Corruption to factions: Reasons behind the unprecedented purges of China’s officials

Fellow CMC member, Miao Hua, was also suspended, leaving two spots vacant on the seven-member CMC. “The scale of this set of purges is quite massive”, said Anushka Saxena, a researcher focusing on the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) or the Communist Party’s military, at the Bengaluru-based think tank Takshashila Institution.

She said the official language used against those removed is also harsher-than-usual and, in what might be a first, mentions large sums of money. “These nine individuals had seriously violated Party discipline and were suspected of serious duty-related crimes involving an extremely large amount of money, of extremely serious nature, and with extremely detrimental consequences,” a Chinese military spokesperson said.

Latest round

This is the latest in a series of removals of officials that have become a hallmark of the Xi era, since he became the leader of the party in 2012 and then the President of China. At the time, he vowed to go after “tigers and flies” — both top and local-level officials, referencing the pervasive culture of corruption.

Saxena said that incidentally, the purge campaign started with the former CMC Vice Chairmen Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong a decade ago, “But they had already stepped down, and that makes He Weidong the first uniformed CMC VC to be purged in a long time.”

Key civilian and military figures, including former Defence Minister Li Shangfu, former Foreign Affairs Minister Qin Gang, and PLA Rocket Force generals, have been removed from power in recent years. Many of them disappeared from public view not too long after assuming their posts, and were later announced as expelled. Officially, their expulsion is often attributed to corruption investigations, but other factors are at play, too.

Continued instability

Initially, removals were seen as a way for Xi to eliminate rivals, but they have continued even into his unprecedented third term in power. Analysts say corruption could be a genuine issue at times, but region-based allegiances, loyalty to a certain leader or other power factions within the party may be influencing calls to target certain officials.

At present, even Xi loyalists are not being spared. Saxena said He Weidong and Xi himself had overlapping tenures in the southeastern Fujian province. What also made his removal “curious” was his extensive experience with Taiwan and potential war plans. Inefficiencies in Taiwan-related planning, such as skimming from the defence budget or rigging the weapons acquisition and management process, could be behind the removal, she added.

“There was also a patron-client network running between He Weidong and a few others now purged — Miao Hua, Lin Xiangyang, and Wang Xiubin. Together, they are part of the “Taiwan gang” or “Fujian gang” in the PLA. So, even if He was not involved directly in corruption, his protection of his protégés makes him equally guilty in the eyes of the Party Disciplinary Regulations,” Saxena said.

“This so-called Fujian clique may be pitted against the presence of a “Shaanxi gang” (named after a northwestern province) in the PLA. The two current CMC Vice Chairmen, Zhang Youxia and newly announced Zhang Shengmin, are a part of that group.” Since the numbers are now tilting towards their faction in the CMC, “It is highly likely that anyone taking up the posts of departments left vacant by the removals will be trusted aides of Zhang Youxia more than Xi Jinping.”

Xi’s own position may not be directly under threat, but quick removals of top officials show instability and inefficiencies, and raise questions about his picks. “Both politics and actual inefficiencies seem to be interplaying here, and He’s removal, along with that of others, is bound to create a leadership vacuum at various levels, leading to mistrust and even further unchecked inefficiencies,” Saxena said.