China has expelled nine high-ranking military officers from the Communist Party and the armed forces on corruption charges, marking one of the largest purges in the People’s Liberation Army’s upper echelons in decades, according to details received by The Chenab Times.
The Defense Ministry announced the dismissals on Friday, October 17, accusing the officials of “seriously violating Party discipline and suspected of serious duty-related crimes involving an extremely large amount of money,” spokesperson Senior Col. Zhang Xiaogang said in a statement. The ousted officers include Gen. He Weidong, China’s second-highest-ranking general and a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, as well as Adm. Miao Hua, the former top political officer of the military. The other seven include He Hongjun, a former senior official at the PLA Political Work Department; Wang Xiubin of the Central Military Commission’s Joint Operations Command Centre; former Eastern Theatre Command commander Lin Xiangyang; and two former political commissars of the PLA Army and Navy.
The expulsions come ahead of the Communist Party’s Central Committee meeting in Beijing and follow a series of investigations launched in 2023. Several of the officers had been under probe for alleged crimes and corruption prior to the announcement, and their cases have been referred to military prosecutors.
The action is part of Xi’s broader anti-corruption campaign, which has targeted over a dozen senior PLA figures since 2023, including two former defense ministers, Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu, and commanders from the Rocket Force that oversees China’s nuclear arsenal. Despite the purges, China’s military modernization continues, with defense spending rising 7.2 percent this year to approximately $246 billion.
Social media rumors of a potential military coup or internal power struggle have circulated online, fueled by the scale of the dismissals and past absences of officials like He Weidong from public view since March. However, no verified evidence supports claims of a coup, and experts attribute the moves to Xi’s efforts to enforce loyalty and combat graft within the ranks.
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Global Affairs Desk at The Chenab Times covers international developments, global diplomacy, and foreign policy issues through fact-based reporting, explainers, and analytical pieces. The desk focuses on major geopolitical events, diplomatic engagements, and international trends, with an emphasis on verified information, multiple perspectives, and contextual understanding of global affairs.
