China's DF-41 nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles seen during a military parade at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Oct 1, 2019, to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. (File photo:…see more
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/wor...plains-us-intelligence-corruption-pla-4040281
SINGAPORE: Missiles filled with water and soldiers using rocket fuel for hotpot - these are alleged examples of the extent of corruption in China’s military, according to recent reports.
Citing unnamed individuals said to be familiar with US intelligence, a Bloomberg article last Saturday (Jan 6) also linked such rampant graft to an extensive purge of senior Chinese officers in late 2023.
What are the claims?
One of Bloomberg’s sources said US intel pointed to missiles being filled with water instead of fuel and missile silos with lids not working properly as instances of corruption in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
By this US assessment, the corruption had undermined confidence in the PLA’s capabilities and hampered efforts to modernise the armed forces.
And it ultimately led to a crackdown which began in July with the removal of three top officers from the Rocket Force, a PLA branch overseeing China’s tactical and nuclear missiles.
In August, when asked about the whereabouts of former defence minister - and ex-Rocket Force head - Wei Fenghe, a spokesman said the PLA had zero tolerance for corruption. The next defence minister Li Shangfu - who previously led equipment procurement - was then removed in October.
And at the end of December, nine senior PLA figures were ousted from China’s top legislature, with Rocket Force commanders and officers from the equipment department among them.
And what was that about hotpot?
On Monday, the US government-funded Radio Free Asia news service interviewed an ex-PLA officer, who claimed that soldiers were using aircraft fuel for cooking and solid missile fuel for hotpot, or steamboat as it’s also known.
Former lieutenant-colonel Yao Cheng, who fled to the US in 2016, said this was due to deficits in funding and supplies.
Is any of this feasible?
Military experts and China watchers CNA spoke to stressed that the US assessments were scant on detail and could not be verified - something the Bloomberg report itself acknowledged.
The PLA’s Rocket Force does operate a combination of conventional and nuclear; solid- and liquid-fuelled missiles, said Dr James Char, a research fellow at Singapore’s S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) think-tank.
He added that for its liquid-fuelled, silo-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), there are dedicated personnel units that oversee the management, testing and transport of the liquid propellants.
Ms Anushka Saxena, a PLA researcher at India’s Takshashila Institution, said it was probably water being stored in some of the systems to check whether they were leak-proof.
“If missiles were filled with water and not liquid fuel, how was the leftover extra fuel accounted for in the books? Were the numbers and details always precise enough to escape various inspections, with simultaneous selling off of the liquid, which again went unnoticed?” she asked, noting that the intel was “very non-specific”.
Dr Shen Ming-Shih from Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research said it was possible for water to be used to avoid corrosion by liquid propellants.
Several online commentators have also attempted to dissect the US intelligence assessment.
In an op-ed for the Hong Kong-based Asia Times platform, security expert Stephen Bryen agreed that storing missiles loaded with fuel could lead to corrosion of internal tanks and plumbing.
They are usually kept empty until needed, and deliberately putting water in rockets would be a criminal act of sabotage, said the founding head of the US’ Defense Technology Security Administration, who called the story “fake”.
But Professor Jeffrey Lewis, a member of the US State Department’s International Security Advisory Board, told The War Zone magazine that “watering down or even fully replacing fuel with water is a common form of military corruption around the world".
What else could have prompted the PLA purge?
China has not given any specific reasons for the removal of the top military figures. But analysts like Dr Char say evidence points towards corruption over equipment procurement.He noted that in July and right before the wave of eliminations, the Central Military Commission - China’s top defence agency - announced it was soliciting support from the public to uncover violations of procurement activities dating back to 2017.
Since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012, he has embarked on a wide-ranging anti-corruption crackdown in the Communist Party and government, with the PLA often targeted.
There is also a remote possibility that the latest shakeup aims to address a lack of discipline among some PLA elites, said Dr Char, whose research focuses on ties between the CCP and the military.
These could include those responsible for the "spy" balloon that flew over the US early in 2023, momentarily threatening to derail Sino-American relations.
“Such periodic clean-ups serve to impose psychological intimidation on the PLA and help reinvigorate the commander-in-chief’s control over his armed servants,” Dr Char added.
