TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The purging of nine top military officials on Friday demonstrates the challenge Chinese leader Xi Jinping still faces in combating corruption, according to Nikkei’s Katsuji Nakazawa.
The officials were all generals from the Chinese Communist Party and People’s Liberation Army who supported Xi. “Their purge shows how difficult it is to eradicate corruption even in the Xi era,” Nakazawa wrote in a piece published on Thursday.
“Any such personnel changes will significantly impact the current balance of power within the military,” he added.
The disgraced officials include:
He Weidong, one of the two Central Military Commission vice chairs
Miao Hua, a former CMC member who served as director of the Political Work Department
He Hongjun, former executive deputy director of the CMC Political Work Department
Wang Xiubin, former executive deputy director of the CMC’s Joint Operations Command Center
Lin Xiangyang, former commander of the Eastern Theater Command
Qin Shutong, former political commissar of the PLA Army
Yuan Huazhi, former political commissar of the PLA Navy
Wang Chunning, former commander of the People’s Armed Police Force
Wang Houbin, former commander of the PLA Rocket Force
Nakazawa pointed out that He Weidong, Miao Hua, and Lin Xiangyang are leading members of the PLA's Fujian clique, which refers to a group of trusted allies created by Xi during his time working in Fujian from 1985 to 2002. Xi previously was the vice mayor of Xiamen, the provincial capital.
Lin Xiangyang served as commander of the Eastern Theater Command before his removal, which oversees the Taiwan invasion strategy. He Weidong also served in that position before being promoted to CMC vice chair in 2022.
Nakazawa cited a PLA Daily editorial as indirect evidence “that no significant progress has been made in the Xi era regarding tighter discipline in and reform of the PLA.” The article claimed the Fujian clique members and others were the “fermentation and mutation of the toxic influence” of Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou, who were former top officers caught in Xi’s anti-corruption campaign in 2012.
Nakazawa said that by using such words as “fermentation,” “mutation,” and “toxic,” “the PLA Daily seemed to be trying to say the latest corruption cases had been lingering since the days of (Jiang Zemin) and (Hu Jintao).”
He also noted that the purge announcement was made through the Ministry of National Defense, and not by official media outlets that would normally be used. He Weidong’s case in particular should have been the story of the day, he said.
The fact that Beijing did not want to reveal the news “in a high-profile manner” signified that Beijing was still troubled by corruption, Nakazawa suggested. “There is no doubt that the latest military purge is the result of past personnel mistakes made by the Xi administration.”
