BEIJING, July 19: China’s ruling Communist Party has announced an anti-corruption investigation against another head of its strategic missile force, which continues to be plagued by graft at its top echelons, a media report said on Friday.
Former Defence Minister Gen Li Shangfu, who earlier headed the nine-year-old Rocket Force, which handles a host of missiles, including nuclear weapons, was sacked and investigated for corruption along with his successor Gen Li Yuchao, who assumed the role of its commander in 2022.
Li Shangfu, who headed the Rocket (Missile) Force before becoming Defence Minister, is being tried for alleged corruption. Li Yuchao, who was also part of the strategic force, was sacked along with him.
On Thursday, the Communist Party plenary meeting, while endorsing the Politburo’s earlier decision to expel Gen Li Shangfu and Gen Li Yuchao, also announced the anti-corruption investigation against Gen Sun Jinming, who recently headed the Rocket Force.
Sun is the Chief of Staff of the PLA Rocket Force, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Friday.
His downfall followed anti-corruption probes since last year into at least seven past or serving senior military officials from the Rocket Force, which oversees the country’s nuclear arsenal, in the latest anti-corruption purge in the military since last year, the report said.
Sun, an alternate member of the party’s 20th Central Committee, took on the role of chief of staff of the force in 2022 after serving a long stint in its predecessor, the Second Artillery Corps.
The rocket force, established in 2015 as part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s military overhaul, has been at the centre of the latest anti-corruption campaign targeting the military.
While most corruption cases involving the PLA appeared to be winding down, the investigations have cast a shadow over the military, the report said.
Other disgraced generals who had served in the force include Li Yuchao, who assumed the role of commander in 2022; his predecessor Zhou Yaning, who served from 2017 to 2022; Gen Wei Fenghe, who headed the rocket force from its inception until 2017, it said.
Wei, who later served as the country’s defence minister from 2018 to 2023, was also expelled from the party last month. (PTI)
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