China said to be investigating third defence minister in a row over corruption claims

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Chinese defence minister Dong Jun is reportedly being investigated for corruption as part of the Communist Party's ongoing crackdown on graft in the Chinese army.

China is investing Admiral Dong as part of a broader probe into graft in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the Financial Times reported, citing US officials familiar with the matter.

Admiral Dong is the third consecutive serving or former defence minister to be investigated for alleged corruption. He replaced General Li Shangfu as defence minister in December 2023.

General Li was himself removed seven months into the job for allegedly taking bribes in exchange for granting favours in violation of military and party discipline.

Wei Fenghe was defence minister for five years prior to that, until he was accused of similar charges and placed under investigation for “seriously violating political and organizational discipline by helping others gain improper benefits in personnel arrangements".

The Chinese foreign ministry played down the report on Wednesday, describing it as "just shadow-chasing".

China's military has undergone a sweeping anti-corruption purge since 2022, with at least nine PLA generals and a handful of defence industry executives from the Rocket Force, a strategic unit managing Beijing's nuclear and conventional missiles, removed from the national legislative body.

President Xi Jinping has repeatedly spoken out against corruption in both public and private, but analysts say he has also used such crackdowns as a method of eliminating political rivals and shoring up his own political position.

US officials told the Financial Times that Mr Xi had ordered a wave of investigations into the PLA that had ultimately ensnared the minister. It was not immediately known what kind of corruption allegations Admiral Dong was facing, and he has not responded publicly to the claims.

Admiral Dong, a former PLA Navy chief, was last seen outside the country on 21 November when he delivered a speech at the 11th Asean defence ministers' meeting in Laos. He declined to meet US defence secretary Lloyd Austin there, citing US actions over Taiwan.

Mr Austin described the incident as "unfortunate" as Admiral Dong had overseen a recent thaw in US-China military-to-military ties, with both nations holding commander-level talks for the first time in September.

The Chinese defence ministry said Admiral Dong held talks with defence leaders from New Zealand, India, Malaysia and the secretary-general of Asean.

As defence minister, Admiral Dong is responsible for China's military diplomacy with other nations. But he was not promoted to the six-member Central Military Commission (CMC), China's highest-level military body, during a major Communist Party plenum earlier this year, where personnel reshuffles would normally be announced.

China's defence minister has traditionally been a member of both the CMC, which is headed by Mr Xi, and the state council, China's cabinet-level executive body. Admiral Dong was not appointed to the State Council either during a government reshuffle in March.

"The history with these investigations in the PLA are that once the string of corruption is pulled many other threads are revealed and the sweater unravels," Dennis Wilder, a professor at Georgetown University and former US intelligence analyst, told Reuters.