China’s top legislative body has removed nine military officials ahead of its annual political meeting next week.
The National People’s Congress (NPC) updated its roster of deputies from the military delegation on Thursday, cutting the number of representatives from the People’s Liberation Army and the People’s Armed Police to 243.
Left out of the 14th NPC were Ground Force commander Li Qiaoming, Information Support Force political commissar Li Wei as well as Ding Laifu of the army, Bian Ruifeng and Wang Donghai of the Central Military Commission, Shen Jinlong and Qin Shengxiang of the navy, Yu Zhongfu of the air force, and Yang Guang of the rocket force, state news agency Xinhua reported.
No official reason was given for the decision, which came just weeks after president Xi Jinping ousted his highest-ranking general and long-time ally Zhang Youxia.
The move comes as Beijing prepares for annual meetings of the NPC and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
The “two sessions”, as they are popularly known, start on 4 March to lay out the national policy agenda, including plans related to the military, economy, trade and diplomacy.
The dismissals are part of a sweeping military purge undertaken by Xi and widely seen as the most extensive shake-up of the armed forces in roughly half a century.
The Chinese leader started a campaign to root out corruption in the armed forces in 2023, months after securing an unprecedented third term. He called corruption "the biggest threat" to the Communist Party. However, some critics claim the campaign is a tool to purge political rivals.
Since then, Mr Xi has removed 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 chairman Zhang Shengmin.
The International Institute for Strategic Studies, a security think tank in the UK, said in a report this week that the ongoing corruption purges had left serious deficiencies in the Chinese military’s command structure and likely hampered the readiness of its rapidly modernising armed forces.
The purges are likely incomplete even though they already range across the Central Military Commission, theatre commands, weapons procurement and development as well as defence academia, according to the think tank.
“From an organisational perspective, until the vacancies are filled, the PLA is operating with serious deficiencies in its command structure," the IISS said in its annual Military Balance, a survey of global military forces.
