Overview
- China’s Defense Ministry said nine senior officers were expelled from the armed forces, with He Weidong and several others also removed from the Communist Party as corruption investigations proceed.
- Officials accused those named, including He and Admiral Miao Hua, of serious violations of Party discipline and suspected crimes involving extremely large sums of money.
- He’s downfall reaches into the Party’s top echelon because he sat on the 24-member Politburo, which reporting notes makes him the first current member to be targeted in such a probe.
- Beijing has not disclosed detention status or specific charges, and several of the officers had been out of public view for months before the announcement.
- Others cited include He Hongjun, Wang Xiubin, Lin Xiangyang—formerly commander of the Eastern Theater facing Taiwan—and former People’s Armed Police chief Wang Chunning, with the timing days before the Oct. 20–23 plenum seen by analysts as paving the way for personnel reshuffles.