New Delhi: Nine senior officials from China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), including He Weidong, the second vice-chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC), were purged last week as President Xi Jinping expanded the drive to root out corruption within the Chinese military.
He Weidong, who has been missing since March, was the third most powerful member of the PLA and also a member of the all-powerful Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). General He has been expelled from the CPC for violating party discipline and “serious crimes” while on duty, including corruption involving “large amounts”, according to an editorial in PLA Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese military.
“Expulsion from the Party and transfer of suspected crimes to the military procuratorate for examination and prosecution according to law are important measures to further promote the construction of Party style and clean government and the fight against corruption. It is an inevitable requirement for purifying the Party’s body, pure troops and pure senior cadres,” the PLA Daily editorial said.
The editorial went one step further in linking He and the nine others to the corruption of former senior ranking PLA officials Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou. Both Guo and Xu were also vice chairmen of the CMC during the tenure of Xi’s predecessor Hu Jintao (President of China 2002-2012).
Guo was arrested, charged and sentenced to imprisonment on corruption charges almost a decade ago, while Xu, who died in 2015, was under investigation as well. At the time, they were the most senior officials to be dragged into President Xi’s corruption net.
“The current anti-corruption struggle is the continuation of the anti-corruption trend since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the deepening of the reshaping of the people’s army. The in-depth investigation of He Weidong, Miao Hua, He Hongjun and others shows that no matter how high the position is and how much power they have, they are equal in the face of Party discipline and national law,” said the editorial in PLA Daily.
The nine officers purged are He Weidong, Miao Hua, He Hongjun, Wang Xiubin, Lin Xiangyang, Qin Shutong, Yuan Huazhi, Wang Houbin, Wang Chunning. Admiral Miao Hua was the director of the powerful political work department of the CMC. He Weidong’s removal is the first of a sitting officer of the CMC since the Cultural Revolution of 1966, when He Long was purged by then President of China Mao Zedong.
Miao was removed from the National People’s Congress (NPC) in April. At the time, Miao was the seventh official to be removed from the CMC by Xi since he assumed the presidency in 2012. Miao was one of the youngest admirals in the PLA and his career was shaped by Xi’s ascent to power.
The announcement of the expulsion was also made ahead of the fourth plenary session of the CPC Central Committee, which began earlier this week. The removal of nine officers impacts almost all wings of the PLA, including the navy, rocket force, army and the armed police.
Wang Houbin was the head of the PLA’s rocket force and had been appointed to the position following the purge of the previous head Li Yuchao for the same reason—corruption. He Weidong holds the rank of General in the PLA ground forces, and his firing indicates the simmering politics within the often opaque PLA.
He Hongjun, another of the officers purged, was the former deputy head of the CMC political work department, which Miao headed. Lin Xiangyang was the former head of the Eastern Theatre Command within the Chinese military, whose remit included Taiwan. According to reports, President Xi aims to complete the reunification of China by 2027.
Xi has been running an anti-graft campaign at various levels of the Chinese government over the years. The focus on the PLA and its senior ranks grew in particular after Russia’s full-scale war with Ukraine launched in February 2022, Financial Times, the British newspaper reports.
The alleged graft within Russia’s military harmed its opening moves to end the war with Ukraine quickly, FT notes. The Russia-Ukraine war has continued for almost four years. Li Shangfu, the former Defence Minister of China is one of the senior most officers to be removed from power by Xi last year. Li was a former head of the Rocket Force and held his post as defence minister for roughly seven months before disappearing.
Similarly, Wei Fenghe, Li’s predecessor as Minister of Defence was also expelled from the party in June 2024. Wei was also a commander in the PLA Rocket Force.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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