Chinese general takes Mao devotion too far

January 15, 2014 8:00 am

Chinese general takes Mao devotion too far

By Demetri Sevastopulo in Hong Kong

Celebrating Chairman Mao Zedong is not a crime in China, unless you happen to have done so with the help of a pure gold statue of the former Chinese leader. Chinese media reported on Wednesday that police raided the home of Lieutenant General Gu Junshan, former deputy head of the People’s Liberation Army general logistics department, in connection with one of the most serious military graft scandalsto come to light in years.Caixin, a well-respected magazine, said 20 paramilitary officers spent two nights from Sunday removing large numbers of items from the general’s family home in Henan province that included a model ship made of gold. It said he also had numerous properties in Beijing that he allegedly told investigators were for gifts.

Gen Gu was removed from his post in 2012 shortly after General Liu Yuan – head of the logistics department and a close ally of disgraced politician Bo Xilai – warned about a “dangerous” level of corruption in the military. At the time, military sources confirmed that Gen Gu was being investigated for corruption.

The raid came just as President Xi Jinping was preparing to deliver his latest salvo to Communist party officials about the need to rein in corruption. Speaking to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Mr Xi said corruption was “a disease that calls for powerful drugs”, according to Xinhua, the state news media.

“Every Central Party Committee official should keep in mind that all dirty hands will be caught,” Xinhua quoted Mr Xi as telling officials. “Senior officials should hold party disciplines in awe and stop taking chances.”

A year ago, soon after he assumed the mantle of head of the Communist party, Mr Xi vowed to crack down on “tigers” and “flies”, in a reference to the need to stamp out graft at all levels of the party. A parallel austerity drive has hit everything from sales of exotic foods such as hairy crabs and shark fin, to luxury suitcases.

Chinese media has reported that the CCDI punished 182,000 party officials in 2013, a rise of 13 per cent from 2012, and that eight of the high-profile cases it investigated were referred to prosecutors.

In December, the legislature in Hunan, Mao’s provincial home, suspended dozens of politicians over a vote-buying scandal, in a public example of Mr Xi’s anti-graft campaign.

But the highest profile case last year was the downfall of Bo Xilai, the former high-flying party secretary of Chongqing, who received a life prison sentence for corruption, a decision that came after his wife was imprisoned for murdering a British businessman.

Investigations have also snared senior officials from Xinjiang in the northwest to Guangdong in the southeast. In a sign of the seriousness of the campaign, investigators are probing senior executives from state-owned energy companies, including several with close ties to Zhou Yongkang, an ally of Bo and former member of the Politburo Standing Committee that essentially rules China.