Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive has seen sacking of top officers in China’s military, raising questions of capability and trust
Top officials in China continue to vanish and the most recent example is the absence of General He Weidong from yet another important event on 25th April. He was not present at the Politburo study session presided over by President Xi Jinping, as per a report in South China Morning Post. Weidong missed the tree-planting ceremony earlier in the outskirts of Beijing as well. Notably, it is a yearly springtime custom for the military leadership of the country for over 40 years.
Weidong was missing from a high-profile, two-day working meeting on neighborhood diplomacy on 9th April either. Additionally, official media reported that he was absent from a symposium held on 14th March to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Anti-Secession Law’s implementation. Amidst escalating tensions across the Taiwan Strait, the symposium marking the legalization of “peaceful national reunification” with Taiwan in 2005 brought together prominent figures from the party and China’s military.
Weidong’s final public appearance took place on 11th March, when he and other high-ranking officials sat on the rostrum for the closure of China’s annual premier political assembly, the National People’s Congress. Ironically, he urged the advancement of anti-corruption operations and better military training during a 5th March review of government work reports with General Zhang Youxia.
He Weidong’s failure to attend the significant occasions fits into an increasingly common trend of missing Chinese military officials. The disappearance of these figures is reportedly a part of Xi Jinping’s purge of the highest ranking members of the military. General He Weidong is one of the two vice-chairpersons of the influential Central Military Commission (CMC) and one of the 24 members of the Communist Party’s Politburo.
An inquiry into him would be unprecedented. The sole historical example in the People’s Republic of China pertains to party veteran He Long during the Cultural Revolution, who was completely rehabilitated only following Mao Zedong’s demise.
The disappearance of Chinese officials
Beijing has targeted two of the seven members of the CMC which is headed by Xi Jinping, in the last two years and the third disappeared from the public view more than a month ago. CMC member Admiral Miao Hua was expelled from the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, which is the nation’s highest legislative. He directed the Communist Party’s ideological framework and personnel changes. He was relieved of his duties and subjected to an investigation in late November.
The dismissal of Tang Yong, who served as the deputy head of the military’s anti-corruption agency, from his position in the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the premier political advisory institution in the country, in March has also been viewed as a sign that he is under suspicion for corruption.
Li Shangfu became the shortest-serving defense chief in decades when he was fired as China’s defense minister in late 2023. He was kicked out of the CMC a few months later. Both him and Wei Fenghe, his predecessor and the defense minister from 2018 to 2023, were ousted from the party after becoming the subject of corruption inquiries.
The first official explanation for Li Shangfu’s abrupt departure came from a report by China’s top military authority, the Central Military Commission, which claimed that both individuals had “gravely hurt the work of the party,” the advancement of defense and the reputation of senior leaders. Dong Jun, the first individual to hold the position of navy chief after his departure, in December, is also under scrutiny for corruption.
Qin Gang, China’s former foreign minister, disappeared from the public eye in June 2023, months after taking office, in another high-profile case that ended in outster. A month later, he was sacked as foreign minister, reports FirstPost. Other representatives have similarly went missing from time to time. The head of the People’s Armed Police Force General Wang Chunning has been missing from important meetings and has since faded from the spotlight. Ground force commander Li Qiaoming and People’s Liberation Army (PLA) naval commissar Yuan Huazhi, have reportedly been unaccounted for since last December.
The People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force commander, General Li Yuchao, and his deputy, General Liu Guangbin also vanished in 2023. Xi Jinping ordered their replacements in August. Wang Houbin, who has been the PLA navy’s deputy commander since 2020, was subsequently named the Rocket Force’s commander by the Chinese president. The Rocket Force also appointed Xu Xisheng, a member of the party central committee and an air force officer as its new political commissar.
The head of the ministry of industry and information technology, Xiao Yaqing, dropped from the scene in July 2022. Three weeks later, he was under investigation for corruption, according to official media. Since Xi Jinping’s rise to power in China, at least 78 senior officers within the PLA, holding no less than a two-star rank, consisting of eight former or serving members of the CMC, have been removed from their posts.
Xi Jinping’s iron fist control
An analyst mentioned, “The most powerful tools that Xi uses to control the PLA are his anti-corruption campaign, which allows him to purge the corrupted, disloyal and incapable ones, and his military reform plan, which allows him to reshape the PLA’s structure and modernisation, promoting the loyal and capable ones to newly created crucial positions. I see no changes in these factors,” according to South China Morning Post.
