Reports Suggest China Investigating Defense Minister Dong Jun for Corruption

The Financial Times (FT) on Wednesday reported that Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun is under investigation for corruption.

Dong would be the third consecutive defense minister to be charged with corruption – and all three of them were hand-picked by dictator Xi Jinping. They all came from different branches of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

“Xi bucked tradition in 2018 by naming Wei, from the PLA Rocket Forces, to the post instead of an army general. With Dong, a navy man, Xi’s military personnel dons assured him the vetting was airtight after a four-month search. So Xi is left to wonder: what corner of the PLA is not corrupt?” former CIA analyst Christopher Johnson told FT.

Dong took the office in December 2023 after his predecessor Li Shangfu vanished and was later sacked for corruption. Li was the successor to Defense Minister Wei Fenghe, who was investigated for corruption after he retired.

FT quoted U.S. officials who said Dong was “ensnared” in the latest corruption probe of the PLA launched by Xi. The exact nature of the charges against him was not clear.

A hint that Dong might be in trouble came in August, when the Chinese Communist Party conspicuously failed to add him to its Central Military Commission (CMC). China’s defense minister has almost always been named as a member of the commission, which Xi personally chairs.

The defense minister is also usually made a State Councilor, which gives them access to the premier, the second highest-ranking official in the Chinese government. Dong did not receive a State Councilor nod either.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning on Wednesday dismissed the FT report as “catching wind and shadows,” or rumormongering. She refused to answer any further questions about the report.

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) noted Mao’s dismissal was worded somewhat differently than her response to reports of Li Shangfu’s sacking last September – a story that was also broken by the Financial Times. On that earlier occasion, Mao brushed off questions by saying she “did not know the situation.”