Xu Caihou, former Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, is under investigation due to his partnership with former Politburo Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang, according to a high-level official in Beijing. Typical of Communist Party power struggles, Xu has been charged with “corruption.”
In early April, The Epoch Times had learned that Xu Caihou was subjected to the Communist Party’s extralegal disciplinary system, known as shuanggui, and was allegedly “checked into Hospital 301” for bladder cancer. However, the regime did not confirm Xu’s arrest at that time.
The corruption charges against Xu were motivated by his role in a coup that Zhou Yongkang and Bo Xilai had planned to set in motion soon after new Party leader Xi Jinping took power.
Xu Caihou, from the northeastern province of Liaoning, had long established himself as an ally of Bo Xilai, the now-disgraced former party boss in Chongqing city. Like Bo and Zhou, Xu was actively involved in the persecution and organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners.
When Bo Xilai was mayor of Dalian and a member of the Dalian Municipal Committee, Bo provided Xu Caihou and his family substantial support in their business, establishing a close partnership.
When Xu became vice-chair of the Central Military Commission, he cooperated with Bo, who was governor of Liaoning at the time and later Minister of Commerce, and accumulated huge amounts of wealth. Without the approval of the State Council, he spent 18.6 billion yuan (approximately 3.06 billion dollars) for the development of Changxing Island near his hometown of Wafangdian in LIaoning Province.
Born in 1943, Xu Caihou received the patronage of former General Secretary Jiang Zemin as he ascended the political ladder, serving in the 15th, 16th, and 17th communist party Central Committees. He was known as Jiang’s most trusted ally in the military.
Translation by Frank Fang. Written in English by Leo Timm.
