President Xi Jinping’s Quiet Military Purge
Image by Winston Chen.
Beijing
President Xi Jinping has put the Chinese military in the crosshairs as he proves once again that Mao Zedong’s metaphor, power is gained through the barrel of a gun, remains as relevant today as it was when the communists took power in 1949.
Admiral Miao Hua was responsible for ideology and loyalty within the armed forces. His own loyalty was questioned and he was removed after allegations of corruption. Miao was originally suspended from the CMC in 2024 as he was under investigation for “serious violations of discipline”. Those words, in China, mean guilty of corruption and are as damming as any court verdict.
Miao is the eighth member of the Central Military Commission (it only has six members) to be ousted since Xi took power in 2012. The expulsion of CMC members was previously unheard of since the era of Mao.
His official and permanent departure from the CMC, confirmed on Friday by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, means the government has sacked more than a dozen senior military figures since launching a corruption investigation. Ostensibly the probe, initiated last summer, was looking into the purchase of equipment and weapons going back to 2017. It focused on multi-million dollar kickbacks.
Xi is getting accustomed to removing senior officers. Two defence ministers Li Shangfu and Wei Fenghe have gone as have two heads of the PLA’s rocket force, responsible for missiles and the nuclear arsenal.
The commission is the military’s premier decision-making body. But its influence stretches across all aspects of politics. No man could assume the presidency without its approval. Ironically, Xi is proof of their power. Their backing for Xi was key to him becoming president even though initially it looked like Li Keqiang, who died in 2023, might be selected. Xi persuaded the CMC that he was a safer pair of hands and more committed to party supremacy than Li who championed economic reform above all else.
Xi broke the convention set by Deng Xiaoping (the leader who launched the country’s post-Mao reforms) that presidents should step aside after two terms. His third term in power has been marked by what many view here as the building of a cult of personality and stark contradictions. Xi has accumulated power but seems unable to offer a cohesive vision for the country. What is it and what does it aspire to? Russia’s main ally? A reliable trading partner for the United States? An isolated behemoth? China’s aggressive actions in the South China Sea alienated what should be its regional allies. Social freedoms, such as they were under previous regimes, have been curtailed.
The economy is stuttering and bears little resemblance to the vibrancy normally associated with one growing officially at 5 per cent.
There is unease in the corridors of power as more purges are probably in store. Xi may appear unchallengeable at the moment, but the removal of so many once considered his close associates reveals the fragility of his position and the increasingly precarious status of those close to him.
Xi took power with a promise to root out corruption in China, vowing to come after both the “tigers and the flies”. Since then, millions of officials have been investigated. But that policy now seems like a cover to attack those he does not trust. Purges seem primarily to be about managing internal rivalries and ensuring his supremacy.
But too many purges can undermine authority and may foster a ‘nothing to lose attitude’ among his rivals. The gun remains frimly in the party’s hand but the ties that bind are fraying.
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