China’s former defence ministers Li Shangfu and Wei Fenghe sacked for corruption

China’s ruling Communist Party has sacked two former defence ministers for corruption, a development that revealed how graft had plagued the top brass of Asia’s largest military.

Li Shangfu, whose public disappearance in 2023 had sparked speculation, was found to have accepted bribes, as did his predecessor Wei Fenghe, according to Chinese state media reports on June 27.

Both men had “gravely hurt the work of the party”, the development of defence and the image of senior leaders, said a report by the Central Military Commission (CMC), China’s top military body, in the first official explanation for Li’s sudden removal.

Wei was defence minister from 2018 to 2023, while Li was sacked from his job in October 2023 after just seven months, making him China’s shortest-serving defence minister.

Wei, now 70, previously commanded the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force, created by President Xi Jinping in 2015 to control conventional and nuclear missiles.

China had prided itself on developing intercontinental missiles that could reach the United States and hypersonic missiles capable of evading US defences.

Before the 66-year-old Li became defence minister, he had been in charge of the PLA department for procuring and developing military equipment.

China has invested heavily to upgrade its equipment in a bid to modernise its fighting force.

The actions of Li, who was found to have given bribes for his own career advancement, “severely contaminated the political environment of the equipment sector in the military and the ethics of relevant industries”, said the official Xinhua news agency.

The commission did not say whether the two men’s cases were connected nor specify the quantum of the bribes, though “huge” sums of money were said to be involved. Their cases will be heard by a martial court, and more details are likely to be made known after their trials.

China’s military has undergone a sweeping anti-corruption purge since 2023, with 11 PLA generals and a handful of aerospace defence industry executives removed as parliamentarians.

The Rocket Force underwent a major shake-up in July 2023, with its commander and political commissar replaced.

Both Wei and Li could not have risen in the military without the nod of Mr Xi, who became the de facto commander-in-chief in 2012 by virtue of his title as chairman of the CMC.

Another high-profile disappearance in 2023 was that of China’s former foreign minister Qin Gang, who vanished from public view in June 2023 months after taking up the job. He was removed as foreign minister a month later. His fate is still unknown.

Observers say the corruption allegations against Wei and Li are an embarrassment for Mr Xi, who had removed several top military officers at the start of his first term in the name of fighting corruption. But the very generals Mr Xi had appointed to replace generals toppled for graft are now themselves said to be guilty of accepting bribes.

“The buck should stop with him since he promoted all of them, but he will probably emerge looking good for being tough on corruption,” a China-based military diplomat told The Straits Times, declining to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Chinese commentators have indeed painted the sackings as proof that the state is serious about combating graft.

“This shows that the military is determined to fight corruption; no matter how high level or how influential the bad apples are, they will not be tolerated,” Mr Song Zhongping, a military commentator, told ST.

Analysts, however, doubt that corruption can be eradicated, even with the removal of the two former ministers, who have also been stripped of their military titles.

“We have to be forever on the road of fighting corruption,” said Mr Song.