An extraordinary wave of personnel upheaval within China’s military is showing no signs of slowing down, leaving numerous senior command positions vacant and raising questions about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping’s ability to rebuild a leadership structure increasingly defined by sweeping purges and political distrust.
The turmoil has reached virtually every major branch of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), including some of the most senior officers personally elevated under Xi.
Since the CCP’s 20th Party Congress in 2022, dozens of generals have reportedly been removed, investigated, dismissed from public positions, or disappeared from public view. Analysts have put the number of affected high-ranking generals as high as 57, including former CMC vice chairmen Zhang Youxia and He Weidong, former Defense Minister Li Shangfu, former CMC Political Work Department director Miao Hua, and senior commanders from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Rocket Force, theater commands, and People’s Armed Police.
The latest personnel changes came on Aug. 28, when the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress stripped 12 people of their status as NPC deputies.
RELATED: Official Linked to Hu Jintao’s 2022 Congress Exit Lands Senior Gansu Post
For the best of our weekly content！
You are now signed up for our newsletter
Check your email to complete sign up
On Aug. 26, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference removed retired Gen. Zhao Zongqi, formerly commander of the PLA Western Theater Command, from his positions on the national advisory body.
Purges reach Xi’s own ranks
Xi began his tenure with an extensive anti-corruption campaign targeting military officers who had risen during the era of former CCP leader Jiang Zemin. More than 100 senior officers were investigated during Xi’s first five years in power, with many of those same officers promoted under Xi himself.
RELATED: China Expands Its ‘Eyes’ in the South China Sea as New Radar Site Emerges
One central figure is Miao Hua, the former director of the Central Military Commission’s Political Work Department, who was suspended in November 2024 over alleged “serious violations of discipline,” the standard phrase used in CCP purges. Miao occupied a particularly sensitive position because his department played a major role in vetting senior officers for promotion.
Zhong Shaojun’s apparent downfall carries similar political significance. Zhong served for years as one of Xi’s closest military aides and became director of the Central Military Commission General Office in 2017. His removal as an NPC deputy on Aug. 28 provides a rare official indication that his political standing has collapsed.
The growing number of cases involving Xi-appointed officers has complicated the leadership’s longstanding portrayal of military purges primarily as an effort to eradicate corruption inherited from previous administrations. Instead, analysts say the upheaval increasingly points to a deeper problem of political trust within Xi’s own military establishment.
‘Absolute loyalty’ becomes a liability
Speaking to military delegates in March, Xi warned that the armed forces “must absolutely not contain people who harbor divided loyalties toward the Party,” reinforcing his longstanding demand for political loyalty within the PLA.
Australia-based Chinese legal scholar and commentator Yuan Hongbing argues that this requirement has itself become a source of instability. “Xi Jinping’s primary political criterion for selecting and promoting officials is absolute loyalty to him personally,” Yuan told Vision Times in a previous interview.
“Precisely because of Xi Jinping’s overbearing and muddleheaded mentality, he completely fails to understand that the absolute loyalty he demands is something today’s indulgent and corrupt CCP officials fundamentally do not possess,” noted Yuan.
Yuan added that the recurring removal of officers once regarded as politically-reliable has now created a dilemma as each purge requires Xi to promote replacements, but those replacements may themselves later become targets of suspicion.
Command vacancies
The consequences are now increasingly visible within the PLA’s command structure, analysts note. Following Zhang Youxia’s removal as a state Central Military Commission vice chairman on Aug. 28, Chinese government listings showed only Xi and Zhang Shengmin remaining among what had been a seven-member CMC leadership.
Several other strategically important posts have also reportedly remained vacant or are being administered by lower-ranking officers. According to publicly-available personnel information, only six active full generals were confirmed in senior PLA and People’s Armed Police leadership posts as of July, while roughly 20 positions normally associated with that rank remained vacant or were being overseen by lower-ranking officers.
Among the positions reportedly affected were senior leadership posts overseeing the PLA Joint Staff Department, Political Work Department, multiple theater commands, the Army, Navy, Rocket Force, and Armed Police.
High turnover
Such vacancies do not necessarily mean the PLA is incapable of operating, but the extraordinary turnover raises questions about continuity, coordination, and decision-making at the highest levels. Those questions are particularly consequential as Beijing continues military pressure around Taiwan and pursues a modernization campaign aimed at improving the PLA’s ability to conduct joint operations.
Yuan believes Xi faces a fundamental dilemma in rebuilding the military hierarchy. “The key reason Xi Jinping has been reluctant to fully rebuild the CCP’s fragmented military leadership structure is that he fears that, once a new leadership structure is established, another major case of political disloyalty will quickly erupt,” he said.
Original article
Comments