PLA’s new top-level anti-corruption units swing into action
Inspectors have completed training and will be organised into 10 groups to look over other departments in the Central Military Commission and new theatre commands
China’s military has for the first time installed anti-corruption inspection units in its newly restructured departments and theatre commands.
The system is modelled on the one established to stamp out graft in civilian government departments and Communist Party organs.
The PLA Daily reported on Thursday that the graft inspectors completed two days of training in Beijing on Wednesday. The inspectors will be divided into 10 groups that will fan out to the theatre commands and other departments under the Central Military Commission.
The report did not specify how the 10 teams would be divided among the departments and commands, saying only that some of them would oversee several units.
The move is the latest push in President Xi Jinping’s sweeping campaign to root out deeply ingrained corruption in the People’s Liberation Army, the world’s largest military.
The crackdown has netted scores of officers, including the two of the PLA’s former top generals, Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong. Xu and Guo were deputy chairmen of the powerful CMC until their retirement in 2013. Xu died last year.
Retired major general Xu Guangyu said the insertion of anti-corruption inspection units in the military “drew on the successful experience” of the corruption crackdown in the party and the civil service.
Xu Guangyu said the disciplinary units in the military would be better at cracking down on graft because they would be more active and efficient.
Similar inspection units have been set up at the provincial level by relevant graft watchdogs.
In January, the organisation of the military was completely overhauled. The PLA’s previous four general headquarters were disbanded and reformed, and the military’s discipline commission, which investigates corruption, became one of 15 new functional departments directly under the CMC.
The other major reform was to reorganise the seven military area commands into five new theatre commands.
Xi upgraded the military’s disciplinary inspection body, once assigned to the General Political Department, into an independent department to grant it greater independence and authority.
It is now under the direct oversight of the CMC – together with the other 14 departments – and on the same rank as the new Political Work Department.
Xu Qiliang, a vice-chairman of the CMC, called for the inspectors to establish their authority and take advantage of their new standing to fully implement the oversight of officers’ political loyalty, power and responsibility, the PLA Daily reported.
