China Reform Monitor: No. 1153

March 2:

At least 16 People’s Liberation Army (PLA) major generals are under investigation for graft involving their former superiors, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports. Lieutenant General Gu Junshan, an ally of former Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) Xu Caihou, amassed a fortune of 600 million yuan while PLA deputy logistics chief by selling hundreds of senior military positions as part of a 30 billion yuan scam. Gu’s associates, Chen Jianfeng, Guangzhou Military Command joint logistics deputy head, and Wang Sheng, air force logistics chief have been detained. Another casualty is Major General Guo Zhenggang, 45, the son of former CMC vice-chairman Guo Boxiong, who was promoted to deputy political commissar of the Zhejiang Military District in January. Others include two former subordinates of Xu and Guo – Wang Aiguo, a former head of the joint logistics department at Xu’s powerbase, the Shenyang Military Command, and Zhan Guoqiao, who held the same post in Guo’s powerbase the Lanzhou Military Command.

March 5:

PLA Major General Xing Yunming, the former head of the liaison office of the PLA General Political Department and vice-chairman of the China Association for International Friendly Contact (CAIFC), is under investigation. The SCMP reports that the arrest of Xing, who “was in charge of overseas espionage, follows that of Ma Jian, former executive deputy minister of the Ministry of State Security. Ma is closely linked to Ling Jihua, who was detained last month on corruption charges and was an aide to former president Hu Jintao.” Xing worked to foster contacts with retired foreign military officials via CAIFC which “is really an intelligence agency affiliated with the General Political Department to study foreign military strategies. Its goal is to come up with measures to destroy the PLA's enemies,” Arthur Ding Shu-fan from the Taipei-based Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies told the SCMP.

March 7:

Major General Huang Xing, the former head of the research guidance department at the Chinese Academy of Military Science, will face a military court on fraud charges that the SCMP reports are a cover for his leaking state secrets to ethnic Chinese Kokang rebels in Myanmar in 2009. Last month Myanmar’s chief of military affairs security alleged that Kokang rebel forces had received training and advice from former Chinese soldiers and hinted that the rebels received support from China. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing and the Kokang rebel leader deny the claim.

March 9:

Beijing has pressured a leading Hong Kong publisher – Sino United Publishing – to release at least five books opposing the pro-democracy movement. The books are on sale in its 51 Hong Kong shops, operated through its subsidiaries Joint Publishing, Chung Hwa Book and Commercial Press. Each book contains passages heavily critical of the 79-day sit-in, which ended in December. One book Looking Into Occupy Central by Kwan Sau-king, accused the movement of receiving funds from the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy. Another, Decrypting Occupy Central by Poon Tin-long, claims the so-called umbrella movement was a “color revolution” manipulated by Western forces, SCMP reports.

March 10:

“Senior intelligence officials” in Taiwan have identified China’s military’s technical surveillance unit in charge of cyberwarfare against Taiwan on the campus of Wuhan University in Hubei, Taipei Times reports. The Sixth Bureau of the PLA General Staff Department Third Department conducts technical surveillance, including intercepting Taiwan’s agencies telecom signals, hacking computers and mobile phone service networks, and conducting satellite imagery reconnaissance. According to Taipei: “China’s espionage activities and intelligence-gathering against Taiwan and other countries is always hidden under the guise of academic research centers, non-profit foundations or private sector companies. The PLA’s Sixth Bureau units have network specialists, computer technicians, analysts and trained hackers working in offices at Wuhan University under the cover of research centers and telecommunication laboratories. The aim is to conduct state espionage work under the facade of academic research.”

[Editor’s Note: The Sixth Bureau is one of 12 PLA bureaus conducting technical reconnaissance and digital information warfare. PLA Unit 61398 in Shanghai’s Pudong District, responsible for hacking and malware attacks against the U.S., is part of the same network. In 2013, Chinese hackers attacked Taiwan’s National Security Bureau more than 7 million times, the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau 1.56 million times, and the defense ministry over a million times.]