Amid High Level Leak, Mysterious Deaths, China Reorganizes Military Branches

A missile from the rocket force of the Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army takes part in operations during combat readiness patrol and military exercises around Taiwan, on April 7, 2023. Liu Mingsong/Xinhua via AP

China began transferring aviation units from its Navy to its Air Force earlier this year and is expected to have now moved the majority of fighter, bomber, radar, air defense, and airfield units to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force (PLAAF), according to a China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI) report (pdf).

CASI, part of the Alabama-based Air University, studies China’s air force strategy and threat against the United States.

According to the report, it is possible that China wants to retain some ground-based fighter units to support its operations in the South China Sea.

Increasingly, China’s military operations, especially its maritime strikes, are “joint in nature,” utilizing both its PLAAF and Rocket Force.

On Monday, China appointed new leadership in its Rocket Force after former leadership personnel were investigated and arrested or died in mysterious deaths. The changeup comes as China is trying to root out the source of what it believes to be a high-level leak after Rocket Force deployment and personnel information was published in an October 2022 report in the United States.

According to some analysts, the PLA Rocket Force is the only branch of the Chinese Communist Party’s military that has the ability to compete with the U.S. military.

The Rocket Force is responsible for the military’s land-based nuclear and conventional ballistic missiles, according to CASI, and China’s ballistic missile force remains, in large part, a mystery to outsiders.

Rocket Force Report

Last October, CASI published a report on the Rocket Force, detailing its organizational structure, including names, photos, and relationships of the main personnel, and its base address, functions, and deployment across a map of China.

It was reported that China believed this information could not have been collected piecemeal and certainly not from lower-ranking personnel.

Yao Cheng, a former lieutenant colonel in China’s Navy Command living in exile in the United States, said the report was “shocking.”

“Such comprehensive information could not have been captured by any satellite, nor could any grass-roots personnel have obtained it,” Mr. Yao said in a recent interview with the Chinese language edition of NTD, a sister media of The Epoch Times.

Shakeup

Mr. Yao pointed to the son of former Rocket Force Commander Li Yuchao, who is studying in the United States, as a possible link to a leak.

Gen. Li was notably absent from Monday’s promotion of former deputy commander of the navy Wang Houbin’s promotion to Rocket Force Commander, and the announcement did not make any mention of the whereabouts of Gen. Li.

Xu Xisheng, formerly the deputy political commissar of the Southern Theater Command, was named the Rocket Force’s new political commissar.

These appointments came days after South China Morning Post (SCMP), a Hong Kong-based media outlet bought by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma that has ties to the CCP’s top circles, reported that several top PLA Rocket Force generals, including Gen. Li, were investigated for corruption for months.

No official announcement of an investigation was made, but military sources said the generals were investigated by the Central Military Commission’s anti-graft body. Mr. Yao said in a social media post that sources tell him Gen. Li was taken from his office on June 26.

The questions around his disappearance come as two delayed announcements of mysterious deaths surfaced.

CCP-controlled Xinhua media confirmed the death of Lieutenant General Wang Shaojun only last week, stating he had died in April and giving no further details. Shanghai-based The Paper reported that Lieutenant General Wu Guohua had died July 4 from an unspecified disease.

Lt. Gen. Wu was believed to have been involved in the Rocket Force leak, and some media reports allege he hung himself.

The most high profile of replacements was perhaps the removal of Qin Gang as foreign minister—no reason was given for his replacement, but Mr. Qin also had close ties with Rocket Force’s top officials.