The government said in October that Xu had confessed to taking “massive” bribes in exchange for help in promotions.
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General Guo Boxiong, who served as a vice chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission for over a decade, was found to “have taken advantage of his post to seek promotion and other benefits for others, and accepted bribes personally or through his family”, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported, quoting a Party statement. The announcement came ahead of the People’s Liberation Army’s anniversary tomorrow.
The decision was made after Thursday’s meeting reviewed and approved a report by the CMC disciplinary inspection authority on Guo’s investigation.
“His acts seriously violated Party discipline and left a vile impact”, the Politburo statement said.
China’s top newspaper lauded the decision to prosecute a former senior military officer for graft on Friday, saying in unusually strong language that a “wicked man” had been wiped out by the “anti-corruption sword”. During Hu’s administration, Xu and Guo were in charge of the PLA even though the president was nominally the head of the CMC.
The move – widely expected after he was put under investigation in April – means he will nearly certainly face trial, with a guilty sentence and jail term effectively guaranteed to follow in a court system controlled by the Communist Party.
“With his long experience of working at the front lines, Guo was a leader who had a much deeper network of personnel ties than Xu”, a party source said.
President Xi Jinping has led a major anti-corruption campaign since taking office three years ago.
An editorial in the state-backed People’s Daily said the fall of Guo “demonstrated (the) Chinese leadership’s determination in purging corruption”.
His son, a navy admiral, was also detained earlier this year.
Guo’s younger brother was also in the spotlight in May after graft-busters in Shaanxi province uncovered misuse of disaster relief funds at the civil affairs bureau headed by the brother.
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Such practices are believed by some to have sapped the PLA’s morale and battle worthiness, and Xi has relentlessly driven home the need for officers to keep their hands clean during recent visits to military units.
