Staff Reporter
Want China Times
December 22, 2014
The removal of Xu Caihou has been the highest-profile move of Xi’s campaign to “clean up” the PLA. (Photo/CNS)
China’s president, Xi Jinping, has replaced 40 senior military commanders including the head of the People’s Armed Police according to a new nomination list posted by a Chinese internet user.
After Xu Caihou, the former vice chairman of the Central Military Commission with close ties to former leader Jiang Zemin, was expelled from the Communist Party of China on June, Xi has continued his purge of PLA generals whose loyalty to him may be questionable. The nomination list released on Dec. 20 suggests that various key positions within the Chinese military will be taken over by Xi’s close associates.
Qin Weijiang, Hu Yishu and Li Shangfu were nominated as the deputy chiefs of the General Staff, General Logistics and General Equipment departments. At the same time, Yin Fanglong and Miao Hua were named as the political commissars of the Second Artillery Corps and Navy, respectively. Wang Weiming and Wang Dengping are to be the deputy commanders and deputy political commissars of the PLA Navy, while Zhang Junxiang and Zhou Yaning have been nominated as the Second Artillery Corps’ new deputy commanders.
Significantly, Wang Jianping, commander of the People’s Armed Police, has reportedly lost his position to Wang Ning. Xu Yaoyuan, Wang’s deputy, was replaced by Sun Sijing. This indicate Xi’s campaign to eradicate the lasting influence of Zhou Yongkang, the former secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, whose investigation on graft charges was announced in recent months, making him the first retired member of the Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee to be publicly purged.