“After all, while Xi’s control over the military certainly cannot compare to that of war veterans such as Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, he is certainly much stronger than Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao,” he added. Xi Jinping was allegedly able to capitalize on the influence of his father, revolutionary veteran Xi Zhongxun and his prior experience as secretary to former Chinese defense minister Geng Biao, unlike previous leaders Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao who lacked substantial military backgrounds or connections prior to their ascent to power.
According to the analyst, given that the majority of CMC members were known to be his loyalists, he demonstrated unassailable and overwhelming control over top military appointments, particularly following the 20th party session in 2022. He added that Xi Jinping’s ability to defy the customary “retire at 68” regulation to retain Zhang Youxia, the dependable vice-chairman of the CMC, who was 72 at the time, for at least another five-year term was a vital hint.
The Beijing-based analyst voiced, “They are all Xi’s loyalists, but that doesn’t mean that there are no frictions or tensions among them. There is a cutthroat race for the top posts in the next CMC among the top commanders as the 21st party congress is just two years away,” mentioned South China Morning Post. The crackdowns would actually increase Xi’s influence since they highlighted that he had “the ultimate say on who to hire and who to fire,” confirming his overwhelming control over top appointments, noted Deng Yuwen, former deputy editor of the Central Party School’s official journal.
“This is by far the largest shake-up of PLA leadership and state-owned enterprises involved in military procurement in recent memory. It suggests deep anxiety and dysfunction within the ranks of China’s military, and a failure of trust between Xi and the military,” conveyed Lyle Morris, per Economic Times. He works at the US-based Center for China Analysis as the Senior Fellow for Foreign Policy and National Security. He stated that these visible actions indicated a significant issue of trust and corruption within the PLA.
200 new detention facilities in China
Over 200 specialized detention centers have been constructed or extended nationwide by China to further President Xi Jinping’s expanding anti-corruption initiative. Suspects could be detained in these “Liuzhi” centers for at least six months without access to family visits or legal representation. The contentious “shuanggui” system, which was criticized for torture and abuse, was replaced by Liuzhi, which was codified in 2018.
The facilities feature padded floors, 24-hour security and security cameras to keep an eye on the inmates. Officials, civil servants and managers of public institutions are also among their targets in addition to members of the Communist Party. More than 218 Liuzhi centers were constructed or enlarged between 2017 and November 2024. The extended detention policy, according to critics, permits forced confessions and misuse of authority.
According to a lawyer who defends officials in corruption trials, inmates frequently endure torture, intimidation and intense psychological pressure. “Most succumb to the agony,” he stated, based on NDTV. There is a nationwide plan in place to build these facilities between 2023 and 2027 and authorities have set standard construction guidelines for liuzhi centers.
Local anti-graft organizations might be misusing their authority by holding entrepreneurs on fictitious accusations in order to demand bribes, according to critics. Economist Zhou Tianyong argued that such practices could hurt China’s economy and called for reforms in a now-censored piece.
Xi Jinping’s millionaire family
According to a US intelligence report, the family of Chinese President Xi Jinping still owns millions of dollars in financial interests and economic endeavors in China and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) remains plagued by “endemic” corruption, despite his ten-year anti-corruption campaign targeting the officials. It asserted that Xi Jinping’s family has maintained significant financial stakes in both state-owned and private companies via their political ties.
It mentioned, “Their high-ranking positions could have provided them with access to privileged information, and both private and state-run enterprise activities might have benefited family investments due to their associations with people in political authority.” The report further emphasised, “Corruption is an endemic feature of and challenge for China, enabled by a political system with power highly centralized in the hands of the CCP, a CCP-centric concept of the rule of law, a lack of independent checks on public officials, and limited transparency.”
The research stated that the combined assets of Xi Jinping’s siblings, nieces and nephews “amounted to over $1 billion in real estate and business investments.” It unveiled, “Their senior-level positions would have granted access to privileged information and both private and state-owned enterprise actions could have advantaged family holdings due to their connections to persons with political power.”
According to the report, bribery is the source of illegal income for up to 65% of Chinese government officials. “Corruption in China often involves money in the form of different types of bribery or graft, and open-source research has demonstrated that some officials and their families have amassed significant wealth due to their positions and connections,” the report stated.
Jinping launched an anti-corruption campaign at all levels of the Communist Party after taking office in 2012. It targeted both high-ranking “tigers” and low-ranking “flies” and led to hundreds of thousands of officials being investigated and punished, according to RFA (Radio Free Asia). Centralized control, a lack of independent scrutiny, and limited accountability, particularly at the province level, are systemic problems that contribute to corruption in China, per the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).
According to the research, these circumstances allow public servants to accumulate riches through corrupt activities at a pace that is estimated to be four to six times their official wages. it revealed that Xi Jinping first targeted his political adversaries or people connected to them with charges of corruption.
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