Crackdown on PLA corruption targets former regional commander
General Zhang Ming under investigation as President Xi Jinping’s battle against graft in the military continues
The top officer overseeing operations in the former Jinan military command is being investigated for corruption as part of a crackdown on senior figures in the People’s Liberation Army, according to a media report.
Major General Zhang Ming, the chief of staff with the Jinan command before it was dissolved in January, resigned as a delegate to the National People’s Congress (NPC) in early July.
Zhang tendered his resignation after he was found to be in violation of Communist Party discipline and state law, a well known euphemism for corruption, said Thepaper.cn citing a report from the NPC.
Zhang’s downfall comes amid a number of investigations in recent months of top PLA brass, including General Tian Xiusi, former political commissar for the PLA Air Force.
There is also widespread speculation about the detention of others, such as General Wang Jianping, a deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department under the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC).
Zhang, 59, had been the founding chief of the Strategic Planning Department under the former General Staff Headquarters before being promoted to the chief of staff in the former Jinan command in December 2014.