THERE had been rumours of his downfall since last year. On July 30th, they got him: Guo Boxiong, former vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, which runs China’s armed forces, was expelled from the Communist Party for taking bribes. He is the most senior ranking official in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to be toppled for corruption.
The move is a sign that President Xi Jinping’s campaign against corruption is still running at full tilt. Mr Guo’s son, also a senior officer, was put under investigation in March. But after Zhou Yongkang, China’s former security chief, was sentenced to life imprisonment in June for graft and leaking state secrets, some China-watchers suggested that Mr Xi might now scale back his efforts. The latest expulsion proves that view wrong. “One demon killed, all demons deterred,” ran a line in an article about Mr Guo in People’s Daily, a government mouthpiece.
The arrest is a further assertion of Mr Xi’s control over the military; he has stressed the “absolute...Continue reading
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