The National People’s Congress (NPC), the highest legislative body in China, announced on Friday that Vice Admiral Li Hanjun and nuclear engineer Liu Shipeng were expelled for unspecified reasons.
On the same day, Admiral Miao Hua was kicked out of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the governing body of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
Li, Liu, and Miao appear to be the latest targets of dictator Xi Jinping’s endless “anti-corruption crusade,” a rolling purge of top officials who have displeased or embarrassed the absolute ruler for one reason or another. They join the two defense ministers, two PLA missile commanders, and two senior CMC officials Xi has sacked over the past two years.
Adm. Li was chief of staff for the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). Liu was deputy chief engineer at the state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation.
Miao may have been the most consequential of the day’s political casualties, as he was among the highest-ranking officials to be booted from the CMC in half a century. Seven lower-ranking CMC members have been purged since Xi rose to power in 2012.
Miao was director of the commission’s “central work department,” which means he was in charge of enforcing Communist ideology and Party loyalty across the armed forces. He was the youngest of China’s senior generals and a protege of Xi Jinping’s, having quickly risen up the career ladder after Xi became leader 13 years ago. Drumming out the top military political officer is rather awkward for the Chinese Communists.
Miao was the most obviously embattled of the three purge targets, having been reprimanded for “serious violations of discipline and the law” – a common euphemism for corruption – in November and removed from the NPC in March, although the regime did not get around to publicly announcing his defenestration until May. His photo disappeared from the Chinese Defense Ministry website a few weeks ago.
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