PLA Air Force demotes 190 senior pilots amid clean-up campaign
The PLA Air Force has disqualified more than 190 senior pilots from the posts as leaders and coaches, although they can still fly the warplanes, state media said on Friday. The campaign was introduced by President Xi Jinping last year, who is also chairman of the PLA’s top brass – the Central Military Commission.
The PLA Air Force has disqualified more than 190 senior pilots from the posts as leaders and coaches, although they can still fly the warplanes, state media said on Friday.
China National Radio reported that about 190 pilots, who had been under scrutiny as part of the military’s recent anti-corruption campaign, had been demoted.
The campaign was introduced by President Xi Jinping last year, who is also chairman of the PLA’s top brass – the Central Military Commission.
The demotions were based on the assessment of an officer’s skills and their personal life.
The PLA launched the campaign to rectify “unhealthy tendencies” in the military early last year, and to clean up any misuse of army assets among the rank-and-file soldiers. About 27,000 apartments or houses were found to be wrongly allocated to officers and some 29,000 vehicles deemed unnecessary were decommissioned.
All of the pilots were holding positions as flight commanders, flying instructors or flight leaders before they were demoted, according to the CNR report.