China Expels 2 Former Defense Ministers Over Alleged Corruption

Then-Chinese Minister of Defense Li Shangfu addresses the Moscow Conference on International Security in Kubinka, on the outskirts of Moscow, on Aug. 15, 2023. Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images

Beijing’s anti-corruption campaign has ensnared two top military officials who were recently expelled from the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

On June 27, two dozen senior Party cadres from the Politburo met in Beijing and examined reports regarding the investigation’s findings on two former defense ministers, Li Shangfu and Wei Fenghe.

Mr. Li has been under investigation since August 2023 for what the authorities described as a “serious violation of Party discipline and the law,” a euphemism often used for corruption, according to a statement published by state-run outlet Xinhua on June 27.

The Chinese regime removed Mr. Li from his ministerial post in October 2023 after a two-month absence from public life without any explanation. The sudden and unexpected move, coming less than seven months after Mr. Li was appointed to the position, left many speculating about an anti-corruption purge within the military.

In a separate statement on June 27, Beijing announced that Mr. Li’s predecessor, Wei Fenghe, has been under investigation for the same allegation since September 2023.

Like Mr. Li, the 70-year-old Wei had also been absent from public view since stepping down from his post during a regular reshuffle in March 2023.

The CCP’s military watchdog, the Disciplinary Inspection Commission of China’s Central Military Commission, found that Mr. Li allegedly “took advantage of his position to seek benefits for others” and accepted “huge sums of money,” according to Xinhua. In addition, “he is suspected of the crime of taking bribes,” it said.

The authorities accused Mr. Wei of taking huge but unspecified amounts of bribes and not cooperating with the probe.

Mr. Li and Mr. Wei were both expelled from the Party, and their cases were passed to military prosecutors, according to Xinhua.

China's then-Defense Minister Wei Fenghe (C) talks with then-U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis (not pictured) during their meeting at the Bayi building in Beijing on June 27, 2018. Mark Schiefelbein/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

The Central Military Commission, the highest decision-making body overseeing the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), had already decided to expel the two men from the military and strip them of their rank of military general, according to Xinhua.

While the authorities linked the fall of the two former defense ministers to corruption-related charges, some analysts say that corruption may not be the real reason.

Su Tzu-yun, a senior analyst at Taiwan’s government-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research, suggested that the move could indicate a power struggle within the CCP.

“At this moment, we are unable to know [the real reasons],” Mr. Su told The Epoch Times on June 27. However, the removal of the two ex-defense ministers, who were elevated during Xi’s tenure, and the dismissal of former Foreign Minister Qin Gang, indicated “there are certainly elements of instability within the Party.”

The Chinese regime sacked Mr. Qin in July 2023, a month after his unexplained absence. In February, Beijing announced that Mr. Qin stepped down from its rubber-stamp legislature, the National People’s Congress. His sudden exit remains a mystery.

Since Mr. Qin’s ouster, Beijing has officially fired over a dozen senior military officials and leaders from the country’s biggest defense-technology firms. Targeted officials include those commanding the Rocket Force, a military unit overseeing the nation’s conventional and nuclear missiles. Mr. Wei also headed the Rocket Force from 2015 to 2017.

According to some political analysts, the series of shake-ups in the military suggests instability in Xi’s rule.

“The ironic paradox of the current military purge is that just eight years ago, in 2015, Xi forcefully revamped the entire PLA in his own image,” German sinologist Frank Lehberger told The Epoch Times last September.

“Starting July 2023, however, he seems to have found out that almost all major military leaders whom he so carefully chose and vetted just seven years ago have become unreliable, disloyal, treasonous, or otherwise unacceptable for some reason, which may certainly also include a typical form of dictatorial paranoia.”

Luo Ya contributed to this report.