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Was General Zhang Youxia one of the ‘big rats’ eating China’s military budget?
A PLA Daily article links corrupt practices with damage to combat readiness – Xi Jinping’s top priority
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Amber Wangin Beijing
In its latest efforts to reinforce the Communist Party line in China’s armed forces, the PLA Daily took aim at one particular invasive species: “big rats”.
The rats were eating away at the PLA’s budget and undermining combat readiness, the military mouthpiece said, adding that they had to be eradicated.
“[We] must take strong and forceful measures to crack down on corrupt practices that undermine the building of combat abilities, and thoroughly investigate and root out those ‘big rats’ who tamper with military spending,” the PLA Daily said in a commentary on Friday.
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It was an unusual literary reference for the publication and dates back to the Book of Songs in classical Chinese poetry.
It refers to greedy and corrupt officials and is one of the most enduring political metaphors in Chinese culture – one that observers said could give some insight into the announcement a week earlier of the sudden downfall of two top generals, Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli.
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Authorities have offered no details about the case against Zhang, the country’s top uniformed officer and the first-ranked vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and Liu, chief of the CMC Joint Staff Department.
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