China has reportedly purged two senior executives of Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) as part of dictator Xi Jinping's endless “anti-corruption campaign.”
The profiles of both executives disappeared from AVIC's website on Saturday night without explanation.
One of the purged executives, Deputy General Manager Yang Wei, was the chief engineer for China's J-20 stealth fighter jet project. The other person is general manager Hao Chaoping.
Yang, a brilliant and respected engineer, had posted his profile on the website of the National Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the People's Republic of China (PRC)'s most prestigious science and technology institution. That profile was also deleted without any explanation.
Yang is a genius who began his university education at age 15 and graduated at age 22, and has spent much of his career working on stealth fighter projects. Mr. Hao joined AVIC in the 1990s as a rocket expert and was promoted to general manager three years ago.
“In recent months, Mr. Yang and Mr. Hao have not attended leadership meetings of AVIC, a central figure in China's push for military modernization and technological independence,” the newspaper said. South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on sunday.
Mandarin version of Voice of America (VOA) noticed It said the sudden disappearance of Hao and Yang “has caused widespread concern from the outside world.”
AVIC Chairman Tan Ruisong was abruptly removed from his position in March 2023; named In a corruption investigation. The Communist Party of China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection vaguely accused Tan of “serious violations of party discipline and domestic law.” Violating party discipline is commonly interpreted as a euphemism for corruption.
Like Mr Han and Mr Yang, Mr Tan started his career as an engineer in the 1990s and rose to management positions. The Communist Party later announced that he had been removed as chairman because of his age, but at the time he was only 62, just above the minimum retirement age of 60.
AVIC is one of China's largest defense contractors and one of the world's top 10 contractors by annual revenue. Chengdu J-20 fighter, 5th generation twin-engine fighter fighter jet Aimed to compete with the American F-22, it is one of AVIC's most important projects for the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). china started deploy In 2022, J-20s will head to the East China Sea and South China Sea, the most likely locations for conflict.
Taiwanese security expert Shen Ming told VOA that Yang and Hao may have been purged because they were unable to provide advanced weapons systems quickly enough, and compared to the F-22, the J- 20 was disappointing in a sense. Vague corruption charges would give Xi Jinping an effective way to dispose of substandard defense officials without publicly admitting that China's much-vaunted stealth fighter jets are not living up to expectations.
