China: Party expels ex-military leader for graft

China has expelled a former top general from the ruling Communist Party over corruption accusations as President Xi Jinping’s campaign to root out graft in the military churns onward.

The political bureau also decided to transfer his case and relevant evidence to military prosecutors for handling in accordance with the law.

The case against Guo, who served as the former vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), has been transferred to military prosecutors.

A 25-member council of the party’s Politburo revealed that Guo took advantage of his post to “seek promotion and benefits for others”.

“Each when violate of social gathering self-discipline will certainly be sternly dealt with irrespective of amount of individual’s capability or even the measurement…”

Guo was put under investigation on April 9, the statement added.

Guo Boxiong ran the daily affairs of the military for eight years and was once a colleague of Xi Jinping’. Gen. Guo Zhenggang, was placed under formal investigation for corruption and unspecified criminal activity.

Print and online media in China launched a broadside against Guo and his relatives on Friday, accusing the family of amassing huge wealth by exploiting his position.

The PLA has described Guo as a “bad example” in an editorial published on Friday.

His investigation and punishment “once again showed that the Party is courageous in facing up its problems and correcting its mistakes”, it said.

As two of the most powerful military leaders in the past 16 years are corrupt, who in the Chinese military is not?

The PLA said in January it was probing 16 high-ranking officials for links to corruption, including Fang Changmi, the former deputy political commissar of the Lanzhou Military Region. The other vice chairman of that time, Xu Caihou, was detained in 2014 on suspicion of corruption, but he died before an indictment could be handed down. A year later, Xu passed away from bladder cancer before he could be prosecuted.

The downfall of such a senior and well-connected military figure as Gen Guo is yet another significant victory for Mr Xi but also sends a warning that his anti-corruption campaign is by no means over, the BBC’s China editor Carrie Gracie reports.