The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force recently issued 180 announcements, launching an unprecedented “procurement” crackdown, comprehensively investigating procurement cases since the establishment of the force in 2016. A total of 74 evaluation experts and 116 suppliers have been blacklisted, prohibiting them from participating in military project tenders, including state-owned enterprises and heavyweight suppliers.
According to a report by the Global Times on September 10th, from August 28th to September 1st, the Logistic Procurement and Asset Management Department of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force successively released 180 announcements on the “Military Procurement Network,” penalizing 74 evaluation experts and 116 suppliers. The evaluation experts have lost their qualifications to participate in evaluating military projects, while the suppliers have been banned from bidding on military procurement projects.
The Military Procurement Network of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army accused some evaluators of “scoring errors” and “biased ratings,” with one individual losing their evaluation qualification due to errors in a project evaluation back in 2016, indicating a retrospective investigation into procurement cases from nine years ago.
The announcement revealed that an evaluator named Xu Yuanzhao was labeled as a “middleman” and sentenced to a lifetime ban from evaluating military procurement projects. Not only did he lose his own qualifications, but the enterprises he holds or represents were also completely banned.
The 116 penalized suppliers are mostly involved in “collusion in bidding” or “providing false materials for bidding.” The list includes several state-owned enterprises, such as China Communications Construction Beijing Engineering Bureau Limited and China Postal Express & Logistics Co., Ltd. The former was accused of colluding in bidding, while the latter was found to have submitted false bidding materials, resulting in both losing procurement qualifications in the Rocket Force and even the entire military.
The investigation by the Rocket Force can be traced back to July 2023, when the Chinese military’s Equipment Development Department collected evidence of bidding irregularities since October 2017.
Subsequently, several senior officers within the Rocket Force were removed from their positions, including former Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe, former Minister of National Defense and concurrently Minister of Equipment Development of the Central Military Commission Li Shangfu, two former commanders of the Rocket Force, Li Yuchao and Zhou Yaning, as well as at least four former military enterprise executives who had served as members of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
The scope of the investigation even extended from the military to academia. The South China Morning Post reported in August 2024 that Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, and Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu were banned from participating in Rocket Force procurement due to collusion in bidding until August 2027.
Founded at the end of 2015, the Rocket Force serves as the core force of China’s strategic nuclear capabilities, with its procurement involving high-tech, high-cost, and highly sensitive equipment systems. Experts believe that this large-scale retrospective investigation reflects long-standing procurement issues within the military, impacting readiness and loyalty.