BEIJING: A top Chinese general has been placed under investigation for corruption, China’s Defense Ministry said Thursday, announcing the highest-level active duty military official to be ensnared in a sweeping anti-corruption drive.
Military prosecutors have been investigating Gen. Wang Jianping on suspicion of accepting bribes, ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said in a briefing, without elaborating on the case.
Wang is the deputy chief of staff with the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission, which is led by Xi Jinping, China’s president and leader of the ruling Communist Party. Since he came to power in late 2012, Xi has launched a wide-ranging crackdown on corruption that has felled scores of mid-to-high-level officials but that has also been seen as targeting threats to Xi.
Wang was formerly the commander of China’s armed paramilitary police force for five years. The South China Morning Post has reported that Wang was an ally of China’s former domestic security chief, Zhou Yongkang. Zhou was sentenced to life in prison last year on charges of accepting bribes, but was perceived to be targeted also because he was deemed the center of a vast patronage network spanning the state-owned oil industry, the state security apparatus and the southwestern province of Sichuan.
Three other top Chinese generals have been accused of corruption but were officially retired when their investigations were announced. Among them was Guo Boxiong, then a top general and former vice chairman of the military commission, who was sentenced by a military court in July to life in prison for taking bribes.
Guo, 74, was also stripped of his rank and forced to hand over all his assets to the Chinese government.
Some top generals are reported to have accumulated stunning fortunes through corruption in both cash and gifts, including golden statues of Mao Zedong and cases of expensive liquor stacked to the ceiling in secret underground caches. Along with the selling of ranks and positions, such practices are believed to have had a strong negative effect on morale, discipline and combat preparedness in the world’s largest standing military.
Top Chinese general faces probe for corruption
Top Chinese general faces probe for corruption
Putin says developing Russia’s nuclear forces ‘absolute priority’
- Putin vowed to keep “strengthening the army and navy” and draw on military experience from the nearly four-year conflict in Ukraine
MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin said Sunday that developing Russia’s nuclear forces was now an “absolute priority” following the expiry of its last remaining nuclear treaty with the US.
“The development of the nuclear triad, which guarantees Russia’s security and ensures effective strategic deterrence and a balance of forces in the world, remains an absolute priority,” Putin said in a video message.
His speech came on Russia’s “Defender of the Fatherland Day,” a holiday that is an occasion for military pomp and Kremlin-sponsored patriotism.
Putin vowed to keep “strengthening the army and navy” and draw on military experience from the nearly four-year conflict in Ukraine.
All branches of the armed forces would be improved, he said, including their “combat readiness, their mobility, and their ability to operate in all conditions, even the most difficult.”
Putin’s remarks came just two days before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s assault on Ukraine that sparked a war that has shattered towns, uprooted millions and killed large numbers on both sides.
Moscow and Washington — the world’s two main nuclear powers — are no longer bound by any arms control pact since the New START agreement expired earlier this month.
But Russia said it would continue taking a “responsible” approach to strategic nuclear capability and respecting the limits set on its arsenal.
