PLA mouthpiece warns troops not to be blindly optimistic or totally pessimistic about winning the war against graft.<\/b>
\nChina\u2019s unrelenting anti-corruption drive will improve \u2013 not compromise \u2013 the military\u2019s fighting strength, two signed commentaries published in the PLA Daily have argued.
The articles \u2013 one on Friday and the other on Saturday \u2013 in the People\u2019s Liberation Army mouthpiece called corruption the \u201cnumber one killer\u201d of battle effectiveness and cautioned against both \u201cunrealistic optimism\u201d and \u201charmful pessimism\u201d about the anti-graft campaign \u2013 suggesting the crackdown on corruption will not end any time soon.
\u201cThe experience has shown that the harder the anti-corruption campaign, the stronger, the purer the people\u2019s army and the higher the combat ability,\u201d the Saturday article said.
It said the investigations into top generals Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli sent a clear signal that the Communist Party was willing to go as far as it could to purge any corruption \u2013 a source of political risk in the military.
The article was similar in tone to the one on Friday written by a researcher at the National Defence University.
\u201cCorruption is the first killer of combat ability,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n