(TibetanReview.net, Mar05, 2015) – Another top retired Chinese military officer is said to be under corruption probe, although an official announcement has mentioned the name only of his son, who is a serving officer, reported Reuters Mar 3. It named there retired officer as Guo Boxiong, 72, a vice chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission until he stepped down in 2012.
Guo joins another former Central Military Commission vice chairman, Xu Caihou, who was put under investigation last year for corruption. Current Chinese President Xi Jinping Xi was also a vice chairman with Guo and Xu from 2010-2012 before he became the head of the party and military commission chief.
The report noted that China had announced an investigation into Guo’s son, Guo Zhenggang, 45, a deputy political commissar of the military in the eastern province of Zhejiang, on Mar 2. He had just been promoted to a major general in January.
Reuters said two independent sources had confirmed that the senior Guo himself was in trouble and was being investigated. “The announcement about his son was a message” to the public about the father’s probe, the reported quoted the unnamed source, having close ties to the military, as saying.
The report noted that China had announced investigations into more than a dozen senior military officials on serious corruption charges, 14 of them on Mar 2, including Guo’s son. It added that many of those implicated had ties to the scandal involving Xu.
President Xi, who heads the Central Military Commission, has made weeding out corruption in the military a top goal. The report cited serving and retired military officers as saying graft in the armed forces was so pervasive that it could undermine China’s ability to wage war. This especially referred to that fact that in one case, a senior officer was accused of making millions of dollars from selling hundreds of military positions.