Once China’s second-highest ranking officer as vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, prosecutors say Xu Caihou used his high position to award promotions for bribes either directly to him or via family members. Xu was court-martialed in June and has since been under house arrest.
Xu lost his rank of general after he was discharged from military service and expelled from the Communist Party of China. Military prosecutors are now filing the case.
In the late 1990s, China began to target military corruption. In recent years, the buying and selling of senior military positions has been on the upswing, reports The Guardian.
President Xi Jinping is implementing the harshest crackdown on corruption in decades, reports The Australian. The Guardian quotes activists as saying that corruption is so pervasive that it may impair the military’s ability to function.
According to the Daily Mail Zhang Ming, an expert on domestic politics at Beijing’s Renmin University, said that the current drive has reached higher-ranking officers than ever before. Since the crackdown began, Xu is the highest-ranking official to be prosecuted.
