Exclusive | Chinese graft-busters take aim at another PLA general
Major General Qu Rui, who took the lead in organising last year’s parade marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the second world war, will face a military corruption probe
A senior People’s Liberation Army officer who played a lead role in organising a massive military parade in Beijing last year was put under investigation for suspected corruption last week, according to two military sources.
Major General Qu Rui, a deputy chief of the Combat Operations Department under the People’s Liberation Army’s newly established Joint Staff Department, was taken away by military graft-busters during a meeting on Wednesday, the sources said.
Qu was a key organiser of September’s parade in the capital to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the second world war.
Rooting out PLA corruption is helping Xi Jinping to build his power base
He will face an internal corruption probe launched by the recently upgraded military disciplinary commission within the powerful Central Military Commission.
If confirmed, Qu’s downfall would be the latest in a string of graft probes launched into the activities of senior officers in recent weeks ahead of the PLA’s anniversary on Monday.
The South China Morning Post reported earlier this month that General Tian Xiusi, 66, a former PLA Air Force political commissar and an ally of disgraced former military chiefs Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou, was put under investigation for alleged corruption. The report was later confirmed by Xinhua.
Guo and Xu were snared in President Xi Jinping’s three-year-old anti-corruption campaign after it was extended to the military.