According to a recent article in foreign media, Xi Jinping has basically achieved his goal of controlling the military with an iron fist through nearly a decade of high-handed anti-corruption efforts.
The Voice of America reported yesterday (May 19) that the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) recently issued newly revised “Regulations on the Work of the Disciplinary Inspection Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Army”, vowing to advance the fight against corruption.
The report said Xi Jinping’s fierce anti-corruption campaign since the 18th National Congress has recently focused on weapons manufacturing and the military industrial system. The article cited Song Xue, the former deputy chief of staff of the Navy, who was officially removed from his post as a deputy to the 13th National People’s Congress on April 29 on “suspicion of serious disciplinary violations.
Song Xue was the deputy chief of the Navy’s equipment department and had long-standing ties to the military-industrial system, where he wielded procurement power. He was also the deputy commander-in-chief of the “J-15 carrier aircraft” takeoff and landing test mission for the Liaoning, the first aircraft carrier of the Chinese Communist Party.
Previously, Yao Cheng, a former Lieutenant Colonel Staff Officer of the Chinese Communist Party’s Navy Command, said to the foreign media that the CPC Central Military Commission was not satisfied with the performance of the Liaoning aircraft carrier and therefore took Song Xue to task. At the same time, Yao Cheng also mentioned, “Which officer in the Navy is not corrupt, and the equipment department is extremely corrupt.”
Song Xue fell at the same time, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and State Supervision Commission released news, said the former party secretary and chairman of China National Weapons Industry Group Co.
Last May 12, the former Secretary of the Party Group of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, Chairman Hu Wenming was investigated nearly two years after his retirement.
Military corruption has a long history
The report mentions that corruption in the Chinese Communist Party’s military has a long history, reaching its peak during the Jiang-Hu era, when the Central Military Commission decided in 1985 to allow the military to engage in commercial trade, the so-called “military to feed the military. With the three headquarters of the CPC Central Military Commission taking the lead, the military groups, provincial military districts and military sub-districts entered the business world and expanded their business scope. Military interests swelled rapidly, involving thousands of companies and enterprises, from hotels, nightclubs and dance halls to airlines, pharmaceuticals, cell phone networks, stockbrokers and electronics companies, in all walks of life. The resulting corruption is also growing, especially in the rampant smuggling by the military along China’s southeast coast and in the north.
The report also points out that business distracts the military leadership and institutions at all levels and weakens the military’s ability to perform its functions and combat effectiveness, while military enterprises compete with the people for profits, inevitably affecting military-civilian relations.
Timothy Health, who is familiar with the dynamics of the Chinese Communist Party’s military at the RAND think tank, told VOA, “In the Chinese [Communist Party] military, bribery for promotion is the same as in other government agencies, but military corruption has its own characteristics. Positions in the military that are responsible for procurement are often where corruption is high because they usually need to purchase large quantities of supplies, such as food, clothing, equipment and weapons. They can take these purchases into their personal pockets or sell them for profit.”
Xi Jinping Launches Anti-Corruption Storm and Massive Military Reform
When Xi Jinping took power in 2012, he launched an anti-corruption storm, with the military bearing the brunt of it. According to official Chinese media reports, during Xi’s first five-year term, the Chinese military filed more than 4,000 cases for review and gave disciplinary actions to more than 13,000 people, with at least 69 military-grade “tigers” falling, involving the Central Military Commission, the former headquarters units, the former seven military regions, military schools and research institutions, various military branches and the armed police force. This includes Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong, two former vice chairmen of the military commission, as well as Fang Fenghui and Zhang Yang, two members of the military commission.
Meanwhile, Xi Jinping also carried out the largest military reform since the Communist Party came to power between 2014 and 2016, including the disarmament of 300,000 troops, the establishment of a leading army, a rocket force, a strategic support force, and the head of the newly established “Leading Group of the Central Military Commission for Deepening National Defense and Military Reform.
Xi Jinping also changed the organizational structure of the army: replacing the seven major war zones with five major war zones, changing the ratio of military branches, reducing the number of army personnel, replacing almost all of the former group army chiefs, and devoting more resources to the air force, navy and missile forces.
Starting January 1, 2018, the Armed Police Force, which was formerly under the leadership of the CCP’s Political and Legal Committee, was placed under the Central Military Commission and under Xi Jinping’s unified command.
Analyzing the reasons for Xi’s military anti-corruption efforts, Heath talked about, “First Xi Jinping wants the military to be his reliable enforcer of authority. If military positions can be bought and sold, then it is conceivable that if top military officials are bought by rich people who don’t like Xi, they could easily stage a coup. So for the sake of personal power, this kind of corruption, which can sell everything for money, must be eradicated. At the same time, Xi Jinping wants a capable and effective military, which is a matter of international prestige for China and the Communist Party.”
Has Xi Jinping taken iron-fisted control of the military through the fight against corruption?
Timothy Heath of the RAND think tank believes the big picture is set for Xi’s military anti-corruption efforts. He said, “The biggest threat to Xi Jinping and to the party, from what’s coming out of Beijing, is really from those top officials with extensive connections who once could challenge Xi’s authority. Now that they have been brought down, the corresponding network of those connections has disintegrated. It is the day-to-day corruption that Xi Jinping now has to deal with. But because of China’s system, it is impossible to eradicate this corruption or reduce it to the level of, say, Singapore. But on the issue of removing the big tigers, Xi’s goal is achieved. So the next anti-corruption campaign, although it will not stop, will be slower and smaller in scale.”
Look at China columnist Zheng Zhongyuan, however, does not think Xi Jinping has a firm grip on the military and can rest on his laurels from now on. In an article titled “Five Deadly Worries for Xi Jinping’s Military”, he mentioned that the system of selling officials in the military left behind by Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong, the so-called democratic assessment and reserve cadre system that has been rotten, is still in use in Xi’s era. There is a hidden danger in the system as to whether those who are promoted now are loyal to Xi Jinping.
In addition, Xi Jinping is also uncomfortable with the fact that there is still a history of buying and selling officials in the military; Xi Jinping has too few of his own people in the military, with laymen secretaries as supervisors; he does not dare to gnaw on the bones of anti-corruption, and has not touched Jiang Zemin’s top secretary, Jia Tingan, and others, leaving a trail of problems; the Chinese Communist Party culture is so steeped in it that the entire military is full of people with two sides, making it difficult to ensure loyalty.
The company’s father was a high-ranking CCP officer and grew up in a CCP military academy, Dr. Wang Juntao of Columbia University has also said that some generals in the military have great opinions of Xi Jinping, who is now afraid to delegate weapons and command, for fear of a military coup.
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