Former top general Xu Caihou to be charged with bribery offences
Downfall of one-time vice-chairman of supreme command the PLA’s highest-profile graft case
Military prosecutors yesterday said they would charge a retired top general with bribery after a seven-month investigation, making it the most high-profile anti-corruption case in the history of the People’s Liberation Army.
Xu Caihou, former vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) which is the mainland’s supreme command, was stripped of all military titles, Xinhua reported. He confessed to taking “extremely large” amounts of bribes through family members to help others gain promotion, it said. The Communist Party put Xu under investigation in March and expelled him in June.
[This sends] a warning to military officials [against] deviating from the rules
Xu, 71, was the CMC vice-chairman from 2004 to 2012 under former president Hu Jintao. As Hu – the the-then CMC chairman – had weak control over the military, Xu ran the day-to-day operations of the world’s largest army.
Yesterday’s announcement came as the party released a detailed plan to revamp the nation’s legal system and tackle corruption after a top-level meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping last week.
Indicting Xu is one of the Xi’s boldest moves to clean up corruption. Many thought Xu would be spared as he was terminally ill and no longer a threat to the new president. The PLA Daily yesterday confirmed that Xu was diagnosed with bladder cancer in February last year.
By going after him, Xi was sending a strong message of his determination to stamp out corruption in the army, said Xu Guangyu, a retired PLA major general. “The high-profile announcement also aims at sending a warning message to military officials deviating from the rules,” he said.
After Xu Caihou, former security tsar Zhou Yongkang is expected to be the next top official to face corruption charges.
The legal reform plan released yesterday said the Central Politics and Law Commission – which Zhou once headed and where he built his power – should be kept, despite growing calls for its abolition.
The plan also said party and government organisations at all levels must support the courts in exercising their duties independently, and promised strict punishment against officials interfering in judicial proceedings.
But it also said rule by the party should be maintained, and any acts of legislation must be submitted to the party central committee for discussion and decision-making if they involved important policy adjustment.
Zhang Qianfan, a Peking University law professor, said the plans listed in the document were steps to improve the nation’s legal system.
But he added: “It will remain the same if the party does not lead well. The key is how the party leads, and depends on whether it insists on judicial independence, or allows the party and officials to interfere in the judicial process.”
Additional reporting by Laura Zhou
