By Laurie Chen
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Defense Minister Dong Jun has been placed under investigation as part of a wider anti-corruption probe that has reached the top ranks of the People’s Liberation Army, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
Dong is the third serving or former Chinese defense minister in a row to be investigated for corruption, the FT reported, citing US and former officials.
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China’s foreign and defense ministers did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
China’s military has been carrying out an anti-corruption purge since last year, with nine PLA officials and a handful of defense industry officials removed from the country’s law enforcement agency so far.
Dong, a former PLA Navy officer, was appointed defense minister in December 2023. His predecessor, Li Shangfu, was removed after seven months in office.
Last week, Dong refused to meet with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at a meeting of defense ministers in Laos to discuss the US’s actions on Taiwan, a decision the Pentagon chief said on Wednesday was wrong.
As the Minister of Defense, Dong is in charge of military cooperation with China and other countries. He noted the recent thaw in US-China military-to-military relations, with the two countries holding high-level talks for the first time in September.
But he was not promoted to the six-member Central Military Commission (CMC), China’s highest military body, during the Communist Party’s general meeting earlier this year, where staff changes would normally be announced.
China’s defense minister has always been a member of the CMC, which is chaired by China’s president, Xi Jinping, and the State Council, China’s cabinet.
Dong was not appointed to the State Government during the reshuffle of the government in March.
“To be honest, nothing would surprise me,” said Dennis Wilder, a professor at Georgetown University and a former US intelligence analyst.
“The story with this investigation in the PLA is that when corruption is pulled, many more threads are released and the sweater sinks.”
Dong’s two former leaders, Li and Wei Fenghe, were expelled from the Communist Party in June for “serious disciplinary violations”, a corruption scandal.
A Communist Party statement at the time said the pair had “betrayed the party’s trust in the Central Military Commission, seriously tarnished the political situation of the military, and caused serious damage to the … image of its senior leaders”.
The pair were also found to have cash in their pockets and “solicited help” from others, the statement said.
Reuters reported only last year that Li was being investigated for alleged corruption in military procurement.
Wei had disappeared from public view after being replaced in March 2023 during a cabinet reshuffle. Wei was the head of the Strategic People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force from 2015-17.
(Reporting by Laurie Chen; Editing by Tom Hogue and Neil Fullick)