In a stunning fall from grace, Chinese state-run media reported Tuesday that Gen. Fang Fenghui, a former member of China's powerful Central Military Commission and former chief of the CMC Joint Staff Department, had been referred to military prosecutors on suspicion of bribery.
The official Xinhua News Agency, which reported the move, gave no other details.
Fang, once the fifth-ranking officer on the CMC, had been questioned by authorities in September about "economic problems," media reports said at the time. He was replaced at the Joint Staff Department in late August after playing host to U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford earlier that month.