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CHINA’S accelerating corruption crackdown snared its most senior figure yet today when the Communist Party expelled former top general Xu Caihou to face bribery charges.
Gen Xu was deputy chairman of the party’s central military commission, which controls China’s armed forces, but is now accused of taking money and property in exchange for promotions and other favours.
President Xi Jinping has vowed to punish all corrupt officials, no matter how highly ranked.
The Xu case marks the first time since the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution that such a senior Chinese general has been detained.
He was the most senior uniformed officer and ranked behind only then president Hu Jintao, who was the commission chairman, in the military hierarchy.
Three other senior officials were expelled from the party yesterday including former deputy police minister Li Dongsheng.
Investigators found that Mr Li “took advantage of his position to seek benefits for others and extorted and received a huge amount of bribes.”
Jiang Jiemin, who once headed the state-owned assets supervision and administration commission overseeing China’s major government-owned companies, was accused of abusing his position and receiving a “huge amount of bribes.”
China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) former deputy general manager Wang Yongchun was also expelled.
Three executives of main CNPC main subsidiary PetroChina Ltd were detained last year in connection with the investigation.