Military casualties: top Chinese officers to die since the launch of Xi Jinping’s anti-graft drive

General Zhang Yang, a former head of the powerful Central Military Commission’s (CMC) political work department, committed suicide last week while under investigated for corruption, Chinese state media reported on Tuesday. Zhang was one of the highest ranked military chiefs to die under a cloud since Chinese President Xi Jinping launched his anti-graft campaign after taking office in November 2012. Other prominent serving and former members of the military to die in the last five years include:

Xu Caihou

A CMC vice-chairman under former president Hu Jintao, Xu retired from the military in 2012. He came under investigation for corruption in March 2014 and was expelled from the Communist Party in June 2014. About a year into the investigation, Xu died in hospital of advanced bladder cancer, Xinhua reported in March 2015. He was accused of taking “huge amounts of bribes personally and through his family”, abusing his position to promote favoured candidates. According to Chinese media, it took a week to catalogue all the cash, jewels and antiques amassed in Xu’s Beijing home, and 12 trucks to remove the haul.

Ma Faxiang