A senior member of China’s military elite has been suspended from office, under suspicion of “serious violations of discipline,” the Chinese government revealed on Thursday, months after two of the country’s former defense ministers were officially denounced for graft and disloyalty to the Communist Party and its top leader, Xi Jinping.
A spokesman for China’s Ministry of National Defense told a news briefing in Beijing that Adm. Miao Hua was under investigation. His case seems to be another indication that Mr. Xi’s apparently iron grip on the armed forces and his decade-long campaign against corruption have not eradicated graft in its high ranks.
The announcement of Admiral Miao’s suspension while under investigation was made by a spokesman for the ministry, Senior Col. Wu Qian, at a monthly news briefing in Beijing, according to Hong Kong’s public broadcaster, RTHK, and other news outlets at the briefing. The Chinese defense ministry did not release the news on its website.
The reason Colonel Wu cited for the investigation into Admiral Miao, “serious violations of discipline,” often refers to corruption, but it can also cover other misdeeds like political disloyalty.
Since 2017, Admiral Miao has served on the Central Military Commission — the Chinese Communist Party committee that controls the People’s Liberation Army, or P.L.A. — and has been the director of the Political Work Department, which helps enforce party discipline in the military.
With Admiral Miao “as head of the political office of the armed wing of the Communist Party, this case is much more serious than if the target was the defense minister, who controls no budget and commands no troops,” said Drew Thompson, a former U.S. Defense Department official who was responsible for managing ties with China.
“The two previous defense ministers have been purged with no obvious effect on the P.L.A.,” said Mr. Thompson, now a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. “But the top political commissar is a critical role, so this case is much more serious and has implications for morale.”
The signs of persisting corruption high in China’s military are especially troublesome for Mr. Xi. Soon after taking power as Communist Party leader in 2012, he made a priority of purging the People’s Liberation Army. Dozens of commanders and senior officers were convicted of illicitly selling military property, diverting contracts to cronies, taking cash in exchange for promotions and other abuses.
Throughout this year, Mr. Xi has warned Chinese commanders and officers to redouble their loyalty to him and the Communist Party, after a string of scandals.
In 2023, Mr. Xi abruptly replaced two commanders of the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force, which controls China’s nuclear missiles. Later, the defense minister at the time, Gen. Li Shangfu, disappeared and was dismissed. In June, Communist Party leaders officially accused General Li and Gen. Wei Fenghe, the defense minister from 2018 to 2023, of taking huge bribes, trading in military promotions and undermining weapons production with corruption.
In June, Mr. Xi gathered senior Chinese military leaders in Yan’an, a revered base of Mao Zedong’s revolution, and urged them to reinforce their commitment to the party and to crack down on corruption.
“Be clear, the gun must always stay in the hands of those who are reliable and loyal to the party,” Mr. Xi said to them, echoing a famous saying of Mao, according to the official account of the meeting. “Be clear that corrupt elements must not be allowed to hide inside the body of the military.” Admiral Miao was in the audience.
The post A Top Chinese Commander Is Suspended Under Suspicion of Corruption appeared first on New York Times.
