The leader of China, Xi Jinping, has begun a large-scale purge among the country’s top military leadership. As a result, 14 generals out of 79 were removed from their posts or arrested. This is reported by Bloomberg.
The campaign began after the re-election of Xi Jinping for a third term in 2022. Since then, 14 of the 79 generals he personally appointed to key positions have disappeared from public view or are under investigation.
The Central Military Council (CMC), which is the top collegiate governing body of the Chinese military, has only four members left out of seven. The Central Intelligence Agency is particularly important not only because it commands the world’s largest regular army, but also because it is directly controlled by the Communist Party, not the government. This makes it an important tool of power over the entire population of the country, which is 1.4 billion people.
One of the main reasons for the removal of generals is called corruption – both real and “fabricated” by Xi Jinping himself. Among the problems identified are rockets filled with water instead of fuel, and faulty covers of mine installations, which makes launches ineffective.
He Weidong, the deputy head of the Central Intelligence Agency, against whom a case was opened for corruption, former Minister of Defense Li Shanfu and ex-missile officer Li Yuchao came under attack. In total, over the past two years, more than a dozen generals, as well as heads of defense enterprises, have been removed from their positions.
Xi Jinping is not only “fighting corruption”, but also concentrating power in his hands. Some positions in the Central Committee remain vacant, and he deliberately does not reveal the names of possible successors in order to keep both allies and competitors in suspense. In China, any topics related to personnel issues in the Central Military Commission are strictly censored.
