:conceitedsideeye:
Chinese General Being Investigated for Bribery Kills Himself
By SUI-LEE WEENOV. 28, 2017
Zhang Yang, then head of the General Political Department of the People’s Liberation Army, in Beijing in 2014.China Stringer Network, via Reuters
BEIJING — A senior Chinese general who was under investigation for bribery has killed himself, state media said Tuesday, a development that cast a shadow over President Xi Jinping’s expanding crackdown on corruption and dissent.
The general, Zhang Yang, was found dead in his home in Beijing after hanging himself on Nov. 23, the state-run Xinhua news agency said, citing China’s Central Military Commission. The report said General Zhang was living at home while being questioned in connection with corruption charges.
Suicides by top officials are almost unheard-of in China, and the ruling Communist Party appeared uncertain how to handle the death. State-run media gave no explanation for the five-day delay in disclosing the news, and accompanied reports of the suicide with condemnations of General Zhang as a traitor and coward for taking his own life.
“In committing suicide to avoid punishment from the party and the country’s laws, Zhang Yang’s action was abominable,” said a commentary released by the People’s Liberation Army Daily, the military’s official newspaper. The commentary called General Zhang “two-faced” and his suicide “shameful.”
General Zhang, 66, had been one of 11 men on the Central Military Commission that commands the nation’s armed forces. He served as director of the military’s political department before disappearing from public sight more than two months ago.
While officials said privately that he had been targeted by Mr. Xi’s crackdown on corruption, Tuesday’s report of his death was the first formal confirmation that he was under investigation. Gen. Fang Fenghui, another rising star in the Chinese military, also vanished from public view at about the same time.
Analysts said General Zhang’s death is likely to further rattle the People’s Liberation Army, which is already reeling from dozens of arrests of top commanders. Less clear is how the suicide might affect the anti-corruption campaign that Mr. Xi has used to purge the Chinese leadership of rivals and tighten his grip on the government as well as the military, one of the nation’s most politically powerful institutions.
General Zhang’s suicide has historical resonance in China because of the large numbers of people who killed themselves under political pressure during Mao Zedong’s destructive Cultural Revolution. That may be especially true for the party’s current leaders, many of whom are of the generation that came of age during that period, perhaps the darkest chapter in Chinese Communist history.
Some specialists called the very public vilification of General Zhang a sign that Mr. Xi intends to press ahead with his crackdown, and perhaps intensify it.
Steve Tsang, head of contemporary Chinese studies at the University of Nottingham, said the death will make Mr. Xi and his new anti-corruption czar, Zhao Leji, even more determined to punish officials whom they accuse of graft.
“There is no way that Xi Jinping would relent,” Mr. Tsang said. “Xi Jinping cannot allow anything to suggest that his policy is wrong.”
He said the suicide will be used to argue that the campaign must be enforced even more rigorously to prevent traitors like General Zhang from escaping punishment.
Still, government censors were working overtime to police public discussion of the general’s death on China’s tightly controlled social media.
It is extremely rare for high-ranking Chinese officials to commit suicide even when under investigation, in part because they will most likely be spared the death sentence.
But a growing number of lower-level officials have killed themselves in recent years as the anti-graft campaign has picked up pace. From 2009 to August 2016, 243 officials committed suicide, with the numbers rising after Mr. Xi launched his anti-corruption campaign in 2012, according to the official WeChat social media account of the state-owned media group that publishes The Beijing News.
In its report of the suicide, Xinhua said the general committed “serious violations of discipline and the law and was suspected of the crimes of bribery as well as huge amounts of assets in which the sources are unknown.”
Xinhua said that at the time of his death, General Zhang was being investigated for links to Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou, the two highest-ranking army commanders netted so far in Mr. Xi’s crackdown.
Last year, General Guo, 75, was given a life sentence after a military court found him guilty of taking bribes in exchange for promotions and transfers. General Xu, 71, died in 2015 of bladder cancer while awaiting a corruption trial.
Li Mingjiang, a Chinese politics expert at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, said he could not recall the last time an official as high-ranking as General Zhang had committed suicide, even during the chaos of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.
