The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China announced on Tuesday that over 70 senior officers, some active duty and others retired, will be demoted for offering bribes to former chief of joint staff General Fang Fenghui.
Fang was expelled from the Communist Party in October 2018 and sentenced to life in prison on corruption charges in February 2019 after abruptly vanishing from the public eye in 2017, not long after he joined Communist Party chief Xi Jinping for his first meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. Fang’s assets, which supposedly were far more valuable than his salary could possibly explain, were confiscated when he was imprisoned. It is not clear if he enjoyed anything Westerners would recognize as a trial, but Chinese officials claim he confessed to all of the charges leveled against him.
Fang was among the highest-profile military officers brought down by a massive “anti-corruption campaign” that looked more like a political purge to skeptical observers. Another was Zhang Yang, a fellow member of China’s Central Military Commission. Zhang, a political officer in charge of ideological indoctrination for the PLA, disappeared around the same time as Fang and reportedly hung himself while under house arrest.
Both Fang and Zhang were linked to two older and higher-ranking officers accused of corruption, Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou. Guo is serving life in prison, while Xu died of cancer while under investigation. Fang, a relatively spry 68-year-old, was the young rising star of the group, once hailed as the youngest regional commander in the history of the PLA.
According to the South China Morning Post, the spate of demotions announced on Wednesday was prompted by Fang’s confessions and included subordinate officers who bribed him to win his favor or obtain promotions. Among the arrested were 44 members of the Beijing Military Command, which was headed by Fang from 2007 to 2012.
PLA sources said the most senior officer punished was General Liu Fulian, who was demoted from political commissar of the Beijing Military Command to a division-level position. The most severely punished officer was Maj. Gen. Cheng Qibo, who lost six ranks.
A retired Chinese naval officer told the SCMP that even Cheng’s six-level demotion was considered a relatively lenient penalty for corruption, a crime Xi likes to be seen punishing harshly. The officer suggested coming down harder on the 70 officers would have embarrassed the PLA and dangerously reduced morale among the troops.
Demoting 70 senior officers in one swoop might seem like a threat to the PLA’s cohesion, but the South China Morning Post noted the Chinese military currently boasts over four thousand officers of major general rank or higher, commanding over two million troops.