The Communist Party Central Committee completed a purge of the Chinese military by removing nine senior military leaders from their positions last week. The removal of the top military leaders comes amid a military corruption purge in China.
According to Reuters, Zhang Shengmin, a 67-year-old Chinese military official, was promoted to the second-highest general during a Communist Party Central Committee meeting in Beijing on Thursday. The outlet noted that the meeting, which is called the Fourth Plenum, also featured discussions on a five-year economic development plan that would allow China to be self-reliant for technological advances amid the country’s growing rivalry with the United States under President Donald Trump’s administration.
Reuters reported that the Communist Party Central Committee replaced 11 members at the Fourth Plenum, which marked the most significant personnel change since 2017.
According to Reuters, China’s second-highest general, He Weidong, and Navy Miao Hua, a navy admiral and the top political officer for the Chinese military, were both removed from their positions last week as part of a government crackdown against corruption in China’s People’s Liberation Army.
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In addition to He and Miao, seven other senior military officials were targeted in the anti-corruption crackdown, according to Reuters. Zhang Xiaogang, a Chinese Ministry of National Defense spokesperson, claimed that the military officials “seriously violated Party discipline and are suspected of serious duty-related crimes involving an extremely large amount of money.”
In a statement obtained by Reuters, Zhang said the offenses of the senior Chinese military officials were “of a grave nature, with extremely detrimental consequences.” The Chinese Ministry of National Defense spokesperson also noted that the removal of the officials marked a “significant achievement in the Party and military’s anti-corruption campaign.”
“Xi is cleaning house for sure,” Wen-Ti Sung, a fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub, said in a statement obtained by Reuters. The formal removal of He and Miao means he will get to appoint new members of the Central Military Commission – which has been virtually half empty since March – at the Plenum.”