“It doesn’t make much sense for a rational person to make such a drastic decision to end his own life,” he said of General Zhang. “Perhaps he was hoping to save others, his family members or relatives.”
Until his disappearance, General Zhang was in charge of spreading propaganda within China’s armed forces and influencing views of China’s military among its counterparts in the West.
He was considered a political star who rose quickly through the ranks, serving in places like the southern city of Guangzhou. He attained the rank of general at 58, a relatively young age for that status.
General Zhang was also loyal to Mr. Xi, at least in public. As recently as last year, he denounced the “poisonous impact of Xu and Guo” to army cadres, the state-run Beijing Youth Daily said.
Mr. Xi has used the removal of top generals to install younger commanders more loyal to him and to strengthen his grip on the military. He has also used the crackdown to advance his goal of modernizing the People’s Liberation Army by ridding it of endemic corruption and elevating the professionalism of its officer corps.
His goal is to transform the army into a leaner, more advanced fighting force capable of defending China’s territorial claims, blunting American military superiority and projecting Chinese influence globally.
Phillip C. Saunders, director of the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs at the National Defense University in Washington, said in an email that Mr. Xi’s “heavy-handed use of carrots and sticks will continue.”
“The result may be a new era in party-Army relations that will instill obedience, but also fears within the P.L.A. leadership about who will be the next to go,” Mr. Saunders said.
Some analysts described the general’s suicide as a possible act of defiance against Mr. Xi’s methods.
“The reality in China is that if you’re being investigated for corruption, there’s a 99 percent chance of being punished,” said Mr. Tsang of the University of Nottingham. “And by committing suicide, you’re defying the authority of the party to punish you.”
@DonKnock @SJUGrad13 @88m3 @Menelik II @wire28 @smitty22 @Reality @fact @Hood Critic @ExodusNirvana @Blessed Is the Man @THE MACHINE @OneManGang @dtownreppin214 @JKFrazier @tmonster @blotter @BigMoneyGrip @Soymuscle Mike @.r. @GinaThatAintNoDamnPuppy! @Cali_livin @GnauzBookOfRhymes
Chinese General Being Investigated for Bribery Kills Himself
By SUI-LEE WEENOV. 28, 2017
Zhang Yang, then head of the General Political Department of the People’s Liberation Army, in Beijing in 2014.China Stringer Network, via Reuters
BEIJING — A senior Chinese general who was under investigation for bribery has killed himself, state media said Tuesday, a development that cast a shadow over President Xi Jinping’s expanding crackdown on corruption and dissent.
The general, Zhang Yang, was found dead in his home in Beijing after hanging himself on Nov. 23, the state-run Xinhua news agency said, citing China’s Central Military Commission. The report said General Zhang was living at home while being questioned in connection with corruption charges.
Suicides by top officials are almost unheard-of in China, and the ruling Communist Party appeared uncertain how to handle the death. State-run media gave no explanation for the five-day delay in disclosing the news, and accompanied reports of the suicide with condemnations of General Zhang as a traitor and coward for taking his own life.
“In committing suicide to avoid punishment from the party and the country’s laws, Zhang Yang’s action was abominable,” said a commentary released by the People’s Liberation Army Daily, the military’s official newspaper. The commentary called General Zhang “two-faced” and his suicide “shameful.”
General Zhang, 66, had been one of 11 men on the Central Military Commission that commands the nation’s armed forces. He served as director of the military’s political department before disappearing from public sight more than two months ago.
While officials said privately that he had been targeted by Mr. Xi’s crackdown on corruption, Tuesday’s report of his death was the first formal confirmation that he was under investigation. Gen. Fang Fenghui, another rising star in the Chinese military, also vanished from public view at about the same time.
Analysts said General Zhang’s death is likely to further rattle the People’s Liberation Army, which is already reeling from dozens of arrests of top commanders. Less clear is how the suicide might affect the anti-corruption campaign that Mr. Xi has used to purge the Chinese leadership of rivals and tighten his grip on the government as well as the military, one of the nation’s most politically powerful institutions.
