On anniversary, PLA battles graft problem

August 02, 2014 03:00 am | Updated November 16, 2021 07:33 pm IST - BEIJING:

Members of People's Liberation Army (PLA) coastal defence force carry a machine gun during a drill to mark the upcoming 87th Army Day at a military base in Qingdao, Shandong province July 29, 2014. The PLA Army Day falls on August 1 every year. Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged to strike hard against graft in the military, urging soldiers to banish corrupt practices and ensure their loyalty to the ruling Communist Party, state media reported on Friday. Picture taken July 29, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer (CHINA - Tags: MILITARY POLITICS ANNIVERSARY) CHINA OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN CHINA

Members of People's Liberation Army (PLA) coastal defence force carry a machine gun during a drill to mark the upcoming 87th Army Day at a military base in Qingdao, Shandong province July 29, 2014. The PLA Army Day falls on August 1 every year. Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged to strike hard against graft in the military, urging soldiers to banish corrupt practices and ensure their loyalty to the ruling Communist Party, state media reported on Friday. Picture taken July 29, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer (CHINA - Tags: MILITARY POLITICS ANNIVERSARY) CHINA OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN CHINA

When investigators turned up at the gates of a sprawling mansion in a village in Henan in central China before an anti-corruption raid, they brought along two heavy-haul trucks to carry out the contents of the village home. It turned out they needed a whole lot more.

After a night-long raid of the villa, investigators left with 20 crates of luxury liquor, a range of gold statues – including of Mao Zedong – and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cash and valuables. It finally took two full days for investigators to complete their raid of the home, and another two trucks to remove its hidden treasures.

The mansion belonged to Gu Junshan, one of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) top officials – a well-connected Lieutenant General who ran the Logistics Department.

In March, extensive corruption charges against Lieutenant General were filed before a military court, accusing the PLA leader of embezzlement, bribery, misuse of official funds and abuse of power.

The fall of Lieutenant General Gu was the first shot fired in the latest – and perhaps most ambitious – attempt to clean up China’s military, even as it continues to enjoy a rapidly ballooning budget that crossed $ 130 billion this year.

As the PLA marked its 87th anniversary on Friday, the issue of the rampant corruption within its ranks, somewhat surprisingly, took centre stage – rather than its sweeping modernisation, new aircraft carriers, or its latest reported missile test of the 12,000 km range Dongfeng-41 (DF-41) which, the Global Times reminded its readers, could reach the United States. President Xi Jinping this week pledged “a harsh strike” against military corruption, calling on troops to “avoid undesirable work styles such as formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance,” as he visited the headquarters of the PLA in the eastern Fujian province, a strategic location facing Taiwan.

A new circular issued ahead of the anniversary called on all officers to “give back extra properties” if they owned more than one military apartment.

The case of Lieutenant General Gu starkly exposed the real estate racket being run by several PLA officers. He owned 10 flats in one of Beijing’s most prime real estate areas – within the Second Ring Road at the heart of the city, where prices are on par with London and New York and can exceed Rs. 4 or 5 lakh per square metre – according to records accessed by the Chinese magazine Caixin. All of the flats were once owned by the military, and later transferred illegally to him.

The crackdown did not stop with Lieutenant General Gu. In the biggest shock to the PLA in years, the senior most ranking General, Xu Caihou, a former Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission headed by Mr. Xi, was expelled from the Communist Party in June for massive bribery and selling of posts, a rampant practice in the world’s largest standing army. Party organs had a dire message. “Weeding out corruption is significant for the army,” warned one commentary, “because corruption, if it goes unchecked, will destroy the PLA’s combat capability.”

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