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China has put its defence minister under investigation in the latest corruption-related scandal to hit the top of the People’s Liberation Army, according to current and former US officials familiar with the situation.
Admiral Dong Jun, who was named in December 2023 after his predecessor was fired for corruption, is being investigated as part of a broader probe into graft in the PLA, the US officials said.
He is the third consecutive serving or former defence minister to be investigated for alleged corruption.
Dong succeeded General Li Shangfu, who was ousted after just seven months in the job. Both men were appointed by President Xi Jinping.
The Financial Times was the first to report that US officials believed Li was under investigation for corruption. Li had succeeded Wei Fenghe who was also placed under investigation for corruption after he had retired from the role.
The US official said Xi was conducting a wave of investigations into the PLA that had ensnared Dong. It remains unclear what kind of corruption allegations he is facing.
China’s embassy in Washington declined to comment.
The news comes a week after Dong attended an Asian defence meeting in Laos at which he refused to meet US defence secretary Lloyd Austin — which Austin described as “unfortunate”. The two men had first met in Singapore in May at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue defence forum in the first significant minister-level engagement between the two militaries since November 2022.
China’s defence ministry blamed the US for the rebuff, saying Washington was “solely responsible” because it had recently approved a package of weapons for Taiwan, which for the first time included advanced surface-to-air missiles.
The dispute came days after US President Joe Biden and Xi met at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Peru and reiterated that their militaries should continue to hold direct communications.
China shut down military communication channels with the US in August 2022 after Nancy Pelosi became the first Speaker of the US House of Representatives to visit Taiwan in 25 years.
Xi agreed to reopen the channels when he held a summit with Biden in San Francisco a year ago, paving the way for Dong and Austin to meet.
The investigation into Dong suggests Xi is broadening his probe into corruption in the PLA. In addition to the removal of the defence minister’s two predecessors, China’s president had previously removed the two officers who headed the PLA Rocket Forces and oversaw China’s nuclear weapons programme.
In 2022, Xi also removed Qin Gang, who he had appointed as foreign minister, following reports of an extramarital affair with a Chinese woman in the US.
US military officers and officials have suggested investigations into the PLA were undermining Xi’s confidence in his military and raising questions about whether it would develop the capability to invade Taiwan by 2027 — a goal set by the Chinese president.
Unlike the role of defence secretary in the US government, the defence minister in China is not the most powerful military figure in the Chinese system, which is headed by the vice-chairs of the Central Military Commission. Instead the defence minister serves as the international face of the PLA.
Earlier this year, Dong was not appointed to the CMC as expected, in an unusual development that raised questions about his tenure.