A former head of China’s leading aircraft manufacturer has been placed under investigation as Beijing pushes ahead with anti-corruption efforts in sectors crucial to its military capacity.
Tan Ruisong, chairman of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) from 2018 to 2023, is suspected to have committed “severe violations” of the law and Communist Party discipline.
He is being investigated by the party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the National Commission of Supervision.
The country’s top anti-corruption watchdogs did not provide details of the alleged “severe violations”, a euphemism for corruption.
Tan, 62, was removed from his post at state-owned giant AVIC in March 2023 for age reasons, according to the party’s personnel management arm.
Tan, a native of Hunan province, is a technocrat trained in aviation engine design, manufacturing and engineering. He had spent two decades with AVIC, a conglomerate with over 100 subsidiaries and 450,000 employees worldwide – more than America’s Boeing and Europe’s Airbus combined.
AVIC was the sixth largest defence contractor globally as of 2022 and second largest Chinese defence contractor by annual revenue after China North Industries Group, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
The company aimed to become an industry champion like “the national ping pong team”, he told the China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition, the country’s premier air show held in the southern city of Zhuhai every two years.
AVIC is at the forefront of China’s drive to become more technologically self-reliant, and makes products for military use as well as for the civil aviation market.
Through its many subsidiaries, it manufactures some of China’s leading fighter aircraft such as the J-10, J-11, and J-20.
The company is also a major supplier of components for China’s small regional jet ARJ-21 and the C919, a narrowbody medium-haul aircraft. Its exports include the regional turboprop MA60 series and Y12s, and the AC series helicopters.
The aerospace and defence industry sector is a major source of technocrats favoured by Chinese President Xi Jinping to become part of the political elite. However, it has become a key target of Beijing’s anti-graft campaign since nine generals including previous and serving commanders from the rocket and air forces were dismissed from the top legislature in December, after several of them were placed under investigation.
The shake-up exposed rampant irregularities in bidding and procurement processes for military equipment.
Months later, in June, former defence minister Li Shangfu and his predecessor Wei Fenghe were both expelled from the party as Beijing confirmed they were being investigated on suspicion of corruption.
The announcement of the unprecedented move came eight months after the abrupt dismissal of Li, making him China’s shortest-serving defence minister.
Li, 66, previously oversaw military procurement. He was accused of accepting “large sums of money” to seek benefits for others, and allegedly bribing others.
Wei was accused of accepting a huge amount of money and helping others to gain improper benefits.
AVIC and other eight state-owned enterprises operating in key sectors including nuclear, aerospace and shipbuilding promised in July to tighten their bidding and procurement rules as well as look at areas such as hiring and quality control, following a series of inspections by the CCDI.
A number of senior defence company executives have already been caught up in the anti-corruption campaign. China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), a main contractor for the country’s space programme, said 36 employees had been the subject of the party’s disciplinary action and seven had been handed over to judicial authorities.
Former CASC chairman Wu Yansheng was among three senior aerospace-defence executives stripped of their seats on the country’s top political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), in December.
