(TibetanReview.net, Oct18’25) – China has on Oct 17 announced that nine of the top generals of its People’s Liberation Army (PLA), including the person holding the number two rank and who is the third in command in it, had been expelled from the party and military, and placed under investigation. The allegations are not just corruption but also disloyalty, suggesting an element of power struggle in the massive shakeup.
He Weidong, one of two vice-chairs of the Central Military Commission (CMC) led by President Xi Jinping and a member of the 24-man Politburo, was found to have violated party disciplines and laws, according to a statement by the Ministry of Defence. He’s the first Politburo member to be ousted since former Chongqing party chief Sun Zhengcai was probed in 2017, noted Bloomberg News Oct 18.
Seen as a close ally of Xi, He is the first serving member of the Politburo, the party’s top decision-making body, to face such an investigation. He is also the third CMC member to be removed since the existing line-up took office in 2022.
In addition to He, the generals under investigation and expelled from both the party and the military included Miao Hua, former member of the CMC in charge of the military’s political, ideology and personnel work; He Hongjun, Miao’s deputy and former executive; and Wang Xiubin, former executive deputy director of the CMC Joint Operations Command Centre.
The others were Lin Xiangyang, former commander of the Eastern Theatre Command; Qin Shutong, former political commissar of the army; Yuan Huazhi, former political commissar of the navy; Wang Houbin, former commander of the Rocket Force, the PLA’s nuclear arm; and Wang Chunning, former commander of the People’s Armed Police Force.
The nine generals were accused of “serious violations of party discipline” and “suspected of grave duty-related crimes, involving exceptionally large sums of money”, the statement was quoted as saying. “The nature of their offences is extremely serious, and the impact is profoundly detrimental,” the Defence Ministry statement has added.
A PLA Daily editorial on Oct 18 has said the nine would face investigation and indictment from the military prosecutors.
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The announcement came days before the fourth plenum of the party’s Central Committee, when top leaders will gather in Beijing to discuss the country’s economic plan for the next five years and make personnel reshuffles. Eight of the nine military leaders removed on Oct 17 were members of the Central Committee, noted the AP Oct 17.
While the statement cast the expulsion as part of an anti-corruption drive, analysts say it could also be seen as a political purge, given its timing, noted bbc.com Oct 17.
Many will now be watching to see who attends the upcoming Fourth Plenum due to begin on Oct 20. “If attendance plunges, it’s the clearest public signal yet of how extensive the purges have been,” the report quoted Neil Thomas, a fellow in Chinese politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute, as saying.
High-ranking officers occupy an elevated position in Chinese politics and can command extensive privileges, official and unofficial, noted the AP report.
The report cited analysts as saying the anti-corruption campaign, which is popular with the public, has also been used to enforce loyalty to Xi among party and government officials.
The PLA Daily editorial said the nine generals were “being disloyal” and losing their “chastity”. It further accused them of “a total collapse of their beliefs” as party members, noted the scmp.com Oct 18.
The editorial was cited as saying the nine generals had done serious damage to the principles that the party should command the army as well as the principle that the army was accountable to the CMC’s chairman, who happens to be Xi Jinping.
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The decision is seen as suggesting a massive shake-up at the PLA that began when Xi axed officials at the Rocket Force for graft that’s believed to have degraded Chinese missiles’ capabilities. The crackdown has since included a dozen senior officials including two former defence ministers and senior officers in the Rocket Force and aerospace industry.
In fact, the widening of the purge makes it the biggest since Mao Zedong’s rule ended in 1976, and signals corruption has been found across different parts of the PLA, the Bloomberg News report noted.
The PLA Daily editorial has said China was at a critical point of strengthening the military and that it was crucial to remove “hidden tumours”.