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Digital Footprint Erased? Why Speculations Are Rife About Chinese Defence Minister’s Fate

Reports suggest that Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun is under investigation for corruption. ETV Bharat takes a look at the case.

Digital Footprint Erased? Why Speculations Are Rife About Chinese Defence Minister’s Fate
File photo of India's Defence Minister Rajnath Singh meeting Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun in Vientiane, Lao PDR on November 20 (ETV Bharat via Press Information Bureau)
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By Aroonim Bhuyan

Published : Nov 27, 2024, 9:08 PM IST

Updated : Nov 27, 2024, 9:40 PM IST

New Delhi: With reports suggesting that Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun is under investigation for corruption, speculations are rife about whether he is faced with the same predicament as his two immediate predecessors.

Citing current and former US officials familiar with the situation, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday that Admiral Dong Jun “is being investigated as part of a broader probe into graft in the PLA (People’s Liberation Army)”.

According to the US officials cited, Chinese President Xi Jinping is conducting a wave of investigations into the PLA that has ensnared Dong.

“It remains unclear what kind of corruption allegations he is facing,” the report stated.

If confirmed, Dong will be the third consecutive Chinese defence minister to be put under investigation for corruption. His immediate predecessor Li Shangfu was dismissed as defence minister after serving only seven months in the post. Li had not seen in public since August 29 last year. It was only on October 24 last year that China officially announced the dismissal of Li as the defence minister.

Li's disappearance followed by dismissal came close on the heels of former foreign minister Qin Gang disappearing from the public eye in June last year and then being dismissed. Reports, however, suggest Qin was dismissed because of a personal indiscretion – having an extramarital affair with a Chinese woman in the US. Western observers believe that both Li and Qin have been put under Liuzhi, China's system for extra-legal detention. Li’s predecessor Wei Fenghe was also placed under investigation for corruption after he had retired as defence minister.

Following the dismissal of Li, Dong was appointed as the Minister of National Defence on December 29 last year. The announcement of his appointment itself was made in the most subtle manner with Chinese state media Xinhua relegating it to the third paragraph of a news item on the concluding session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress.

“The Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) concluded its seventh session Friday in Beijing,” the Xinhua report had read.

“At the closing meeting, lawmakers voted to adopt a revised Company Law, a food security law, Amendment XII to the Criminal Law, and a decision to amend the Charity Law.

“They also adopted a decision to appoint Dong Jun as defence minister, to remove Tang Dengjie from the post of minister of civil affairs and appoint Lu Zhiyuan to the position, and to remove Hu Heping from the post of minister of culture and tourism and appoint Sun Yeli to the position."

Dong Jun is a Chinese admiral of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). In 1978, Dong was admitted to the Dalian Naval Academy of the Navy. After graduation, he began his service with the Navy in 1979. He has successively served as the head of the military training department of the Chinese PLA Naval Command, the deputy chief of staff of the Beihai Fleet, and commander of the Navy’s 92269 unit.

In 2013, Dong was appointed deputy commander of the East Sea Fleet and held that office until December 2014, when he was appointed deputy chief of staff of the PLAN. In January 2017, he was promoted to deputy commander of Southern Theatre Command. In March 2021, he became deputy commander of the PLAN. He was named as the commander of the PLAN in September 2021. He was succeeded as commander by Hu Zhongming in December 2023.

Dong is China’s first defence minister coming from a naval background. Now, the news about Dong coming under investigation for corruption comes a week after he attended the 11th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus in Vientiane, Laos. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh met Dong on the sidelines of the event. This was the first meeting of the two defence ministers following the border disengagement agreements between India and China, and the meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi on the sidelines of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) Summit in Kazan, Russia, last month.

In the wake of the Financial Times report, when ETV Bharat checked the official website of the Chinese defence ministry, there was no mention of Dong in any news item, press release or feature article. There was no profile of Dong either. When the name “Dong Jun” was keyed into the search bar of the website, it yielded no result.

According to the Financial Times, when Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning was asked about the investigation into Dong during her regular press briefing on Wednesday, she dismissed the report as “catching wind and shadows”. When ETV Bharat checked the transcript of the briefing, the question itself and the response of “catching wind and shadows” were missing.

This basically means that Dong Jun has been digitally erased from all Chinese official media and websites.

When asked about this, an expert on China, speaking to ETV Bharat on the condition of anonymity, said that their legal process works like this – by first removing the digital footprint of the person in question.

"They don’t want people to speculate about the fate of senior officials," the expert explained. "They have their own internal legal system of dealing with such cases."

According to the expert, there is a lot of corruption in the Chinese defence industry and President Xi has been very strict in dealing with this. Xi has relentlessly attacked corruption in public and private, sometimes in what has been seen as a method of eliminating political rivals and shoring up his political position amid a deteriorating economy and rising tensions with the US over trade, technology and Taiwan.

"As of now, we don’t know what the case against Dong is," the expert said. "Only the legal process will tell you about the severity of the crime."

According to Abhinav Pandya, founder, director and CEO of the Usanas Foundation think tank, if one looks at the past, many senior officials in China have been removed on charges of corruption.

