Is corruption what afflicts the People’s Liberation Army—or any trace of independent thinking?
As in the case of the people at large, so in the case of China’s military, apparently. In the mind of Dictator Xi Jinping, the modern Mao, any deviation from party doctrine and discipline is the overarching problem, not merely “corruption” in a narrower sense, like financially exploiting one’s position. In this totalitarian viewpoint, it’s easy for anyone who thinks outside the CCP box to be “corrupt,” because this is corrupt by definition.
The deviation is the corruption, and the cadres have got to have the guts to expose and flagellate themselves (“China’s Xi says army faces ‘deep-seated’ problems in anti-corruption drive,” Reuters, June 19, 2024).
China’s President Xi Jinping said there were “deep-seated problems” in the Chinese military’s politics, ideology, work style and discipline, state-run CCTV reported Wednesday, amid an ongoing military anti-corruption purge.
“There must be no hiding place for corrupt elements in the army,” Xi was quoted as saying at a military political work conference this week in the northwestern city of Yanan, the founding stronghold of the Chinese Communist Party.
“Cadres at all levels, especially senior cadres, must show up, and have the courage to put aside their prestige and expose their shortcomings. They must deeply self-reflect…make earnest rectifications, resolve problems at the root of their thinking.”
The political tests currently faced by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) are “intricate and complex” and the national situation, party situation and military situation are “all undergoing complex and profound changes”, Xi said in a keynote speech to military cadres, including Zhang Youxia and He Weidong, the second and third-in-command of the PLA.
Xi also vowed to “enrich the toolbox for punishing new types of corruption and hidden corruption” and to strengthen the supervision of senior cadres.
What is “hidden corruption”? A hidden bribe or kickback? A hidden power struggle? Or a hidden thought? Some secret redoubt in the mind?
Problems with military procurement in China have been in the news. But Xi’s talk of ideology, of “problems at the root of thinking,” of “new types of corruption” and “hidden corruption,” of exposure of shortcomings and “earnest rectification” imply a wider agenda of a sort that in various ways is widely manifest in Chinese governance in 2024.
Is Xi heading where Mao started? Just as soon as Mao proclaimed the People’s Republic in 1949, struggle sessions were part of standard operating procedure. The sessions were also ubiquitous during Mao’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).
If not murdered right away, persons suspected of being class enemies were often publicly accused and tortured by The Community while being forced to wear dunce caps or other humiliating garb. They had to publicly confess sundry imaginary sins. The tormenters often ended up killing their targets or driving them to suicide.
Maybe Xi doesn’t have such extremes in mind, but what he’s talking about is the same type of thing. He’s hovering in an area.
