Chinese President Xi Jinping has led a crusade to rid the country’s armed forces of corruption and has carried out primary reforms in the military.
Since taking over as tough general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on November 15, 2012 and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), Xi has led large-scale purges within the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). . During this period, he fired two defense ministers and at least two CMC vice-presidents, as well as a gigantic number of senior officials, for corruption, inefficiency, political rivalry and resistance to PLA reforms.
On June 19, at a military-political convention in Yanan, Jinping stated that there were “deep-rooted problems” in the Chinese military’s policy, ideology, pictorial taste, and discipline. CCTV quoted him as saying: “There will have to be no hiding place for corrupt elements in the military. »
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This is in stark contrast to India, which still suffers with its armed forces from synergistic theater commands. Xi, for his part, reorganized seven Chinese military regions into theater commands in 2016.
According to a list of officials facing purges in China, compiled through HT open source intelligence, just about 52 top generals have faced the ax since 2014.
A list compiled through HT shows that as many as 65 high-ranking PLA officers/commissioners/commanders/directors have been purged since 2012, while eight other generals are under investigation for corruption and similar charges and have still been punished.
In fact, a report published in the EPL in 2015 showed that in just two years, since 2013, 4,024 officials with the rank of lieutenant colonel and above, totaling 82 generals, have been the subject of anti-corruption investigations. 21 commanders and 144 officials were demoted and at least 77 were reprimanded.
Generals such as Xu Caihou, vice president of the CMC, were expelled from the party in June 2014 for corruption, but fees were withdrawn after his death in March 2015. Another vice president, General Guo Boxiong, was purged by President Xi in July. . 2015.
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Defense Ministers Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu expelled from the Communist Party for accepting gifts and facilitating benefits.
According to Chinese observers in India, the most likely explanation for the purges in the PLA, PLA Navy, Air Force or Rocket Forces is that in President Xi’s first term, officials close to or appointed through the Past administrations of Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao held senior positions. rows. The leadership of the PLA – a position that allowed them to exert influence even after the strength of their political mentors waned – and it was to prove this that Xi replaced them.
Another key explanation for the purge, they said, was widespread endemic corruption within the PLA, as Xi perceived it when he took over as CMC chairman. In December 2012, Xi insisted that the PLA will surely have to be unbreakable for the party, surely blank and surely reliable. At the first CMC assembly under his leadership, Xi said China’s military, which controls weapons, cannot be a hiding place for corrupt figures.
The third explanation for the purge, they added, is inefficiency and top commanders’ opposition to Xi’s modernization and mechanization of the PLA.
While Xi was determined to turn the PLA into a world-class military rivaling the US military, a gigantic number of generals who proved to be an impediment or whose functionality was deemed inadequate were dismissed through Supreme Leader Xi.
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