The removal of nine senior officers, including top commanders of key military units, highlights the potential instability of Xi’s rule.
In the latest shake-up of China’s military, nine senior officers of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been expelled from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), China’s Ministry of National Defense announced Friday.
The ministry said that the nine, including one of the country’s two vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission (CMC), were expelled for “disciplinary violations and allegedly serious duty-related crimes.”
Zhang Xiaogang, the ministry’s spokesman, said in a statement that an investigation uncovered crimes involving “huge amounts” of illicit gains with an “extremely serious nature and egregious impact.” Their cases have been transferred to military prosecutors following their expulsion from the CCP.
According to the statement, those expelled include He Weidong, the CMC’s vice chairman and one of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s most trusted allies, as well as Miao Hua, former head of the CMC’s Political Work Department; He Hongjun, the department’s former deputy head; Wang Xiubin, former deputy chief of the CMC Joint Operations Command Center; Lin Xiangyang, former commander of the PLA Eastern Theater Command; Qin Shutong, former political commissar of the PLA Ground Force; Yuan Huazhi, former political commissar of the PLA Navy; Wang Houbin, former commander of the Rocket Force; and Wang Chunning, former commander of the People’s Armed Police Force.
The expulsions mark a significant escalation in Xi’s decade-long anti-corruption campaign within the armed forces, underscoring both the depth of the internal purge and the CCP leader’s tightening grip on China’s military hierarchy.
Officers Linked to Xi’s Fujian Power Base
Several of the dismissed generals share a common link to Xi’s past years in Fujian Province, where he served from 1985 to 2002 in the CCP’s hierarchy. During that time, Xi developed close ties with the PLA’s 31st Army Group, a key military unit stationed in the region that has since become known as Xi’s “home-base army.”
He Weidong, who served as chief of staff of the 31st Army Group in 2007 and later rose to command the Eastern Theater Command, is widely viewed as one of Xi’s protégés. His appointment as CMC vice chairman in 2022 broke precedent as he was elevated to the position despite never having previously served as a full Central Committee member, a sign of Xi’s personal trust.
