Chinese military to probe building projects for evidence of corruption

The People's Liberation Army has begun a six-month probe into buildings erected without permission, that exceed specifications or are illegally rented out, as part of a broader campaign against corruption, the defence ministry said yesterday.

China's armed forces, the world's largest, have become a focus of President Xi Jinping's campaign to root out deeply ingrained graft including bribery, which often takes the form of lavish gifts to officials or extravagant spending of government funds.

"Some 'big problems' left over from the past several years continue to exist, and illegality and ill-discipline keeps happening. Chronic problems in the building of barracks have not been totally sorted out," the ministry said.

The military vowed to conduct the probe according to the law and to act only on solid evidence. Projects built after the 18th Communist Party congress in 2012 that are found to contravene regulations will be stopped immediately. Projects built before the congress will be given a limited time in which to correct any violations.

In an article for Qiushi magazine, Liu Yuan, the political commissar of the PLA General Logistics Department, said the cases of Zhou Yongkang, Xu Caihou, Ling Jihua and Su Rong indicated corruption had spread to the top leadership. The corruption of Xu, who assigned key positions to his allies, had a "fatal" impact on the party and the army, Liu said.

Liu called for stringent measures to ensure officials' power was not abused and that strict political discipline was kept.