(Reuters) - President Xi Jinping is likely to promote a corruption whistleblower to China's top military decision-making body to underscore his determination to tackle graft inside the country's rapidly modernising armed forces, two sources said.
General Liu Yuan, 62, the eldest son of late president Liu Shaoqi, is set to be appointed to the Central Military Commission during a meeting of the Communist Party's elite 205-member Central Committee in October, a source close to the leadership and a second source with ties to the military said.
Security had been stepped up around Liu after he had received death threats for exposing the worst military graft scandal in modern China, which involved the widespread selling of positions in the People's Liberation Army (PLA), three separate sources added.
Xi has made tackling pervasive official corruption one of his top priorities since he took over the party in November 2012. His crackdown accelerated this week when the party said it was investigating former domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang for breaching party discipline, a euphemism for corruption.
Xi has also demanded the military clean up its act and become more combat ready as China asserts itself in the disputed waters of the East and South China Seas, though the country has not fought a war in decades and stresses it wants peaceful ties with its neighbours.