China Launches Corruption Probe Into Top Nuclear Fuel Expert

Bloomberg News
·3 min read

(Bloomberg) -- China launched a corruption inquiry into one of its top nuclear fuel experts, a move that comes as a purge roils the nation’s defense establishment.

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Li Guangchang, a senior adviser to China National Nuclear Corp.’s science and technology committee, was under investigation for “serious legal and disciplinary violations,” the nation’s graft buster said in a statement on Saturday without elaborating.

State-owned CNNC says on its website that it is China’s sole producer and supplier of nuclear fuel. It “shoulders the dual historic missions of national defense construction and national economic and social development,” the website said, indicating it is linked to both the military and civilian industry.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping launched a sweeping purge of the armed forces last year, including the high-profile removal of the former defense minister Li Shangfu after just months on the job. US spies believe the decision was in response to the discovery of widespread corruption in the military, including in the Rocket Force, which manages the expanding nuclear arsenal.

Read More: US Intelligence Shows Flawed China Missiles Led Xi to Purge Army

The US assessments cited several examples of the impact of graft, including missiles filled with water instead of fuel and vast fields of missile silos in western China with lids that don’t function in a way that would allow the missiles to launch effectively, according to one person familiar with the assessments.

Xi hasn’t directly commented on the situation. While visiting troops in the northeast in September last year he called for maintaining “a high degree of unity, security and stability” in the armed forces.

He continued his tradition of visiting troops before the weeklong Spring Festival holiday on Friday in Tianjin. He urged them to implement the Communist Party’s thinking “on strengthening the military and military strategy” in the year ahead, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Read More: China’s Defense Purge Strikes at Heart of Xi’s Military Reforms

There’s no indication that Li Guangchang’s case is linked to graft in the military. He took on the adviser role at CNNC in 2021 after serving as director of the company’s nuclear fuel department. While in that job in 2007, Li vowed to advance the domestic production of nuclear power.

China’s Defense Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday over whether Li Guangchang’s case was linked to the Rocket Force.

When asked about the slew of personnel changes in the military, Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said last month that the military’s ability to defend the nation was “unquestionable.”

Li is among a handful of figures in China’s nuclear sector to come under investigation recently. The nation’s graft fighter, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said last month that it was probing Zhong Hongliang, the former chairman of CNNC Shaanxi Uranium Enrichment Co. In December, Wu Xiujiang, former party chief and chairman of CNNC Environmental Protection Co., came under investigation.

CNNC’s graft inspectors said in September that a six-month inquiry found 10 problems with the company’s procurements, including issues related to having just one supplier and loose management of suppliers.

(Updates with request for comment from China’s Defense Ministry.)

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