Want to Be A Chinese Army General? Pay in Cash.

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Want to Be A Chinese Army General? Pay in Cash.
By: Michael Peck - National Interest - 7-14-19
RE: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/bu...pay-cash-66867

This can't be good at all.

When dozens of senior officers are punished for bribing their way into promotions, you know that the Chinese military has a corruption problem.

More than 70 serving and retired senior People’s Liberation Army officers have been demoted for pay-for-promotion, according to the South China Morning Post. The list includes a full general and two lieutenant generals.

The officers were connected to former PLA chief of joint staff Fang Fenghui. Fang was convicted in February of taking bribes, and sentenced to life in prison. In turn, Fang was connected to Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou, former vice-chairmen of the Central Military Commission, which oversees China’s military on behalf of the Communist Party. Guo and Xu had been earlier punished for corruption.

Most of the demoted senior officers were political commissars or held logistical positions, a retired naval officer told the Post. “The latest penalties were lenient,” he said. “None of them were sentenced to jail because they were seen as underlings of Fang, who was Guo and Xu’s protégé.”

“Among the officers, 44 of them belonged to the Beijing Military Command where Fang was the commander from 2007 to 2012,” another source told the Post. ““They were found guilty of bribing Fang in exchange for promotions. Others were former subordinates who offered Fang bribes when he was promoted to chief of joint staff.”

China’s military has come a long way since the mass peasant armies of the Cold War. Its doctrine has embraced Western-style high-tech war, and its weaponry, from stealth fighters to missiles, is edging closer to American capabilities.

But the Achilles heel of the People’s Liberation Army remains corruption. “Paying bribes to more senior officers for promotions seems to be commonplace,” notes one commentary. “Payments are also frequently required for enlistment in the People’s Liberation Army, or for ensuring good results in entrance exams, especially in rural areas where the military may be regarded as a promising career option and a route out of poverty. One journalist purportedly seeking admission to the PLA for their son was quoted a price of 80-90,000 Yuan (about US$16,000), although the amount would vary considerably depending on a family’s connections.”

A major incentive for corruption is the PLA is much a business as an army. The military owns factories, hospitals and real estate, all of which lucrative opportunities for graft. In 2012, President Xi Jinping to launch a military anti-corruption campaign. According to Chinese state media, between 2012 and 2017, more than 13,000 officers were punished for corruption.

Not that other armies – even the most professional ones – are immune to corruption. The Russian military has long had problems with theft as well as kickbacks in weapons procurement: Russian prosecutors announced in March that military corruption had quadrupled in 2018 to 7 billion rubles (US$110 billion). That figure is almost certainly understated.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy is still reeling from the “Fat Leonard” scandal. Hundreds of officers – including several admirals – have been punished or are under investigation for accepting prostitutes, cash and other gifts from a defense contractor in return for steering Navy ships to obtain supplies from that contractor.

Nonetheless, the Russian and American scandals only involve theft and kickbacks. Damaging as those are to military efficiency, China’s promotion scandal suggests that senior offices are obtaining their positions not on competence, but on their willingness to pay.

About the writer: Michael Peck is a contributing writer for the National Interest. He can be found on Twitter and Facebook.

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Personal note: Are we surprised. Hell No - Humans are conditioned to make observations that allow embetterment thru corruption and leverage. We see this all around the world.
Dirt bags are everywhere - like it or not. Power corrupts absolutely! It's a very common denominator in societies all around the world. Manipulators and intermediates are constant in our world. Was I shocked - nope!. Even in the US people are always trying to buy their way to the top. Old motto - you get what you pay for. The people that assume these positions (around the world) are mostly unqualified in many ways. But this is the way the world works - you get what you pay for! Disgusting isn't it. Live with it - as it's going to continue whether we like or not!.

These systems of recognition become heal lickers to those who can make it happen. You have to admit I right about this - as we've seen so many in power over our lifetimes to just make you sick. Even today I bet 90% of the people who hold very secure top level positions in this world are truly inept and don't really provide the services that we all depend on.

We all know these people and eventually they pick off one or two of those guilty parties most likely because of ideological regime changes. The good ones get buried under the rug after backing breaking work getting to where they were at. If you're too smart you get the boot after they bleed your talents out of you - than you're tossed to the wind like a bag of garbage. Sad isn't it. But this type of system is present today - yesterday and will in the future. It must be a human trait built in to destroy the talents of those who did all the work.

Humans are a piece of work. We step quietly and learn from our honest mistakes only to be reconfigured into lapdogs of those who know absolutely nothing.

Do you think I got it right - look around be observant notice the folks who run this planet are not necessarily playing with a full deck. Once in a Blue Moon (which isn't to often) we get lucky and get some who can make humanity better for the whole world not just a personal winning ticket for something unearned.

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