China’s anti-corruption drive targeting the top brass of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) should not be taken as a sign that President Xi Jinping has weak control over the military, according to analysts.
They added that the campaign’s impact on the military’s war readiness and modernisation was also limited, and that internal competition among Xi’s supporters could be a factor behind the high-level investigations.
In the past two years, Beijing has targeted two of the seven members of its Central Military Commission (CMC), a powerful body led by Xi, while a third vanished from the public eye over a month ago.
On Wednesday, the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee stripped CMC member Miao Hua of his membership in the NPC, the country’s top legislature. Miao, who oversaw Communist Party ideology and personnel changes, was suspended from duty and put under investigation in late November.
In late 2023, Li Shangfu was dismissed as China’s defence minister, making him the shortest-serving defence chief in decades. Months later, he was removed from the CMC. Both Li and his predecessor Wei Fenghe, who served as defence minister from 2018 to 2023, were investigated for corruption and expelled from the party.
In recent weeks, the CMC’s second-ranking vice-chairman He Weidong has missed a series of top-level meetings that typically involve senior military leaders, including an April 25 study session of the Politburo, of which he is a member.
