China’s ruling Communist Party has expelled its second-highest military official, General He Weidong, along with eight other senior officers, in a sweeping anti-corruption purge that has shaken the upper echelons of the country’s armed forces. The move, announced on October 17, 2025, by the Defense Ministry, marks the most significant shake-up in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership in decades and comes just days before a major Communist Party meeting in Beijing.
General He Weidong, who served as vice-chair of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC) and was a member of the 24-member Politburo, is the most senior military figure to be targeted in President Xi Jinping’s relentless anti-graft campaign. According to the Defense Ministry’s spokesperson, Zhang Xiaogang, the nine expelled officials are suspected of “serious duty-related crimes involving an extremely large amount of money.” Their alleged offenses, Zhang stated, were “of a grave nature, with extremely harmful consequences.” The cases have been handed over to military prosecutors for review and potential prosecution.
The announcement confirmed months of speculation regarding He’s fate, as he had not been seen in public since March 2025—a common sign in China that an official is under investigation. The expulsion of He is particularly notable as it is the first removal of a sitting CMC commander since the Cultural Revolution era between 1966 and 1976, as reported by Reuters and Al Jazeera.
He Weidong’s career has been closely tied to President Xi. Rising through the ranks, He commanded the PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command, responsible for Taiwan, before being promoted directly to vice-chair of the CMC in 2022. He was also a member of the Politburo, the Communist Party’s second-highest governing body, underscoring his prominence in both military and political spheres. Analysts highlighted that He’s ties to Xi date back to their overlapping service in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces in the late 1990s, with Xi then serving as deputy party secretary and governor.
Miao Hua, director of the CMC’s political work department and a former top political officer in the Chinese navy, was also among those expelled. Miao had been under investigation since November 2024 and was previously removed from the CMC in June 2025. Other high-ranking officials named in the purge include He Hongjun, a former senior official at the PLA Political Work Department; Wang Xiubin of the CMC’s Joint Operations Command Centre; former Eastern Theatre Command commander Lin Xiangyang; and two former political commissars of the PLA Army and Navy. Additionally, former People’s Armed Police commander Wang Chunning was removed from the national legislature in September 2025.
The timing of the announcement is significant. It comes just days before the Communist Party’s Central Committee, an elite body of over 200 senior officials, is set to hold its Fourth Plenum in Beijing. Eight of the nine expelled military leaders were members of the 205-member Central Committee. Their removal clears the way for the appointment of new members, a move seen by observers as both a practical step and a demonstration of Xi’s tightening grip on power. As Neil Thomas of the Asia Society Policy Institute explained to the Associated Press, “This move is a political show of force and a practical step to elevate non-voting alternates into full members of the Central Committee.”
The anti-corruption campaign has been a hallmark of Xi Jinping’s rule since he ascended to power in 2012. Thousands of officials, including prominent political rivals, have been swept up in the campaign, which is widely popular among the Chinese public. While the stated goal is to root out corruption and restore integrity within the Party and military, critics and some analysts argue that the campaign has also served to enforce loyalty and eliminate potential opposition to Xi’s authority. According to Al Jazeera, this latest purge “can also be read as a further consolidation of power by Xi Jinping and, in that sense, it would suggest that the party is becoming more centralised and control over the party’s mechanisms is becoming stronger than ever.”
Defense Ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang emphasized the severity of the alleged crimes, stating that the offenses “were of grave nature, with extremely harmful consequences.” While Zhang did not provide specific details about the sums involved or the precise nature of the misconduct, the language used in the official statement was unusually strong. The statement also described the expulsions as a “significant achievement in the Party and military’s anti-corruption campaign.”
Observers have noted that many of the officials named in the purge had been missing from public view for several months, fueling speculation about the scope and targets of the ongoing investigation. The absence of high-ranking officers from major public events is often the first sign of trouble for Chinese officials, as was the case with He Weidong.
He’s removal has implications that extend beyond the military. As former head of the Eastern Theatre Command, He played a central role in planning and executing live-fire military drills around Taiwan in 2022, following the controversial visit of then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei. The Pentagon has acknowledged He’s key role in these exercises, which represented one of Beijing’s most aggressive military postures toward the self-governing island in recent years.
High-ranking officers in China enjoy significant privileges and wield considerable influence, both officially and unofficially. Their downfall underscores the risks of falling out of favor in a system where political loyalty is paramount. The anti-corruption drive has repeatedly targeted not just those suspected of graft, but also those perceived as insufficiently loyal to Xi and the Party’s core leadership.
In a broader context, the latest expulsions follow the removal of former Defense Minister Li Shangfu and his predecessor Wei Fenghe, both accused of corruption and expelled from the Communist Party in June 2024. The pattern of targeting top brass suggests an ongoing effort to “clean house,” as Wen-Ti Sung of the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub put it to CNN. “The formal removal of He and Miao means [Xi] will get to appoint new members of the Central Military Commission—which has been virtually half empty since March—at the Plenum,” he added.
The anti-graft campaign’s dual role—as both a tool for discipline and a lever for political consolidation—has become more pronounced under Xi’s leadership. As Ja Ian Chong, a professor at the National University of Singapore, observed, such shake-ups have become “more normalised than before” and are seen as part of the progression of Xi’s rule.
As the Communist Party’s Central Committee prepares to meet in Beijing, the fate of China’s military leadership hangs in the balance. The latest purge serves as a stark reminder that, in Xi Jinping’s China, power and loyalty are inseparable—and that even the most senior officials are not immune to the sweeping force of the anti-corruption campaign.
