The Chinese military's mouthpiece on Wednesday hailed the recent expulsion of two top generals from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Liberation Army (PLA), saying their removal would promote the “purity and honour” of the military and enable it to accomplish its missions and tasks.
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The CCP expelled Generals Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli from the party and military on Monday for "serious violations of discipline and the law."
“The serious investigation and punishment of the two eliminated a major hidden political danger for the party and the military and constitutes a major victory in the military’s tough, protracted and overall battle against corruption,” PLA Daily, the mouthpiece of the Chinese military, said in a front-page editorial, referring to Zhang and Liu.
“The PLA has thoroughly uncovered the lingering poisonous influences and accumulated ills, undergone tempering and forging from the inside out, which has ‘continuously improved the morale and spirit of the troops’,” the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quoted the editorial as saying.
The editorial further stated that the “international situation, national conditions and party and military conditions are all undergoing complex and profound changes” and therefore “we must unify our thinking and actions with the decisions and arrangements of the party Central Committee and the CMC”.
The Central Military Commission (CMC) is the overall high command of the PLA, headed by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Zhang, 75, served as a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and vice chairman of the CMC, while 61-year-old Liu served as a CMC member and chief of staff of the CMC's joint staff department. Zhang was also a member of the 24-man Politburo, the top decision-making body of the CPC.
They are decorated war heroes and the only CMC members with combat experience. Both took part in PLA campaigns against Vietnam in the late 1970s.
The sacking of Zhang, the highest-ranking military official, in particular, has sent shockwaves through the Chinese military establishment.
Xi, since taking charge in 2012, has been publicly asserting that the country's military should function under CPC leadership and strictly follow its policies.
Dozens of senior PLA officers have been sacked or punished under an intensified anti-corruption campaign carried out by Xi, which critics say consolidated his hold on power. It included two former defence ministers and dozens of senior PLA officers.
(with PTI inputs)
