On April 2nd, while Donald Trump was attacking the world with Arans, top officials of the People’s Liberation Army (EPL, Chinese military) wore camouflage uniforms, armed with spittle, and rode horses during a self-imposed reforestation trip in Beijing. This activity, which has been going on since the 1980s, has led to the establishment of Communist Party members including key leaders of the Central Military Commission (CMC), which has powerful military control powers. Since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, members of the military leadership have not been absent. This year was different. They continue to track the vagaries of Chinese politics and note the absence of General He Weidong, the second in the EPL escalation.
At the time, he was second vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and one of 24 members of the Politburo, the Communist Party’s main organ, and his last public appearance was on March 11. Just before that, a speech was given by EPL executives about the need to deepen the fight against corruption. He is close to Mr. Xi, who placed him at the head of the military three years ago. The Pentagon said then-Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei in August 2022 angered China and then played a key role in planning full-scale firing exercises around Taiwan.
The fact that it took so much time to concentrate was an indication that something was wrong. All that’s left to do is wait. On October 17, the Ministry of Defense announced that Mr. He and other senior officials would be expelled from the party and military on corruption charges. Since the end of Mao Zedong’s term in 1976, he has officially become the mayor of extreme poverty. His coup, along with other officials, is just another in a chain of undressings that has intensified since 2023, and the dynamics have always been similar. First, orders disappear from public life, and then orders disappear from public life. Weeks or months later, the government announced corruption investigations and expulsions from the party amid accusations of serious conduct violations.
Something is changing in EPL, but I don’t quite understand it. Analysts say the move is aimed at Mr. Xi to end disparate factions within the military, tighten control over the escalating promotion system and ensure the future loyalty of incoming generals.
Lin Yingyu, an assistant professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan who specializes in Chinese military capabilities, defends this theory. China’s president wants to “reset the system,” particularly by reaching out to the Political Work Bureau of the Central Military Commission, which oversees the appointment of new generals. “In the name of corruption, he[…]intended to destroy groups that would not necessarily follow his orders,” he commented by phone from Taiwan.
“New soldiers who have fallen into a disgraceful position, tiger “This purge also calls into question Mr. Xi’s control over the military,” Masaaki Yatsuka, a senior researcher at Japan’s Institute for Defense Studies, added in a recent article for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
Many of these generals have ties to the elitist 31st Army Group and were considered close to Mr. Xi, having worked with him since his days as a local leader. They ascended to heaven after being carefully observed by representatives. “It is not clear whether his fall signals a change in trust between Mr. Xi and the military, or an increasingly intense power struggle within the military,” Yatsuka admits.
The initial guidelines of the crusade launched by Mr. Xi when he took control of the country’s Lienda, with millions of employees at all levels under investigation, are valuable in projecting an image of discipline and cleaning up the party’s reputation. In its early stages, the military heavyweights fell, giving way to fortresses with large amounts of autonomy and complex networks built during the Jiang Zeming and Hu Jintao eras. But since Mr. Xi returned for a third term, the attack has taken a new direction, and now it is in the hands of those who have earned Mr. Xi’s trust. Of the 79 high-ranking generals under their leadership, 14 have disappeared or are under investigation in recent years, according to a Bloomberg investigation. To find parallels with the situation, we have to go back to the 1970s.
Disciplined attacks move up the military hierarchy, from strategic units to the pinnacle of military power. The trend of poverty has been on the rise since the sudden suspension in the summer of 2023 of the main commandos of the Cohetes Force, Li Yuchao and Xu Zhongbo, tasked with controlling the Asian power’s nuclear weapons. This episode marked the beginning of an escalation that intensified in 2024 with the expulsion from the party of former defense minister Li Shangfu (who resigned months ago, just six months after his appointment) and his predecessor Wei Fenghe.
This offensive continued into 2025, reaching an unprecedented level. He Weidong became the first active vice president to be expelled from the head position of the Central Military Commission since the Cultural Revolution, but fell into disgrace in the latter half of the year since the current commission took over its functions three years ago. The first was Li Shangfu himself in October 2023. He will succeed Miao Hua, director of political work, in November 2024. Miao Hua, who had previously been seen as an ally of the Chinese leader, is among the new generals whose departure from the party was made official last month.
Some of the remaining Cessados are at all. From Mr. He Hongjun, a Miao division whose mission was precisely to ensure loyalty to the party within the military, to Mr. Wang Hou Bin, a former commander of the Kohetes army. Meanwhile, Mr. He was replaced by Mr. Zhang Shengmin, chairman of EPL’s Disciplinary Committee, in the CMC position. However, this movement created a vacancy at the top of the organization, leaving only the remaining members except the president and vice president.
The strategic nature of the Cohetes unit, which was created in 2015 and is a key force in Xi’s military modernization push, has further heightened suspicions that some of the uncovered corruption networks may have originated there. Concentrating acquisition deals, managing silos and launches, and expanding into new locations provided opportunities for influence trafficking and diversion of funds.
Lin Yingyu of Tamkang University believes that under the new structure, Xi intends to ensure that new generals are appointed by relevant parties, and that even if Xi retires or relinquishes official positions such as general secretary, president, and chairman of the Central Military Commission, the military apparatus will remain under his control. Mr. Xi is ultimately the supreme military leader of a country where Mao Zedong declared decades ago that “political power is born from the norms of weapons.” In Professor Lin’s words, “If you can control the EPL, you can control Chinese politics.”
The EPL is above all an army of the Chinese Communist Party. These soldiers pledge allegiance to the Party of which they are members and receive orders from President Xi as commanders and chiefs. “The army is an armed group that carries weapons and is tasked with carrying out the party’s political tasks, and constitutes a solid pillar to protect the red regime and protect the dignity of the nation,” the party editorial said. EPL diary In the case, charges against the new “disloyal” general’s “despicable” conduct were dropped in October. “The more we fight against corruption, the stronger the EPL will become, the purer it will become and the more effective it will be in the fight,” he continued.
Zhang Youxia, vice president of the Central Military Commission, Zhang Youxia, said in an article that the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) aims to strengthen the army’s capabilities. He also promised to take action against “false loyalties” and “two men in a row” and called for the “malign influence and deep-seated problems” to be eliminated.
Mr. Zhang, a general and member of China’s Mayor’s Politburo, was the protagonist of the chronicle of that April morning when senior special forces put on their uniforms and went out to reforest on the outskirts of Beijing. “After more than an hour of hard work, more than 800 trees were planted,” Xinhua News Agency confirmed. The memo says nothing about him being missing.
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