China’s second-highest ranking General and eight other senior officials have been expelled from the ruling Communist Party and the military on suspicion of serious misconduct linked to corruption.
He Weidong, who was the Vice-Chair of the powerful Central Military Commission, is the most senior official targeted so far in an ongoing anti-graft drive against Chinese military leaders.
Defense Ministry Spokesperson, Zhang Xiaogang said in a statement posted online that the nine officials are suspected of extremely serious crimes involving exceptionally large sums of money.
Zhang added that their cases have been investigated and referred to military prosecutors for review and prosecution.
Government anti-corruption drives have become a signature policy of Chinese leader Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012. Thousands of officials have been purged including high-profile political rivals.
He, who was elevated to the Central Military Commission in 2022, has not been seen in public for months — often the first indication an official is in trouble.
He also was one of the 24 members of the Politburo, the second-highest Communist Party body after the 7-member Politburo Standing Committee.
He was formerly Head of the Eastern Theater Command, which holds primary responsibility for operations against Taiwan should hostilities break out.
The eight other dismissed officials include the Director of the Central Military Commission’s political work department, Miao Hua, who was put under investigation last November. “(The offenses) were of grave nature, with extremely harmful consequences,” Zhang said. He did not provide details of the alleged crimes.
The Central Military Commission(CMC), chaired by Xi, is the top military body in China.
Weidong is the third CMC member to be removed since the existing line-up took office in 2022.
At the 20th party congress in 2022, seven people were selected to sit on the commission; however, only four of those appointees remain, a situation unheard of in decades.
In addition to Xi, who chairs the CMC, only Vice-Chairman Zhang Youxia, and two members, Liu Zhenli, head of the Joint Staff Department and Zhang Shengmin, who leads the military’s discipline inspection commission, are still on the commission.
Analysts say the anti-corruption campaign, which is popular with the public, has also been used to enforce loyalty to Xi among party and government officials.
Communist Party’s Central Committee To Hold Plenum
The announcement came just days before the party’s Central Committee holds a major meeting in Beijing to map out the country’s goals for the next five years.
Central Committee of China’s ruling Communist Party will hold a closed-door meeting from Monday to Thursday to discuss, among other things, the country’s 15th five-year development plan.
The meeting, known as a plenum, is the fourth since the 2022 Party Congress. The fourth plenum of China’s ruling Communist Party taking place this month will be closely watched for potential reshuffles, with at least nine members of its top policymaking Central Committee set to be replaced.
These changes are expected either due to ongoing corruption investigations or because some officials have passed away, marking a new high in turnover since 2017.
The present committee was formed at the 20th party congress in 2022, with 205 full and 171 alternate members. Three members were replaced at the third plenum held in July last year, including former Foreign Minister Qin Gang.
The Central Committee is the largest of the party’s top decision-making bodies, and it typically holds seven plenums between congresses, with the fifth traditionally deliberating on five-year plans.
However, due to an unexplained nine-month-long delay in the third plenum until July 2024, the party is expected to now review the 2026-2030 plan during the fourth, on October 20-23, 2025.
To prevent leaks, plenum attendees are traditionally confined to the venue for the duration of the meeting. Little, if any, news of the proceedings is made public until it closes.
