First woman general targeted by Xi's corruption crackdown
Gao Xiaoyan becomes the first high-ranking female officer to be detained in President Xi Jinping's crackdown, Caixin report says
The first female general to be targeted by President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption crackdown has been detained by authorities.
Major General Gao Xiaoyan, the deputy commissar of the PLA Information Engineering University, has been accused of taking bribes linked to construction projects, Beijing media group Caixin reported on its website.
Gao, a secretary of the university's Commission for Discipline Inspection, is the first female general detained in Xi's mainland’s aggressive anti-corruption drive to target the military, the report said.
She was detained by the army’s prosecutors during the day on November 27. Later that night investigators visited her home at the 309th Hospital of the PLA in Beijing, Caixin said.
Several people at the hospital had been investigated for corruption before Gao’s detention, including the head of its management department, the report said, citing unnamed sources.
Gao, 57, a native of Shanxi province, joined the army when she was 17, public information shows.
She then worked in the political departments at a Shanxi university and a PLA scientific research centre before becoming the party secretary at the 309th Hospital in Beijing.
The report also cited an article on magazine PLA Art, which said Gao had been responsible for many major construction projects at the hospital during her seven-year stint, which began in 2005. The projects included building 15 dormitories and a garage, which could accommodate 1,000 vehicles.
In the PLA the rank of major general is below that of both lieutenant general and general and corresponds with the same ranks in the US army.
Political commissars are in charge of ideological matters and education in the branches of the PLA.
The government has cracked down on official corruption and extravagance since Xi was appointed last year. He has said that widespread graft threatens the party’s survival.
