Corruption: Chinese army officer, Zhang Yang commits suicide

A senior Chinese military official, Zhang Yang, under investigation for corruption has committed suicide, Xinhua said on Tuesday.

Zhang Yang, 66 years old and a member of the Central Military Commission (CMC), committed suicide at home in Beijing on Nov. 23 after authorities launched an investigation against him,

He was being investigated over links to Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou, the CMC said Tuesday.

Guo and Xu, two retired vice chairmen of the China Central Military Commission, were caught up in prosecutions as part of President Xi Jinping’s sweeping anti-graft campaign.

Guo, once China’s top uniformed officer, was sentenced to life in prison last year. Xu died of cancer in 2015 while awaiting court martial, Bloomberg reported.

In September, Hong Kong’s Sing Tao Daily newspaper, citing unnamed people from Beijing, reported that Zhang was one of two officials being investigated for suspected breaches of party discipline, a euphemism for corruption.

Zhang was a former navy chief before his appointment as head of the Political Work Department of the People’s Liberation Army.