‘Political mistakes’, more than graft, led to downfall of Chinese military chiefs Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou
The downfalls of the two former Central Military Commission vice-chairmen Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou were more about their political mistakes than their notorious corruption, according to the People’s Liberation Army’s mouthpiece newspaper.
The assertion was made in an article by the PLA Daily yesterday which stressed that securing the Communist Party’s absolute leadership over the army was of ultimate importance.
“The key point in the downfall of both Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou was their violation of the bottom line of the party’s political discipline, rather than the corruption they committed, though the latter is notorious and appalling,” article said.
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The article was the third in a series of stories presenting President Xi Jinping’s vision for the military.
Guo was last month transferred to prosecutors on charges of taking huge amounts of bribes.
Xu died in March last year before he could be formally prosecuted.
“In an attempt to secure the party’s absolute leadership over the army”, the top priority was to ensure the quality of senior military cadres, the military mouthpiece said.
“If the army gets into trouble, there must be something wrong among senior cadres within our party.”
Senior cadres enjoyed enormous power along with their high rankings, but this meant any mistakes they made could be serious, it said.
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And when they made political mistakes, the damage could be even more severe.
“Over a period of time, the credibility and prestige of pushing forward political work within the army was sabotaged for numerous reasons,” the article said.
The imminent task was to re-establish the credibility and prestige of political work with the armed forces, to encourage virtues among senior cadres such as matching words with deeds and setting good examples through conduct.
On Tuesday, the PLA Daily said China’s defence budget could not maintain a “normal growth” rate because of the economic downturn.
