December 30, 2014: In late November a 57 year old Chinese general was arrested for corruption. This case was unique in several respects. This was the first time a female general was arrested for corruption. There aren’t many female generals to begin with and they are rarely involved in corruption. Another unique elements was that the general was a political officer, whose main job was to alert the Communist Party (which the “commissars” as political officers are sometimes called, work for) about problems, like corruption. In all communist states the ruling Communist Party controls the military whose main job is to keep the Communist Party in power. The disgraced Chinese general may have been still doing her job in that respect but she was also using her considerable power to control and profit from a web of corrupt officers and civilian officials who were stealing millions of dollars meant for construction projects.

Since the Chinese Communist Party is under growing popular pressure to do something about the rampant corruption in China (and specifically in the Chinese Communist Party) it has been arresting and prosecuting a growing number of senior officials.