A senior Chinese general committed suicide while being investigated for corruption in a case that state media has portrayed as evidence of President Xi Jinping’s determination to root out graft in the military.
Zhang Yang, a former member of the Central Military Commission that oversees the armed forces, hanged himself at home last Thursday morning, the government’s Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday. Investigators alleged that Gen. Zhang, 66 years old, had committed “serious violations of discipline and the law,” Xinhua said. The charges included allegedly giving and receiving bribes and possessing “huge amounts of assets of uncertain origin.” The report didn’t explain the five-day delay in reporting the general’s death, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Xinhua report disclosing Gen. Zhang’s death was the first official acknowledgment that he was under investigation. It said he had been allowed to stay at home during that process.