China top general held for bribery
Beijing, April 15 (Reuters): Chinese authorities have taken a top People’s Liberation Army general into custody on suspicion of accepting bribes from subordinates seeking promotions or transfers, a military source said today.
Major General Liu Guangzhi was sacked as commandant of the Air Force Command Academy and detained secretly in March, said the source who asked not to be identified. The academy is the Chinese air force’s top school and trains senior commandants.
Liu, who is also a member of China’s parliament, was accused of accepting bribes totalling several hundred thousand yuan (tens of thousand of dollars) from subordinates, the source said. The source dismissed a report in Hong Kong’s Shing Pao Daily News that Liu and his deputy, Major General Li Suolin, had been detained for providing rival Taiwan with intelligence on the deployment and training of Sukoi fighters bought from Russia.
“He was accused by an informant of accepting bribes and having a mistress. The report that he sold military secrets to Taiwan is wrong,” the source said.
In 1999, a Chinese general and a colonel were executed for spying for Taiwan.
