Xu Caihou | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 徐才厚 | |||||||||||
 Xu Caihou in October 2009 | |||||||||||
| Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission | |||||||||||
| In office State Commission 13 March 2005 – 14 March 2013 Party Commission 19 September 2004 – 15 November 2012 | |||||||||||
| Chairman | Hu Jintao | ||||||||||
| Head of the General Political Department of the People's Liberation Army | |||||||||||
| In office November 2002 – September 2004 | |||||||||||
| Preceded by | Yu Yongbo | ||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Li Jinai | ||||||||||
| Secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Central Military Commission | |||||||||||
| In office December 2000 – November 2002 | |||||||||||
| Preceded by | Zhou Ziyu | ||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Zhang Shutian | ||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||
| Born | June 1943 Wafangdian, Fengtian, Manchukuo (now Liaoning, China) | ||||||||||
| Died | 15 March 2015 (aged 71) Beijing, China | ||||||||||
| Political party | Chinese Communist Party (1971–2014, expelled) | ||||||||||
| Alma mater | Harbin Military Engineering Institute | ||||||||||
| Military service | |||||||||||
| Allegiance |  People's Republic of China | ||||||||||
| Branch/service |  People's Liberation Army | ||||||||||
| Years of service | 1963–1966 1970–2013 | ||||||||||
| Rank |  General(stripped in 2014) | ||||||||||
| Commands | Jinan Military Region (1996–1999) | ||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Chinese | 徐才厚 | ||||||||||
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Xu Caihou (Chinese: 徐才厚; June 1943 – 15 March 2015) was a Chinese general in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the country's top military council. As vice chairman of the CMC, he was one of the top ranking officers of the People's Liberation Army. He also held a seat on the 25-member Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party between 2007 and 2012.
Born to a working-class family in Liaoning province, Xu spent much of his earlier career in northeastern China. He moved to Beijing in 1990 to become political commissar of the 16th Group Army, later serving as editor of the PLA's flagship newspaper, the PLA Daily. In 1996 Xu became political commissar of the Jinan Military Region. He became vice chairman of the CMC in September 2004. He retired from office in March 2013.
In March 2014, Xu was detained and put under investigation on suspicion of bribery in one of the highest profile corruption investigations in PLA history. In June 2014, Xu was expelled from the Communist Party. Xu allegedly accumulated massive wealth by routinely demanding large bribes for the promotion of officers under him during his time as vice chairman of the CMC. Xu was undergoing legal proceedings and facing a court martial but charges were dropped after he died of bladder cancer in March 2015.