The episode marks a rare instance in which China’s congress did not move in lockstep with Xi’s political agenda on a high-stakes personnel matter.
The Chinese Communist Party’s rubber-stamp congress quietly stripped several deputies of their seats this month but avoided taking action against two senior military figures whose political downfall had already been publicly announced. This omission is raising questions about internal resistance to Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s authority over the armed forces.
On Feb. 4, Chinese state media outlet Xinhua News Agency announced the termination of the credentials of three National People’s Congress (NPC) deputies, all drawn from China’s defense-industrial sector.
Yet the NPC did not address the status of Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, two high-ranking military leaders whose investigations were officially announced on Jan. 24 and who, according to public records, still retain their seats as NPC deputies within the military and armed police delegation.
The decision—or lack of one—ran counter to widespread expectations that the rubber-stamp congress would move swiftly to formalize their political removal, as has been standard practice in previous purges.
The three deputies, Zhou Xinmin, Luo Qi, and Liu Cangli, all have long careers in China’s military-industrial complex.
Zhou previously served as chairman and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) secretary of the Aviation Industry Corp. of China. Luo is a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a former chief engineer of China National Nuclear Corp. Liu, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, once led the China Academy of Engineering Physics, the country’s premier nuclear weapons research institute.
While closely linked to sensitive defense technologies, none of the three occupied positions at the core of the People’s Liberation Army’s command structure, highlighting what analysts describe as a selective approach that avoids the most politically sensitive targets.
Proposal to Remove Generals Blocked
An insider within the Party, speaking under the pseudonym Jin Zhe because of fear of reprisal, told The Epoch Times that the military had submitted a proposal requesting that the NPC revoke Zhang and Liu’s credentials, seeking formal approval from the congress.
According to Jin, if such a proposal had not been on the table, there would have been little reason to convene a special Standing Committee meeting at all. The NPC is already scheduled to hold its routine session later this month.
The fact that the proposal failed to pass, Jin said, suggests a breakdown in coordination at the top of the CCP’s political hierarchy—and may point to emerging friction between Xi and Zhao Leji, who oversees the NPC.
If accurate, the episode would mark a rare instance in which the NPC did not move in lockstep with Xi’s political agenda on a high-stakes personnel matter.
