For senior Chinese officials charged with wrongdoing, the road to justice is often long and winding. The first step is usually detention, interrogation and an internal investigation conducted quietly by the disciplinary arm of the Communist Party. This triggers frantic but uninformed chatter about the official’s disappearance. Weeks or months later, state-controlled media confirm that he or she has been removed from their post and is under investigation. Some time after that it is announced that the official has been stripped of party membership. The matter then gets turned over to the justice system.
Two notable figures have now reached the end of that process. Li Shangfu (pictured) and Wei Fenghe are former generals in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Both men served as defence minister. Last summer they disappeared from public view and in the autumn Mr Li was removed from his post (Mr Wei had retired). On June 27th the official news agency, Xinhua, reported that they were being probed for “serious” crimes. Each man had accepted “a huge amount of money and valuables” in bribes, alleged investigators. The Politburo has expelled them from the party. They will now face criminal charges from military prosecutors.
The cases of Messrs Li and Wei are part of a wider crackdown on corruption and malfeasance in the armed forces launched last year by China’s ruler, Xi Jinping. Before serving as defence minister from 2018 to 2023, Mr Wei had been in charge of the PLA’s Rocket Force, which is responsible for the country’s arsenal of land-based conventional and strategic missiles. Several leaders of the force, along with a handful of other generals, were dismissed from China’s legislature last year, losing their immunity from arrest or criminal charges.
The upheaval hints at serious problems with Mr Xi’s efforts to revitalise China’s armed forces. Shortly after coming to power in 2012 he had a first go at tackling corruption, which was rife. Dozens of generals were dismissed, including two retired ones who had served at the top of the army, Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou. Yet even after that clean-up effort, high-level graft seemingly persists.
As a result, some have questioned China’s military readiness. Earlier this year Bloomberg, a news agency, reported that corruption in the rocket force had resulted in missiles loaded with water instead of fuel. American intelligence analysts were quoted as saying that graft in China’s defence-industrial base was so bad that Mr Xi would probably shy away from military confrontation in the coming years.
State media’s reporting on the latest probes suggests that party leaders are furious. The alleged actions of Messrs Li and Wei are being painted as a betrayal. Both men were appointed by Mr Xi. According to Xinhua, Mr Li has “brought enormous damage to the party’s cause”, while Mr Wei “lost his faith and loyalty”.
Wayward leadership in the army, however, is not Mr Xi’s only problem. Around the same time that Messrs Li and Wei went missing, another murky scandal emerged, this one at the top of China’s foreign ministry. With the clear backing of Mr Xi a diplomat called Qin Gang had leap-frogged other officials, becoming foreign minister in 2022. Last June he disappeared amid rumours of indiscretions in his personal life.
Mr Qin has since been removed as foreign minister and stripped of other titles. But he has not been kicked out of the party, nor charged with corruption. He may avoid the fate of Messrs Li and Wei. On the path to justice, they are at the point where things tend to speed up. Trial, conviction and sentencing are the final steps.
© 2024, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. From The Economist, published under licence. The original content can be found on www.economist.com
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