China’s top political advisory body votes out three generals

Beijing – China’s top political advisory body voted to remove three generals, state media said, a week after nine military officials were ousted from its legislature.

The move comes as Beijing escalates a sweeping purge of military officials, days before thousands of delegates from across the country meet for the annual Two Sessions political conclave on March 4.

Simultaneous gatherings of the country’s top legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC), and a separate political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), will be held over the course of a week.

The CPPCC voted at a Standing Committee meeting to remove retired military generals Han Weiguo, Liu Lei and Gao Jin, Xinhua said on March 2.

While they can theoretically appeal the ruling, such decisions are usually final.

It also voted to remove two other members, while 10 more were officially ousted.

The move comes after the NPC ousted 19 of its delegates last week, including nine military officials.

The reason for the removals was not specified.

Mr Wang Xiangxi was also removed as minister of emergency management that same day after a probe by the country’s anti-corruption watchdog, while Mr Liu Shaoyun was removed from his position as head of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) military court.

Since President Xi Jinping came to power more than a decade ago, he has launched a massive drive to root out graft at all levels of the Chinese Communist Party and state, with the drive targeting the military in recent years.

Mr Xi hailed the military’s “fight against corruption” in February in a rare acknowledgement of graft, weeks after Beijing escalated a sweeping purge by probing its top general.

Beijing’s defence ministry said in January it was investigating Mr Zhang Youxia, a vice-chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC), as well as Liu Zhenli, chief of staff of the CMC’s joint staff department, which oversees combat planning.

“The detention of Zhang Youxia was the capstone arrest of the greatest series of purges in the history of China’s PLA,” experts from the Center for Strategic and International Studies wrote in a note.

Only one general remains on the CMC, which usually has six officers of that rank.

In the near term, given the significant vacancies in the top ranks of China’s PLA, “it would be incredibly difficult for China to launch large military campaigns against Taiwan”, the experts said.

China’s Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan, but Beijing claims the island of 23 million people is part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to annex it.

China’s defence budget “outpaces the wider” Asia-Pacific region, accounting for about 44 per cent of regional military spending, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said in its annual report. AFP