PLA celebrates 87th anniversary amid anti-graft campaign

Modernising at a feverish pace, China's 2.3 million-strong military, the world's largest, today celebrated its 87th anniversary amid an intensified anti-graft campaign in the aftermath of series of corruption scandals involving some of its top Generals.
Corruption dominated President Xi Jinping's message to the military on the eve of the anniversary in which he pledged carry on a harsh strike against graft in the military.
Official media write-ups too focused more on anti-corruption campaign in the military ranks than the achievements of the army, whose annual budget now stands at USD 132 billion compared to India's USD 38 billion.
"Over the past year, negative news about the army seems to have been more common than at any time in recent years. The nation was shocked by the exposure of a few corrupt high-ranking military officers, especially Xu Caihou, the former vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission", state-run Global Times said in its editorial today.

Several top military officials are under the scanner. Most significant was the case of Gen Xu Caihou, the powerful Vice Chairman of Military Commission under previous President Hu Jintao who controlled the armed forces till 2012.
Another case was that of Gu Junshan, the disgraced former PLA deputy logistics head who was found to have amassed vast wealth. Gu owned dozens of properties in Beijing while his brother, who set up plants to produce military supplies, had built seven villas.

Gu's compound occupied nearly a hectare of land. It was built on the model of Forbidden City.
During a search of Gu's Puyang villa a year ago, a golden statue of Mao Zedong, a golden washbasin, a golden statue of ship and boxes of Moutai were confiscated by authorities were found, according to recent media reports.

"But this year is also a year in which the Chinese army has put more effort into shoring up Chinese national security. It has played an increasingly important role in dealing with simmering situations in the South China Sea," the editorial said.
The anniversary was celebrated with a live fire military exercises which threw the country's air traffic out of gear, resulting in cancellation of hundreds of flights.