China Announces New Chief of Rocket Force Amid Reported Anti-Corruption Probe

Military vehicles carrying DF-5B intercontinental ballistic missiles participate in a military parade at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Oct. 1, 2019. Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images

China on Monday unveiled new leadership of the Rocket Force, a military unit overseeing the nation’s conventional and nuclear missiles, following weeks of reports that the force’s former commander is under investigation.

Wang Houbin, former deputy commander of the navy, was promoted to the head of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Rocket Force, according to state media Xinhua.

Xu Xisheng was named the Rocket Force’s new political commissar, and both men acquired the top rank of general, Xinhua reported.

Gen. Xu was formerly the deputy political commissar of the Southern Theater Command, one of the PLA’s five theater commands.

Their promotion ceremony was attended by Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who chairs the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Central Military Commission, the top body overseeing the nation’s armed forces.

Monday’s announcement means Gen. Wang replaced Li Yuchao as chief of the Rocket Force.

Gen. Li, 61, who was promoted to commander last January, was absent from the promotion ceremony of the Rocket Force at the end of June.

Political analysts often draw attention to senior CCP officials’ absence. Qin Gang, China’s former foreign minister widely viewed as Mr. Xi’s aide, abruptly disappeared from public view for a month before he was replaced last week.

State media didn’t mention whether Gen. Li was reassigned or state his whereabouts.

Hong Kong media reports suggest that Gen. Li was subjected to investigations. South China Morning Post said Gen. Li was investigated by the Central Military Commission’s anti-graft body. The report, citing unnamed military sources, said Zhang Zhenzhong and Liu Guangbin, former and current deputy commander of the Rocket Force, were both subjected to the probe.

Echoing these reports, Yao Cheng, a former lieutenant colonel in China’s Navy Command living in exile in the United States, told NTD that he learned from a source that Gen. Li was taken from his office on the morning of June 27.

As of Monday, Chinese authorities haven’t announced any investigation targeting Gen. Li.

China's leader Xi Jinping inspects People's Liberation Army soldiers at a barracks in Hong Kong on June 30, 2017. Dale De La Rey/AFP via Getty Images

In the previous week, Mr. Xi repeatedly called on the military to strengthen the enforcement of Party discipline and fight corruption. In a meeting with senior military officials earlier this month, Mr. Xi urged them to “solve the outstanding problems at all levels in implementing the Party’s absolute leadership over the army.”

Since Mr. Xi came to power in 2012, several military officials have been punished in the anti-corruption purges, including former Central Military Commission vice-chairmen Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong.

But the sweeping campaign rarely touched the Rocket Force.

Considered the most secretive branch of the PLA, the Rocket Force is a strategic and tactical unit responsible for the PLA’s land-based nuclear and conventional ballistic missiles.

Rocket Force

A 2022 report by China Aerospace Studies Institute, a U.S. Air Force think tank, detailed the organizational structure of the Rocket Force, from the force’s high command system to its logistics product bases.

Information revealed in the report includes base location, the unit’s main functions, military officials in charge, and the code numbers of each unit. The report also consists of a tree diagram showing the photos, names, and relationships of key personnel in charge of each department of the Rocket Force.

The Rocket Force, under the Eastern Theater Command of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA), fires live missiles into the waters near Taiwan from an undisclosed location in China on Aug. 4, 2022. Eastern Theater Command/Handout via Reuters

Mr. Yao described the level of detail in the report as “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. He believes the information came from senior officials in the Rocket Force.

The former lieutenant colonel said he had been researching the issue with his sources since then and found that the data leak may link to the son of the Rocket Force’s former commander, who was studying in the United States.

State media The Paper reported on July 27 that Wu Guohua, former deputy commander of the Rocket Force, passed away on July 4 due to illness. The lieutenant general was 66 years old.

Issued almost a month after Gen. Wu’s death, the official announcement fueled speculation that he had committed suicide rather than dying of a sudden cerebral hemorrhage. Moreover, the announcement was deleted soon after it appeared in The Paper.

Shawn Lin, Lynn Xu, and Reuters contributed to this report.