The general office of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC)—the Communist Party’s top agency for overseeing military affairs—recently issued a set of regulations to conduct a financial and disciplinary audit of high-level military and armed police forces. Former Navy commander Wu Shengli was among those on the list for investigation.
Red princeling Cai Xiaoxin posted photos and comments about Wu’s investigation on Chinese microblogging website Weibo. Cai said, “It [investigation] has been delayed.” A “princeling” refers to the descendant of a prominent and influential senior Communist Party official.
Wu was in the Navy for 41 years and held various posts, according to his official resume. In 2004, he served as deputy chief of the general staff of the army. In August 2006, he served as the Navy commander. He has been in charge of the Navy for 11 years. Wu became a member of the CMC in March 2008. All his military duties were removed two years ago.
In 2015, Chinese media reported that Wu was suspected of breaching discipline.
Political analysts have different readings into why he fell out of the Communist Party leadership’s favor.
Some cite an incident during his post as the Navy commander (August 2006 to January 2017), when a naval political commissar committed suicide at the naval compound in Beijing on November 2014.
A military analyst in Beijing, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Epoch Times’ sister media NTD that when Wu was president of the Dalian Naval Academy (1994-1997), he was very close to Bo Xilai, then Dalian mayor (1993-2000). At the time, Bo resided in the Dalian Naval Academy instead of staying in the municipal committee compound.
Bo was sacked and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2013 after his involvement in an attempted political coup to usurp Xi. Since then, the Party has initiated investigations on many of Xi’s political rivals, usually on corruption-related crimes.
While it is unclear if Wu is considered a political rival, his past connections to Bo could have gotten him into trouble.