"Looking from the outside, it is very difficult to speculate and make an assessment," Pandya told ETV Bharat. "The Chinese system is very opaque. But having read their history, this may be a part of the purges that have been a regular feature of Chinese politics."

New Delhi: With reports suggesting that Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun is under investigation for corruption, speculations are rife about whether he is faced with the same predicament as his two immediate predecessors.

Citing current and former US officials familiar with the situation, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday that Admiral Dong Jun “is being investigated as part of a broader probe into graft in the PLA (People’s Liberation Army)”.

According to the US officials cited, Chinese President Xi Jinping is conducting a wave of investigations into the PLA that has ensnared Dong.

“It remains unclear what kind of corruption allegations he is facing,” the report stated.

If confirmed, Dong will be the third consecutive Chinese defence minister to be put under investigation for corruption. His immediate predecessor Li Shangfu was dismissed as defence minister after serving only seven months in the post. Li had not seen in public since August 29 last year. It was only on October 24 last year that China officially announced the dismissal of Li as the defence minister.

Li's disappearance followed by dismissal came close on the heels of former foreign minister Qin Gang disappearing from the public eye in June last year and then being dismissed. Reports, however, suggest Qin was dismissed because of a personal indiscretion – having an extramarital affair with a Chinese woman in the US. Western observers believe that both Li and Qin have been put under Liuzhi, China's system for extra-legal detention. Li’s predecessor Wei Fenghe was also placed under investigation for corruption after he had retired as defence minister.

Following the dismissal of Li, Dong was appointed as the Minister of National Defence on December 29 last year. The announcement of his appointment itself was made in the most subtle manner with Chinese state media Xinhua relegating it to the third paragraph of a news item on the concluding session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress.

“The Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) concluded its seventh session Friday in Beijing,” the Xinhua report had read.

“At the closing meeting, lawmakers voted to adopt a revised Company Law, a food security law, Amendment XII to the Criminal Law, and a decision to amend the Charity Law.

“They also adopted a decision to appoint Dong Jun as defence minister, to remove Tang Dengjie from the post of minister of civil affairs and appoint Lu Zhiyuan to the position, and to remove Hu Heping from the post of minister of culture and tourism and appoint Sun Yeli to the position."

Dong Jun is a Chinese admiral of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). In 1978, Dong was admitted to the Dalian Naval Academy of the Navy. After graduation, he began his service with the Navy in 1979. He has successively served as the head of the military training department of the Chinese PLA Naval Command, the deputy chief of staff of the Beihai Fleet, and commander of the Navy’s 92269 unit.

In 2013, Dong was appointed deputy commander of the East Sea Fleet and held that office until December 2014, when he was appointed deputy chief of staff of the PLAN. In January 2017, he was promoted to deputy commander of Southern Theatre Command. In March 2021, he became deputy commander of the PLAN. He was named as the commander of the PLAN in September 2021. He was succeeded as commander by Hu Zhongming in December 2023.

Dong is China’s first defence minister coming from a naval background. Now, the news about Dong coming under investigation for corruption comes a week after he attended the 11th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus in Vientiane, Laos. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh met Dong on the sidelines of the event. This was the first meeting of the two defence ministers following the border disengagement agreements between India and China, and the meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi on the sidelines of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) Summit in Kazan, Russia, last month.

In the wake of the Financial Times report, when ETV Bharat checked the official website of the Chinese defence ministry, there was no mention of Dong in any news item, press release or feature article. There was no profile of Dong either. When the name “Dong Jun” was keyed into the search bar of the website, it yielded no result.

According to the Financial Times, when Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning was asked about the investigation into Dong during her regular press briefing on Wednesday, she dismissed the report as “catching wind and shadows”. When ETV Bharat checked the transcript of the briefing, the question itself and the response of “catching wind and shadows” were missing.

This basically means that Dong Jun has been digitally erased from all Chinese official media and websites.

When asked about this, an expert on China, speaking to ETV Bharat on the condition of anonymity, said that their legal process works like this – by first removing the digital footprint of the person in question.

"They don’t want people to speculate about the fate of senior officials," the expert explained. "They have their own internal legal system of dealing with such cases."

According to the expert, there is a lot of corruption in the Chinese defence industry and President Xi has been very strict in dealing with this. Xi has relentlessly attacked corruption in public and private, sometimes in what has been seen as a method of eliminating political rivals and shoring up his political position amid a deteriorating economy and rising tensions with the US over trade, technology and Taiwan.

"As of now, we don’t know what the case against Dong is," the expert said. "Only the legal process will tell you about the severity of the crime."

According to Abhinav Pandya, founder, director and CEO of the Usanas Foundation think tank, if one looks at the past, many senior officials in China have been removed on charges of corruption.

"Looking from the outside, it is very difficult to speculate and make an assessment," Pandya told ETV Bharat. "The Chinese system is very opaque. But having read their history, this may be a part of the purges that have been a regular feature of Chinese politics."

Last Updated : Nov 27, 2024, 9:40 PM IST
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