China’s Protection Minister Dong Jun (C) attends the opening ceremony of the eleventh Xiangshan Discussion board on the Beijing Worldwide Conference Heart on September 13, 2024. FILE PHOTO/Agence France-Presse
BEIJING — Chinese language Protection Minister Dong Jun has been positioned below investigation for corruption, a report mentioned Wednesday, the most recent official to fall in a sweeping crackdown on graft within the nation’s army.
Citing present and former US officers accustomed to the scenario, British newspaper the Monetary Instances mentioned the investigation into Dong was a part of that broader probe into army corruption.
If confirmed, Dong can be the third Chinese language protection minister in a row to fall below investigation for corruption.
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Requested in regards to the report at a daily briefing on Wednesday, Chinese language international ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning mentioned it was simply “chasing shadows” and didn’t provide additional data.
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A former navy commander, he was appointed protection minister in December following the shock elimination of predecessor Li Shangfu simply seven months into the job.
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Li was later expelled from the ruling Communist Occasion for offenses together with suspected bribery, state media mentioned. He has not been seen in public since.
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His predecessor, Wei Fenghe, was additionally kicked out of the celebration and handed on to prosecutors over alleged corruption.
“It’s definitely a blow… as a result of one would think about they are going to be tremendous cautious to have somebody very clear on this position,” Dylan Loh, an assistant professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological College, instructed AFP.
“Graft probes are very generally focused on the army due to the lengthy historic ties between the enterprise world and the PLA,” he mentioned, referring to the Chinese language army by its official acronym.
Deepening crackdown
Beijing has deepened a crackdown on alleged graft within the armed forces over the previous 12 months, with President Xi Jinping this month ordering the army to stamp out corruption and strengthen its “war-preparedness”.
The depth of the anti-graft drive within the military has been partially pushed by fears that it might have an effect on China’s means to wage a future struggle, Bloomberg reported citing US officers this 12 months.
“If the corruption probe into Dong Jun is true, then it’s regular that folks will query if it can erode morale and if it can have an effect on the PLA’s warfighting capabilities,” Nanyang College’s Loh mentioned.
The nation’s secretive Rocket Power — which oversees China’s huge arsenal of strategic missiles, each typical and nuclear — has come below notably intense scrutiny.
In July, a prime Chinese language official within the Rocket Power, Solar Jinming, was positioned below investigation for corruption.
Solar was kicked out of the ruling Communist Occasion and positioned below investigation for “grave violations of celebration self-discipline and legal guidelines”, state information company Xinhua mentioned on the time, utilizing a standard euphemism for graft.
No less than two different high-ranking officers related to the Rocket Power, a comparatively new unit of the Chinese language army, have additionally been eliminated for graft.
Victor Shih, an professional on China’s elite politics, instructed AFP that Dong “seemingly had authority over tens of billions in procurement per 12 months” throughout his time within the navy.
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“The issue is that competitors for prime positions is so fierce that there may be some mutual recriminations between officers, which might result in countless cycles of arrests, new appointments and recriminations,” he mentioned.
