China removes two top generals from supreme military command body

BEIJING, Aug 28 (Reuters) – China on Friday removed two senior military officers from its supreme military command body, the state Central Military Commission, state-run Xinhua reported, following investigations over suspected serious violations of discipline and law.

The removal of Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli leaves just two active members on the formerly seven-member commission, including President Xi Jinping himself.

Zhang was second-in-command under Xi as vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) and a member of China’s elite Politburo. Liu was a CMC member and chief of staff of the CMC’s Joint Staff Department.

CORRUPTION CRACKDOWN

The military has been one of the main targets of a broader corruption crackdown ordered by Xi in 2012.

Last month, Xi urged senior leaders of the ruling Communist Party to deepen the fight against corruption in the military. The years-long campaign has seen ⁠scores of senior officials and ​top generals investigated, removed and purged.

China has parallel Communist Party and state CMC structures but they function as a single institution. Friday’s announcement by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress concerns Zhang and Liu’s positions in the state CMC.

They have not been formally or publicly stripped of their posts in the Central Military Commission of the ruling Communist Party.

12 NATIONAL PEOPLE’S CONGRESS DEPUTIES LOSE SEATS

Zhang and Liu’s names were removed from an updated list of deputies published by China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress, on Friday, indicating that they had officially lost their seats, along with 10 other lawmakers.

Among them are Lieutenant General Zhong Shaojun, former director of the CMC General Office and General Ju Qiansheng, a former commander of the military’s Strategic Support Force.

The list also included Gao Shiwen, former mayor of the southern Chinese city of Nanchang, who previously worked at state-owned aerospace and defence giant China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

Separately, China’s top political advisory body on Wednesday stripped Zhao Zongqi, a former commander of the Western Theatre Command during the 2020 China-India border clashes, of his membership.

(Reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Conor Humphries)