China has expelled its second-highest ranking general, He Weidong, and eight other senior military officials from the Communist Party and the armed forces in what authorities described as a major anti-corruption move ahead of a key party gathering in Beijing. The Ministry of Defense said Friday that all nine officials "seriously violated Party discipline and are suspected of serious duty-related crimes involving an extremely large amount of money."
He, 68, was one of two vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the body that oversees China's armed forces and answers directly to President Xi Jinping. His removal marks the first time since the Cultural Revolution that a sitting CMC general has been dismissed, signaling the most significant political shake-up within the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in years.
Defense Ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang said the offenses were "of grave nature, with extremely harmful consequences," calling the expulsions a "significant achievement in the Party and military's anti-corruption campaign." The announcement, made just days before the Communist Party's Fourth Plenum, also affects senior figures including navy admiral Miao Hua, the PLA's former top political officer, who was placed under investigation last year.
He, a former commander of the Eastern Theater Command-the unit responsible for military operations targeting Taiwan-has not appeared in public since March. He's removal from both the CMC and the 24-member Politburo, China's second-highest decision-making body, underscores how Xi's anti-graft efforts have now reached into the topmost ranks of the military establishment.
"The formal removal of He and Miao means he will get to appoint new members of the Central Military Commission - which has been virtually half empty since March," said Wen-Ti Sung, a fellow at the Atlantic Council's Global China Hub. "Xi is cleaning house for sure."
Among the others dismissed were He Hongjun, a senior officer from the PLA's Political Work Department; Wang Xiubin of the CMC's Joint Operations Command Center; former Eastern Theater commander Lin Xiangyang; and two former political commissars of the PLA Army and Navy. Former People's Armed Police commander Wang Chunning, also named in the statement, was removed from the national legislature last month.
He's relationship with Xi extends back to the late 1990s, when both served in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces - Xi as deputy party secretary and governor, and He as a rising military commander. That connection had long been viewed as a sign of Xi's trust, making He's downfall particularly notable within the Chinese political elite.
In 2022, He was promoted directly to vice chairman of the CMC, skipping the traditional step of serving on the 205-member Central Committee. The U.S. Pentagon has previously identified He as a key strategist behind live-fire drills around Taiwan in 2022, following then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei - a show of force that marked one of Beijing's most aggressive military demonstrations in decades.
