Experts: CCP’s military purge will escalate

FORUM Staff

As 2023 waned, the purge of defense officials in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) intensified, especially among those associated with an elite missile unit. The state-run Xinhua News Agency reported the ouster of nine generals from the National People’s Congress, which is considered a “rubber-stamp parliament” for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Five of the generals were past or current commanders in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force, which oversees tactical and nuclear missiles, Reuters reported in late December. Only two days before, Xinhua reported that three executives at state-run companies that produce missile systems were removed from the CCP’s top political advisory body.

CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping has been spending massively in an effort to modernize the PLA and project force in the South China Sea and beyond. Observers say Xi’s purported anti-corruption campaign is a way for him to remove those he views as a threat to his leadership, Voice of America (VOA) reported. Such dismissals are a “step that typically precedes further punishment,” such as criminal prosecution, Reuters reported.

“The removals show once again that Xi has not been successful in rooting out corruption in the PLA,” Joel Wuthnow, a Chinese military expert at the U.S. National Defense University, told Bloomberg News.

The executives removed from the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference worked at aerospace and defense contractors. All three were in their posts during the tenure of Li Shangfu, who was abruptly removed as the PRC’s defense minister in October 2023 and previously headed the PLA’s equipment department, Bloomberg reported.

Corruption within the PLA has resulted in missiles being filled with water instead of fuel and ineffective missile silos, Bloomberg reported, citing intelligence sources. Experts say the purge could affect the PLA’s combat capabilities. Bloomberg noted the CCP has sacked “at least 15 senior military figures in the past six months,” including:

• Li, who was missing from public view for months before his ouster and reportedly is under investigation for corruption related to equipment procurement and development. Dong Jun, a former commander of the Chinese navy, was installed as defense minister in late December, according to Xinhua.
• Two leaders handpicked by Xi for the Rocket Force were replaced by non-rocket specialists in August. Xi values the “absolute loyalty” of the military over combat capabilities, Lin Ying-yu, a China military expert at Tamkang University in Taiwan, told VOA.

“More heads will roll,” Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, told Reuters.

Indeed, Lin said Xi’s campaign to strengthen his grip on the PLA will be difficult to stop. “He would like to achieve a reign of terror,” he told VOA, “just like what Stalin did before the Second World War.”