China has removed six senior military officers from its top legislative body in a sign that president Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive is intensifying.
The standing committee of the National People’s Congress announced in a late-night note that 13 members had been removed and one had resigned.
Besides the military officers, they include former financial regulator Li Yunze and former Xinjiang Communist Party chief Ma Xingrui, according to Xinhua news agency.
The dismissals are widely seen as the most extensive shake-up of the armed forces in roughly half a century.
Mr Xi launched a campaign to root out corruption in the armed forces in 2023, months after securing a third term as the president.
Since then, scores of senior party officials and top generals have been investigated or removed.
While some have been placed under investigation for alleged corruption, others have disappeared from public view without explanation.
While Mr Xi has justified the crackdown by describing corruption as “the biggest threat” to the Communist Party, critics have claimed that it is designed to purge his political rivals.
The military lawmakers who have been removed in the latest purge is General Xu Xueqiang, who has been the head of the Equipment Development Department of the Central Military Commission, a top body tasked with overseeing the development, acquisition and testing of equipment for the People’s Liberation Army. Mr Xu has also been commander-in-chief of China’s Manned Space Programme since 2022.
General Li Fengbiao, who has served as the political commissar of the PLA Western Theatre Command, has been removed as well, along with General Guo Puxiao, who has been political commissar of the PLA Air Force, Wang Kangping of Eastern Theatre Command, Zhang Minghua of the Cyberspace Force, and Yin Hongxing of the army.
Mr Xi has previously removed about two dozen senior military figures, including a former defence minister and two vice military chiefs. The crackdown has reduced the seven-man supreme military command body, the Central Military Commission, to a committee of just Xi and newly promoted vice chair Zhang Shengmin.
Analysts say the campaign is a way for Mr Xi, now in his 14th year in power, to remove potential rivals and ensure loyalty among subordinates.
Mr Xi has repeatedly stressed that the military’s anti-corruption campaign will continue. “The armed forces wield the gun. There must never be room in the military for those half-hearted towards the party, nor any sanctuary for the corrupt,” he said at the annual meeting of the legislature earlier in March.
