2 top former generals expelled from CPC

China yesterday expelled two disgraced former generals from the Communist Party of China for corruption — one of them posthumously — saying the pair’s disloyalty and greed had damaged the military.

One was Fang Fenghui, a former member of China’s Central Military Commission and former chief of staff of the CMC Joint Staff Department.

Fang’s expulsion was approved by the CPC Central Committee, while the CMC had already expelled him from the People’s Liberation Army and stripped him of his rank of general, according to a CMC statement yesterday.

“Fang severely violated political discipline, the political code of conduct, the eight-point frugality code of the CPC Central Committee and the regulations and discipline of the military,” the statement read.

Fang, 67, was suspected of offering and taking bribes and possessing a large amount of property from unidentified sources, which are “extremely serious violations involving a huge amount of assets and had caused an extremely bad influence,” the CMC said.

Neither loyal nor honest to the CPC, Fang was found to “have been duplicitous, disintegrated politically and grown greedy economically, severely damaging the Party’s cause and the image of the military,” according to the statement.

The investigation into Fang’s case has concluded, and the case will be transferred to a judiciary committee for prosecution. 

The other one was Zhang Yang, a former member of the CMC and former head of the CMC Political Work Department who killed himself in November last year.

Property involved in Zhang’s case will be confiscated in accordance with laws and disciplines, a statement said.

The CMC decided to expel Zhang from the military and strip him of his rank of general, it said.

Zhang committed suicide at his home in Beijing after authorities launched an investigation into his links to two corrupt former senior military figures Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou.

With the approval of the CPC Central Committee, the CMC investigated Zhang’s case and found he had violated the Party’s political discipline and rules, organizational discipline, and discipline on upholding integrity, as well as national laws and regulations.

He was also suspected of offering and accepting bribes and holding a huge amount of property from unidentified sources, said the statement, describing Zhang’s case as “extremely serious” with “extremely vile” influences.

Disloyal and dishonest to the Party, Zhang was a person of duplicity who was politically decayed, economically greedy, and lived a degenerate life. He committed suicide to evade punishment, the statement said.