Soviet Lessons for Chinese Purges

Aug 13, 2015 Minxin Pei

Chinese President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption drive has entered its most dangerous phase: a purge of some of the highest-ranking officers in the People's Liberation Army. Will this effort deepen the PLA's loyalty to the Communist Party, or weaken the military at a critical moment, as Stalin's purge did just before the Nazi invasion?

CLAREMONT, CALIFORNIA – On August 1, China’s People’s Liberation Army celebrated its 88th anniversary. But the country’s 2.3 million soldiers have little to cheer about. On the eve of the anniversary, the PLA’s former top general, Guo Boxiong, was unceremoniously booted out of the Communist Party and handed over to military prosecutors to face corruption charges, including allegations that he took large bribes from fellow PLA officers in exchange for promotions. And Guo will not be the last PLA officer to face such charges.

Guo, a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, was in charge of the military’s day-to-day affairs from 2002 to 2012. His arrest follows that of General Xu Caihou, who served on the commission from 2007 to 2012, in June of last year.

Guo and Xu are not the only senior officers to have fallen since their commander-in-chief, President Xi Jinping, launched his war on corruption at the end of 2012. Based on official data, 39 generals (including Guo’s son, a major general) have already been arrested. And if there is merit to the allegations that a large number of generals bribed Guo and Xu for their promotions, it is reasonable to assume that the most wide-ranging purge of senior PLA officers since the Cultural Revolution will continue.

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0 Comments on this paragraph, 4 Comments on this article

Mirek Fatyga Aug 17, 2015

why is this organization providing a venue for musings on how to strengthen Chinese fascism the right way, which is what the rule of formerly Communist Party in China currently is? Musings that end with an advice that one should only kill in moderation, not to repeat small though damaging mistakes of Uncle Joe?

What is this Project Syndicate anyway?
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Matthew Hall Aug 17, 2015

So, any hopes of democratization in china are absurd and it will remain a staunchly and aggressively authoritarian regime. Got it. What I wouldn't give to hear Bill Clinton say he was wrong about supporting china entry into the WTO.
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j. von Hettlingen Aug 13, 2015

Although making a priority to combat graft in the army will tackle public disaffection and raise internal morale, yet observers say Xi may have to tread carefully. Many fear that his zeal serves most likely to eradicate the top brass, that might pose a threat to his leadership and to replace with those, who are loyal to him. He demands absolute obedience from the army, which "must resolutely conform to orders from the party Central Committee and the Central Military Commission".
No doubt corruption had reached an unprecedented level. Two former top generals, Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou are said to have sold hundreds of positions, often for hundreds of thousands of dollars each, triggering the fear that the army has an inferior personnel. Besides kickbacks and embezzlement in procurement had led to cut corners and reduced efficiency. Officiers who have paid for their positions, may try to recoup the cost, creating a vicious circle of bribery.
Even if Xi has supporters within the army, who see corruption as sapping the discipline and quality of the PLA, no one is particularly keen to see their dirty laundry being washed in public. As the military ethos of unconditional obedience to superiors is still widespread, it takes time for the army to push through structural reforms.
Apart from securing the the PLA’s "loyalty", Xi's other main concern is an army, that has not been tested in combat for decades. He said once that a corrupt army had no "ability" to fight and win a war. He will take the opportunity to demonstrate China's growing might on September 3, when a high-profile military parade is scheduled to take place in Beijing. Officially, the march aims to commemorate the end of the second world war and to remind the world of the loss of millions of Chinese lives. But Xi hopes to send a message about his power over the military, that he may be China's most formidable leader since Mao. “Forgetting history is a betrayal,” he said earlier this month.
Does Pei believe that Xi fears of suffering the same fate as Nikita Khrushchev, who was ousted in "a palace coup" in 1964, "sponsored by the KGB", which without the blessing of the Red Army wouldn't have "succeeded"?
Indeed, time will tell, whether Xi would be able "to root out corruption in the PLA", which will be a "stroke of political genius". But then pushing too far would also prove his undoing, a lesson that Stalin had learned, by annihilating "the Red Army's officer corps on the eve of Nazi Germany's invasion".
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Michael Public Aug 13, 2015

Referring to your last two sentences: I think it unlikely that Nazi Germany will be invading China anytime soon.
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