China’s military redoubles corruption fight in wake of Zhang Youxia’s downfall
PLA mouthpiece warns troops not to be blindly optimistic or totally pessimistic about winning the war against graft
China’s unrelenting anti-corruption drive will improve – not compromise – the military’s fighting strength, two signed commentaries published in the PLA Daily have argued.
The articles – one on Friday and the other on Saturday – in the People’s Liberation Army mouthpiece called corruption the “number one killer” of battle effectiveness and cautioned against both “unrealistic optimism” and “harmful pessimism” about the anti-graft campaign – suggesting the crackdown on corruption will not end any time soon.
It said the investigations into top generals Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli sent a clear signal that the Communist Party was willing to go as far as it could to purge any corruption – a source of political risk in the military.
The article was similar in tone to the one on Friday written by a researcher at the National Defence University.
“Corruption is the first killer of combat ability,” it said.