Probes and removal of senior officers considered allies of Xi Jinping are a sign of pervasive corruption and ruinous political infighting.
News Analysis
Despite securing ever-greater nominal authority over the levers of power in communist China, Chinese leader Xi Jinping appears to be facing intractable and growing challenges from within the regime itself.
Over recent years and months several top officers in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been investigated for corruption, removed from their posts, or they have vanished from public view.
While the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has pursued a nationwide anti-corruption campaign since Xi took office in 2013, the recent disciplinary actions have drawn attention, given that those targeted are not factional rivals of the Chinese leader, but his close lieutenants.
For example, former Defense Minister Li Shangfu, who had lost his job in October 2023, was expelled from the CCP last June. Meanwhile, PLA Adm. Miao Hua was placed under investigation last November.
China watchers are now paying close attention to signs regarding the fate of Gen. He Weidong—the regime’s third-most powerful military officer has been missing from public view since mid-March.
As the likelihood of the general’s political downfall rises, his case portends greater turbulence for others in the Xi leadership amid chaotic factional intrigue and deepening crisis for China overall.
Beijing ‘Turns the Knife Inward’
He Weidong, vice-chairman of the CCP’s Central Military Commission, serves alongside fellow Vice-Chairman Gen. Zhang Youxia, while the head of the commission, and hence the PLA, is Xi Jinping himself.
Last seen at the closing ceremony of the National People’s Congress on March 11, He Weidong has been the subject of rumors and insider exposés about his alleged arrest and investigation by CCP authorities, as reported by independent Chinese journalist Zhao Lanjian and The Washington Times.
The general was conspicuously absent from a crucial central work conference of the CCP leadership held on April 8 and April 9, and before that, an annual PLA ceremony in Beijing held on April 2.
By Leo Timm
