A senior former official at the agency responsible for the oversight of China’s defence industry is under investigation for corruption.
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The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, China’s top anti-graft watchdog, said on Wednesday that Zhang Jianhua was suspected of “serious violations of discipline and law” – a standard euphemism for corruption – and had “turned himself in”.
Zhang, formerly deputy head of the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND), is the latest target of the anti-corruption campaign that has swept through China’s military and the defence industry in recent years and has brought down dozens of generals and executives.
Zhang worked for many years at SASTIND, the government agency responsible for managing the industry and overseeing research and production in areas such as nuclear technology, aerospace, aviation and shipbuilding.
Zhang, 64, has been working in the sector since 1990 in a number of roles, including a spell as director of the agency’s centre for military-civil project review between 2005 and 2009, where he was responsible for reviewing defence projects and linking research to production.
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In 2013 he became deputy director of the administration and in 2018 he also became deputy director of the China Atomic Energy Authority.