Xi Jinping can’t seem to find the right man to be the face of China’s military

Adm. Dong Jun was reported on Wednesday by the FT to be facing a corruption probe, making him the third straight person in the office or retired from the post to be investigated.

Less than a year into his post, China’s defense minister is now being placed under investigation for graft, according to a new report by The Financial Times.

The outlet cited unnamed current and former US officials saying that Adm. Dong Jun was caught in a broader probe into corruption within the People’s Liberation Army.

That would make him the third consecutive person related to his office to be investigated. His predecessor, former Gen. Li Shangfu, was reported in September 2023 to be probed for corruption and was officially fired the next month.

Li had served seven months after being appointed by Chinese leader Xi Jinping in March 2023.

Wei Fenghe, the defense minister before Li, held the post for nearly five years. The appointment of Wei, who hailed from the PLA Rocket Force, had marked a pivot in tradition for the role since the defense minister previously always came from China’s army.

Both he and Li were expelled from the Chinese Communist Party in June and stripped of their rank of general, with state media saying they had illegally taken gifts and money.

As for Dong, the FT provided no details on the current defense minister’s investigation.

But he had only just been in Laos for a meeting of Asian defense leaders last week, making headlines for declining talks with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

When asked about reports of an investigation into Dong, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning curtly dismissed them as rumors.

“Chasing wind and shadows. Next question,” she told reporters at a Wednesday press briefing, using a Chinese phrase that means something is said or raised without merit.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment sent by B-17.

A selection process of up to 4 months

In a separate report on Thursday, Reuters cited two US officials who also spoke of an investigation into Dong. One said that the probe originally involved the strategic rocket forces but was expanded to include the military and procurement.

Another senior US official told Reuters they had doubts about the accuracy of the FT’s original report. All three were not named.

Notably, it likely took Xi at least two months to vet, select, and announce Dong for the defense ministership after Li was officially removed. That process could have taken as long as four months — Dong’s predecessor had disappeared from the public eye in September 2023, and he was appointed at the end of December 2023.

China’s defense minister doesn’t typically have operational command of combat forces but is instead a diplomatic and public-facing figure representing the military.

Those in charge of China’s fighting capabilities are in the Central Military Commission, a small group of senior leaders led by Xi.

Dong is not part of that commission, although his predecessor, Li, was a member during his tenure as defense minister.

All of this comes as Xi has, in recent years, placed heavy emphasis on developing China’s military into a modern fighting force, focusing on its rocket weapons systems and nuclear capabilities.

At the same time, his long-standing anti-corruption crackdown, recently expanded to the military, has ousted nearly a dozen PLA generals, as well as several top officials from the prized rocket forces.

The firings have raised international speculation about Xi’s confidence in his military’s operational readiness at a time when China is trying to match the US in strength.