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Three retired generals removed from CPPCC
China has expelled three former military leaders, including a past commander of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) ground force, from its top political advisory body days before the annual Two Sessions meetings in Beijing.
Names and roles of the ousted officials
The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) voted on Monday to remove Han Weiguo, Gao Jin, and Liu Lei, state media reported. No reason was provided for their dismissal.
Han, 70, led the PLA ground force from August 2017 until his retirement in June 2021. His successors, Liu Zhenli and Li Qiaoming, were also stripped of their positions in the past two months.
Liu Lei, also 70, served as the army's political commissar from December 2015 to January 2022, overlapping with Han's tenure. Gao, 67, was the first commander of the now-disbanded Strategic Support Force, established in 2015, and later headed the Central Military Commission's Logistic Support Department until retiring in January 2022.
Broader military purges intensify
The removals follow a surge in high-level military dismissals. Last Thursday, authorities sacked 19 officials, nine of them from the armed forces. In January, China's top-ranking military general, Zhang Youxia, and his ally Liu Zhenli were ousted over alleged "serious violations of discipline and law," according to the defense ministry.
Context of the Two Sessions
Around 3,000 delegates from the CPPCC and the National People's Congress (NPC), China's largely ceremonial legislature, will convene in Beijing this week. The meetings, which begin tomorrow and last about a week, typically see delegates serve full five-year terms, making these mid-term expulsions rare. The current term ends in March 2028.
Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaigns
Since taking power in 2012, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has repeatedly launched anti-corruption drives, which critics argue are used to eliminate political rivals. The latest removals coincide with an acceleration of purges within the military's upper ranks.
Additional dismissals
Alongside the three generals, several other CPPCC members were expelled, including Zhang Kejian, a senior defense industry official under investigation for corruption.
