told the attendees of what VOA News describes as “China’s first military political work conference in a decade” that “The gun barrels should always be in the hands of those who are loyal and reliable to the party and there must be no place for corrupt elements to hide in the military.”
Xi Jinping “urged the military to enhance the thoroughness of its ideological transformation by following the Communist Party’s theories, improving the leadership of party organizations, and eradicating conditions that may allow corruption to thrive.”
Being a good idealogue—“following the Communist Party’s theories”—is not coextensive with steering clear of corruption in the narrower sense even if one calls any disloyalty to Xi or the CCP a form of corruption.
