No more singing generals and dancing majors in Chinese military: Xi Jinping
President Xi Jinping gave the People’s Liberation Army’s musicians a rare public scolding on Monday for “fooling the masses” after a series of reports exposed their privileged lifestyle and commercial exploitation of their military status.
President Xi Jinping gave the People’s Liberation Army’s musicians a rare public scolding on Monday for “fooling the masses” after a series of reports exposed their privileged lifestyle and commercial exploitation of their military status.
The PLA Daily, the armed forces’ mouthpiece, on its front-page, announced new measures by the PLA’s General Political Department to curtail the privileges of the military’s art troupes. The new measures were approved by Xi.
Xi’s wife Peng Liyuan, a renowned soprano opera singer, famously served as the youngest ever civilian major general of the PLA’s General Political Department’s dance troupe before her husband’s rise to the presidency.
The decision comes after a series of scandals exposed the privileged lifestyle of some of the military’s art troupes’ most prominent members.
Famous Tibetan-Chinese singer Han Hong, deputy head of the dance troupe of the PLA Air Force, had to apologise after getting caught three times for violating traffic regulations in Beijing while driving a black Ferrari and a Land Rover.