A top Chinese General has committed suicide to escape a probe against him over his alleged links to two corruption-tainted former PLA generals, becoming the first senior army official to have killed himself in the anti-graft campaign of President Xi Jinping. Zhang Yang, 66, a member of the Central Military Commission (CMC) – China's highest military body – hanged himself at his home in Beijing on November 23, state-run Xinhua news agency yesterday quoted the CMC as saying. In its first comment on Zhang's death, the Chinese military has termed the suicide as a "shameful" attempt to escape punishment.

Zhang Yang. Pic/AFP