Suspended death sentences reaffirm that no one is immune from China’s anti-graft drive

Many were shocked by the latest punishments handed out in President Xi Jinping’s relentless anti-corruption campaign. Death sentences on two former defence ministers, to be commuted after a two-year reprieve to imprisonment for life without possibility of parole, were the harshest yet for military officials since the campaign began in 2012.

This signals the seriousness of the latest cases. Undivided loyalty to the Communist Party is paramount in the military. Corruption is an intolerable betrayal seen to compromise its effectiveness as a fighting force. The sentences on Li Shangfu, defence minister from March to October 2023, and Wei Fenghe, minister from 2017 to 2023, reaffirm that no one is immune from the anti-corruption drive, whatever their rank. In that regard, as long ago as 2017, Beijing observed that more Chinese generals had fallen in the campaign than died in battle in revolutionary times of the 20th century.

An editorial in the PLA Daily said the pair had “severely polluted the political environment of the military, and caused immense damage to the party’s cause, national defence, military construction and the image of senior leaders”. Some in the West still see the anti-corruption campaign as a political purge. That is a misleading stereotype. Xi has warned many times that anti-corruption is “always on the road”, neither turning back, nor relaxing in intensity nor showing any mercy. He knows that a military force beset from within by moral decay will not be as effective at winning battles.

At a pivotal time for China’s role as a world power, it needs a powerful military force to defend national interests at home and abroad. Tolerance of corruption is incompatible with that goal. The PLA Daily editorial argued that the anti-corruption campaign had made the military’s transformation in the new era possible. Beijing has set itself the goal of building a “world-class” modern army by 2050, with major progress in time for the PLA’s centenary next year.

More top Chinese generals have been put under investigation in the past year, including Miao Hua, former head of the Central Military Commission’s political work department, former CMC vice-chairmen He Weidong and Zhang Youxia, as well as Liu Zhenli, former PLA chief of joint staff. This has prompted some to assume China’s military leadership is in chaos. Again this is a misunderstanding of China’s political system under Xi’s leadership. Left unchecked by resolute intolerance, official corruption is a cancer that could even undermine the political legitimacy of the party’s rule.

At a time of global uncertainty and instability and regional conflict, China needs to build a modern military force of undivided loyalty to the party that can safeguard national interests.