General Zhang’s suicide has historical resonance in China because of the large numbers of people who killed themselves under political pressure during Mao Zedong’s destructive Cultural Revolution. That may be especially true for the party’s current leaders, many of whom are of the generation that came of age during that period, perhaps the darkest chapter in Chinese Communist history.
Some specialists called the very public vilification of General Zhang a sign that Mr. Xi intends to press ahead with his crackdown, and perhaps intensify it.
Steve Tsang, head of contemporary Chinese studies at the University of Nottingham, said the death will make Mr. Xi and his new anti-corruption czar, Zhao Leji, even more determined to punish officials whom they accuse of graft.
“There is no way that Xi Jinping would relent,” Mr. Tsang said. “Xi Jinping cannot allow anything to suggest that his policy is wrong.”
He said the suicide will be used to argue that the campaign must be enforced even more rigorously to prevent traitors like General Zhang from escaping punishment.
Still, government censors were working overtime to police public discussion of the general’s death on China’s tightly controlled social media.
It is extremely rare for high-ranking Chinese officials to commit suicide even when under investigation, in part because they will most likely be spared the death sentence.
But a growing number of lower-level officials have killed themselves in recent years as the anti-graft campaign has picked up pace. From 2009 to August 2016, 243 officials committed suicide, with the numbers rising after Mr. Xi launched his anti-corruption campaign in 2012, according to the official WeChat social media account of the state-owned media group that publishes The Beijing News.
In its report of the suicide, Xinhua said the general committed “serious violations of discipline and the law and was suspected of the crimes of bribery as well as huge amounts of assets in which the sources are unknown.”
Xinhua said that at the time of his death, General Zhang was being investigated for links to Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou, the two highest-ranking army commanders netted so far in Mr. Xi’s crackdown.
Last year, General Guo, 75, was given a life sentence after a military court found him guilty of taking bribes in exchange for promotions and transfers. General Xu, 71, died in 2015 of bladder cancer while awaiting a corruption trial.
Li Mingjiang, a Chinese politics expert at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, said he could not recall the last time an official as high-ranking as General Zhang had committed suicide, even during the chaos of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.
“It doesn’t make much sense for a rational person to make such a drastic decision to end his own life,” he said of General Zhang. “Perhaps he was hoping to save others, his family members or relatives.”
Until his disappearance, General Zhang was in charge of spreading propaganda within China’s armed forces and influencing views of China’s military among its counterparts in the West.
He was considered a political star who rose quickly through the ranks, serving in places like the southern city of Guangzhou. He attained the rank of general at 58, a relatively young age for that status.
General Zhang was also loyal to Mr. Xi, at least in public. As recently as last year, he denounced the “poisonous impact of Xu and Guo” to army cadres, the state-run Beijing Youth Daily said.
Mr. Xi has used the removal of top generals to install younger commanders more loyal to him and to strengthen his grip on the military. He has also used the crackdown to advance his goal of modernizing the People’s Liberation Army by ridding it of endemic corruption and elevating the professionalism of its officer corps.
His goal is to transform the army into a leaner, more advanced fighting force capable of defending China’s territorial claims, blunting American military superiority and projecting Chinese influence globally.
Phillip C. Saunders, director of the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs at the National Defense University in Washington, said in an email that Mr. Xi’s “heavy-handed use of carrots and sticks will continue.”
“The result may be a new era in party-Army relations that will instill obedience, but also fears within the P.L.A. leadership about who will be the next to go,” Mr. Saunders said.
Some analysts described the general’s suicide as a possible act of defiance against Mr. Xi’s methods.
“The reality in China is that if you’re being investigated for corruption, there’s a 99 percent chance of being punished,” said Mr. Tsang of the University of Nottingham. “And by committing suicide, you’re defying the authority of the party to punish you.”
@DonKnock @SJUGrad13 @88m3 @Menelik II @wire28 @smitty22 @Reality @fact @Hood Critic @ExodusNirvana @Blessed Is the Man @THE MACHINE @OneManGang @dtownreppin214 @JKFrazier @tmonster @blotter @BigMoneyGrip @Soymuscle Mike @.r. @GinaThatAintNoDamnPuppy! @Cali_livin @GnauzBookOfRhymes
