Why is Xi Jinping's China purging its senior military leaders?

China is purging its top military officials.

A member of the country’s top military body with close ties to Xi Jinping has been suspended and is being investigated for corruption.

Admiral Miao Hua is just the latest top official to fall prey to Xi’s sweep of the military and top officials.

The development comes just a day after a report that China’s Defense Minister Dong Jun is being investigated for corruption.

But what happened? What do we know about the purge?

Let’s take a closer look:ss

What happened?

First, let’s take a brief look at Miao.

Miao is a member of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) – the country’s top military body.

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According to CNN, the 69-year-old is chief of the country’s Political Work Department.

Miao is thought to be an ally of Xi .

He was in the army in China ’s Fujian province in the 1990s and 2000s – where Xi spent time as a senior official.

A native of Fujian, Miao came up through the military’s political departments.

In 2014, he was appointed the political commissar of the PLA Navy.

In 2017, Miao was promoted to the director of the CMC’s Political Work Department.

Beijing has removed top military official Miao from office pending a probe into “serious violations of discipline” – a common euphemism for corruption.

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According to Bloomberg, the CMC has a dedicated team of graft busters to conduct such probes.

They conduct the investigation and send the report to the CMC – of which Xi is the chair

Xi is seconded by two vice-chairmen as well as three members who look after political work and discipline.

This tiny is “the nucleus of military operations and oversight in China,” Asia Society Policy Institute analysis says, as per Bloomberg.

As per Bloomberg, the CMC manages the administration of the armed forces as well as strategic planning, audits and political education.

It is one of the most powerful institutions in China .

Miao is just the latest high-ranking military figure to face the heat.

British newspaper the Financial Times this week reported that defence minister Dong Jun – who is thought to be the protégé of Miao – was under investigation

The newspaper quoted current and former US officials familiar with the situation who preferred to stay anonymous.

China has dismissed the report as ‘pure fabrications.’

“Those rumour mongers harbour evil motives. China expresses strong dissatisfaction over such smears,”  the defence ministry said as per CNN.

Xi’s sweep

Since 2023, nearly two dozen military officials including Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu – both former defence ministers – have been purged in a sweeping crackdown.

Wei and Li have been expelled from the ruling Communist Party and are under corruption investigations,  according to state media.

Al Jazeera quoted a Communist Party statement at the time as saying they “betrayed the trust of the party and the Central Military Commission, seriously polluted the political environment of the military, and caused great damage to … the image of its senior leaders”.

As per CNN, Li was removed just months into his term as defence minister without any reason being given.

Li was then replaced by Dong.

Analysts linked the purge to a wider investigation into the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Rocket Force, which oversees China’s nuclear and conventional missiles and would likely be Beijing’s first line of attack in the event of a major conflict.

Both former defence ministers had links to the force – Wei previously headed the unit and Li Shangfu led a department that developed weapons including missiles.

The unit’s chief, Li Yuchao, and chief of staff, Sun Jinming, were expelled from the party and investigated for corruption in July.

Three senior officials were also removed from their posts at state-owned missile defence organisations in December 2023.

According to Al Jazeera, at least nine People’s Liberation Army (PLA) generals and several defence industry executives have been purged from the national legislative body.

But Miao and Dong’s removal, if confirmed, could suggest the graft purge is widening.

“It’s certainly a blow … because one would imagine they will be super careful to have someone very clean in this role,” Dylan Loh, an assistant professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, told the AFP news agency.

“Graft probes are very commonly targeted at the military because of the long historical ties between the business world and the PLA,” he said.

Miao had no clear ties to the rocket force, climbing the ranks in the army and then being promoted to admiral in the navy in 2015.

Similarly, the defence minister – appointed in December – forged his career in the navy and eventually became its commander.

What do experts say?

That say corruption may have eroded Chinese combat readiness – raising fears in Beijing as it conducts its largest military build-up in decades.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has waged a sweeping campaign against deep-seated official corruption since coming to power over a decade ago.

Proponents say the policy promotes clean governance, while critics say it helps Xi purge political rivals.

“Xi appears to be chronically distrustful of his most prominent military officials,” Ankit Panda, Stanton Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told AFP.

Reports of Dong’s fall suggested “the rot in China’s military remains even deeper than previously suspected”, Neil Thomas, a fellow on Chinese politics at the Asia Society, told AFP.

The crackdown has come as China has increased military pressure on Taiwan and repeatedly pushed up against its neighbours over disputed territory in the South China Sea.

But analysts say graft in the military may be raising worries that the army isn’t up to the job.

“Corruption in the Chinese military rightly should raise questions about its ability to achieve military objectives and reach the ‘great rejuvenation’ envisioned by Xi,” Heather Williams, director of the Project on Nuclear Issues at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies wrote.

Bloomberg, citing US intelligence, reported this year that rampant corruption in the Rocket Force had led to malfunctioning equipment like missile silos with malfunctioning lids and missile fuel being replaced with water.

Officials say that so rampant is corruption that Xi is less likely to take major military action in the years ahead, the outlet report.

“If true, these flaws would compromise missile operations, calling into question China’s nuclear force readiness and overall capabilities,” the Federation of American Scientists wrote in an open letter in response to the claims.

Xi has vowed that the reunification of the Chinese mainland and Taiwan is inevitable and pledged to take “all measures necessary” to achieve that goal.

The recent crackdown “raises the question of who Xi has left that he can trust and how deep the scandals run that have taken down these key officials,” said Joel Wuthnow, senior research fellow at National Defense University in the US.

“It has to be a huge distraction… as he presses the PLA to be ready for a war with Taiwan by 2027.”

This month, Xi visited members of the country’s air force in central Hubei province, urging them to root out corruption and “unhealthy tendencies”.

“(We) must keep firmly in mind our duties and missions, increase our sense of war preparedness and tighten our preparations for military struggles,” Xi told soldiers.

But with Miao’s removal, analysts expect the corruption crackdown to continue to distract from that goal.

“Competition for top positions is so fierce that there might be some mutual recriminations between officers which would lead to endless cycles of arrests, new appointments and recriminations,” Victor Shih, an expert on elite Chinese politics, told AFP.

With inputs from agenciese