A retired PLA general widely accredited with launching the protective body armour industry in China is being investigated for corruption, the army’s mouthpiece said on Wednesday. Zhou Guotai, 66, was the deputy head of supplies and fuel at the General Logistics Department, a persistent source of graft in the military, before he reached retirement age. Zhou was being investigated for “suspected serious discipline violations” by the department’s corruption watchdog, the website of the People’s Liberation Army Daily reported. His case had been handed over to military prosecutors. Zhou’s downfall came after the Central Military Commission sent graft inspection teams to its four general headquarters, including the logistics wing, at the end of last month. The logistics department has come under heavy scrutiny in President Xi Jinping’s push to root out corruption in the military. Two deputy heads of the department, Gu Junshan and Liu Zheng, have fallen in the campaign. Gu was handed a suspended death sentence in August, while Liu remains under investigation. Hailed as “the father of China’s body armour,” Zhou has dedicated most of his career to researching protective gear. His body armour is used by the military and police, and exported to more than 10 countries, including the United States. He has been awarded a slew of prizes for his achievements in the industry and was elected as a member of the prestigious Chinese Academy of Engineering in 1999. Zhou joined the PLA in 1968, starting out as a soldier stationed at a post overlooking a tree orchard at the General Logistics Department in Beijing. He was later transferred to an atomic bomb test base in western Xinjiang province, where he was tasked with looking after dogs used for radiation tests. It was during his time at the test site when he decided to devote himself to researching body armour, according to an earlier report by the China Science Daily . “If you haven’t experienced it, you will never understand how cruel wars are. Only when the dogs with burn wounds laid down on me with teary eyes did I realised the cruelty of war,” Zhou was quoted as saying by the Daily . “That’s why I wanted to conduct research on [body armour]. Others study the spear, and I wanted to study the shield – to protect the mankind.”