China expels two top military leaders from Communist Party in anti-corruption purge

BEIJING – Two top Chinese military leaders have been expelled from the ruling Communist Party and the military on corruption charges, the country’s Defence Ministry said on Oct 17. They are the most senior officers to be purged in an anti-graft drive that began in 2023.

Mr He Weidong, China’s No. 2 general, and Navy Admiral Miao Hua, the Chinese military’s former top political officer, are the latest senior military officials to be targeted in a campaign against corruption in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

Mr He’s removal is the first of a sitting general of the Central Military Commission since the 1966 to 1976 Cultural Revolution. He has not been seen in public since March, but the investigation of his activities had not previously been disclosed by the Chinese authorities.

Mr He, Mr Miao and seven other senior military officials named in the announcement “seriously violated party discipline and are suspected of serious duty-related crimes involving an extremely large amount of money”, Defence Ministry spokesman Zhang Xiaogang said.

Their offences were “of a grave nature, with extremely detrimental consequences”, the statement added, calling it a “significant achievement in the party and military’s anti-corruption campaign”.

The expulsion of Mr He, 68, has implications beyond the military, as he also sat on the 24-member Politburo, the ruling Communist Party’s second-highest echelon of power.

One of two vice-chairmen of the commission, the general is the third most powerful commander in the PLA and has been considered a close associate of President Xi Jinping, the army’s commander-in-chief.

The announcement came just days before the Communist Party’s Central Committee, an elite body of more than 200 senior officials, is due to hold its Fourth Plenum in Beijing.

More personnel decisions, including the expulsion and replacement of Central Committee members, are expected to be formalised at the meeting.

Mr Wen-Ti Sung, of the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub, said: “Xi is cleaning house, for sure. 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.”

Mr Miao was previously removed from the Central Military Commission in June after being put under investigation for “serious violations of discipline” in November 2024.

The other officials named include Mr He Hongjun, a former senior official at the PLA Political Work Department, Mr Wang Xiubin of the Central Military Commission’s Joint Operations Command Centre, former Eastern Theatre Command commander Lin Xiangyang and two former political commissars of the PLA army and navy.

Observers have noted that many of these officials have been missing from public view for several months.

Former People’s Armed Police commander Wang Chunning, also named in the statement, was removed from the national legislature in September, along with three other PLA generals.

The purge of Mr He implicates a man with extensive operational experience and long ties to Mr Xi.

His ties to the President go back to their overlapping service in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces in the late 1990s.

Mr Xi was deputy party secretary and governor of Fujian province between 1995 and 2002.

Mr He joined the military commission after commanding the PLA’s Eastern Theatre in Fujian province, which faces Taiwan and would be the key region in any conflict over the self-governing island that Beijing claims as its own territory.

In 2022, Mr He was promoted directly to vice-chair of the military commission, skipping the usual step of serving on the 205-member Central Committee.

The Pentagon has said Mr He played a key role in planning live-fire drills around Taiwan after Ms Nancy Pelosi, then the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, angered China by visiting Taipei in August 2022.

The exercises were the most aggressive moves Beijing has made against the island in recent years. REUTERS