Zi Yang
Since taking power, China’s paramount leader Xi Jinping has made purges under the anti-corruption pretext a hallmark of his tenure. As the chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), Xi executed similar purges in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA),
first targeting officers from rival factions before turning on military leaders that he had promoted himself. The second round of the PLA anti-corruption campaign, launched in 2023, has destabilized the military’s high command, leading to the downfall of several sitting CMC members.
Defense Minister and CMC member Li Shangfu was the first to fall, disappearing after August 2023. His case was referred for criminal prosecution in June 2024, but there has been no news regarding the verdict. In November 2024, the Director of the CMC Political Work Department Miao Hua also fell from grace. Then,
in April 2025, the Financial Times reported that CMC Vice Chairman He Weidong had been removed from power, making him the first incumbent CMC vice chairman to be purged since 1967. He has not appeared in public since.
These atypical removals have reduced CMC membership from seven to four. As China’s supreme defense decision-making organ, the CMC is responsible for managing some three million PLA personnel and 500,000 People’s Armed Police.
The downsizing of the CMC under extraordinary circumstances is bound to have profound consequences for the PLA’s ability to function as a modern warfighting organization.
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