Anushka Saxena
On February 4, 2026, the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC) convened in Beijing for an unusual, ‘Emergency’ session. In it, the NPCSC announced the immediate removal of three deputies from the legislature, who also happen to be pivotal leaders in China’s defence industry – Zhou Xinmin, former Chairman of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC); Luo Qi, Chief Engineer of the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC); and Liu Cangli, former Director of the China Academy of Engineering Physics (CAEP).
The emergency session to dismiss Zhou, Luo and Liu was definitely unique in that this is the second such session of the 14th NPC – the first having been called on July 25, 2023, to remove Qin Gang from the post of Foreign Minister. Likely, the hasty removal could be because of a few reasons – the harm these leads have brought about in their domains (aerospace and nuclear) was causing major national security issues and decisive action had to be taken; their arrest was imminent and some announcement to remove them was essential; or it’s just Xi Jinping bringing down his house of cards to re-build it as soon as possible.
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