As Supreme Leader Xi Jinping’s anti-graft crusade penetrates the inner circles of the People’s Liberation Army, signs of internal tension and disorder among senior military leaders are becoming evident, with reliable sources reporting that a growing number of leaders have committed suicide.On Nov. 13, Vice Admiral Ma Faxiang jumped to his demise from a 15th floor window in the PLA Navy’s Beijing headquarters. Days earlier, Maj. Gen. Song Yuwen, deputy commissar of Jilin military district, reportedly hanged himself. He was among eight flag officers who recently had been arrested on corruption charges. On September 2, Rear Admiral Jiang Zhonghua jumped to his death from a high-rise building on a naval base in Zhejiang province.
According to sources from China, more than 200 senior PLA officers are under investigation for corruption, and many are suspected of being members of a massive graft ring led by Gen. Xu Caihou, the highest uniformed officer between 2004 and 2012. Gen. Xu served as vice chairman of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Military Commission, the nation’s highest military command authority. Many of these officers are under great stress, which is believed to be the primary reason for the suicides.
Apparently, the purge on corruption is not going to stop at Gen. Xu. On Thursday, Gen. Liu Yazhou, commissar of the Chinese National Defense University and a mouthpiece for Mr. Xi, issued a stern warning via the PLA Daily newspaper. He stated that “our investigation and punishment of corrupt elements such as Xu Caihou and Gu Junshan are only the beginning of our military’s anti-corruption battle of annihilation and protracted war.” The comments strongly hinted at the next target: Gen. Guo Boxiong, the other former vice chairman of the Central Military Commission.