Top-ranking officials accused of corruption
China expelled former Defense Minister Li Shangfu and his predecessor from the ruling Communist Party on Thursday over corruption allegations, state broadcaster CCTV reported, deepening a sweeping purge of the top ranks of the military.
Li Shangfu was removed as defense minister last October without explanation after disappearing from public view for two months amid a series of high-level reshuffles that have roiled the world's largest military, CNN recalls.
Li Shangfu's mysterious disappearance and abrupt removal from office just months into his tenure have sparked intense speculation following the sudden dismissal of two senior generals in the PLA Rocket Force, the elite unit that oversees China's nuclear and ballistic missiles, also without explanation.
Thursday's announcement was the first official confirmation from Chinese authorities that bribery allegations were behind his dramatic disappearance.
Li's predecessor, Wei Fenghe, was also expelled from the Communist Party on Thursday over corruption allegations, CCTV reported, highlighting the scale of the purge at the highest levels.
Both Li and Wei were former members of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the powerful body headed by Chinese leader Xi Jinping that ultimately commands the armed forces, CNN reported.
According to CCTV, on August 31 last year, two days after Li was last seen in public at a security forum in Beijing, the military launched an internal investigation for “serious violations of party discipline and the law.”
The investigation by the CMC’s Commission for Discipline Inspection found that Li allegedly “seriously violated” political and organizational disciplines, resisted investigations, sought “personnel preferences” for himself and others, and accepted “massive sums of money” in bribes and bribed others.
“As a senior party and military leader, Li Shangfu betrayed his original mission and lost the principles of the party spirit,” CCTV said in a report, adding that his actions “betrayed the trust and responsibility entrusted to him” by the party’s top leadership and the military.
His actions also “severely undermined the political and industrial environment in the military technology sector, causing significant damage to the party cause, the development of national defense and the armed forces, and the image of the top leadership,” CCTV said.
“The nature of his misconduct is extremely serious, its impact is extremely harmful, and the consequences are particularly severe.”
Wei, Li’s predecessor as defense minister from 2018 to 2023, was also charged with serious violations of political and organizational discipline, resisting an investigation, bribery, and “loss of faith and loss of loyalty,” CCTV said.
The cases of Li and Wei have been referred to military prosecutors for trial, CCTV said, adding that both generals have been stripped of their military ranks.
The allegations outlined in CCTV reports appear to point to corruption in China’s military hardware procurement and development, with a likely focus on the missile force, which has been a key element in Xi Jinping’s efforts to “modernize” the PLA and turn it into a “world-class” fighting force.
Before becoming defense minister, Li headed the PLA’s equipment development department for five years, while Wei was the first commander of the missile force when it was revamped in late 2015.
Since last summer, more than a dozen senior military officers and aerospace executives in the military-industrial complex have been stripped of their government positions.
Since taking power in Since 2012, CNN notes, Xi Jinping has made rooting out corruption and disloyalty a hallmark of his rule, and the purges in the military suggest that the campaign is far from over.