This material belongs to: GBTimes.
Fang Fenghui, once one of China’s top commanders, is to be prosecuted for corruption, making him the seventh general to be caught up in the high-profile anti-corruption campaign launched by Chinese president Xi Jinping.
Fang, 66, disappeared from public view in October, 2017, triggering rumours that he was under investigation. It was confirmed by state-run news agency Xinhua on Tuesday evening that military prosecutors were investigating him on charges of bribery. However, very little other information has been released.
Fang is the ex-chief of the Joint Staff Department of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and former member of the Central Military Commission (CMC), which runs the PLA. He was thrust into the national spotlight in 2009, due to his role as the chief commander of the military parade that commemorated the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.
According to a report by Liberation Army Daily, the Chinese military’s main newspaper, it has been suggested that Fang belongs to a group of corrupt commanders that includes two disgraced CMC vice-chairmen in Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou.
Last November, Fang’s colleague Zhang Yang, who was also a member of the CMC and the former director of the Political Work Department, hung himself in his home amid an ongoing investigation into his links to Guo and Xu.
