China expels three senior military officials in anti-corruption crackdown

China’s parliament expelled three senior military officials, including Wang Renhua, amid a crackdown on corruption. The generals, absent from recent PLA and party events, remain Central Committee members. The purge also included former vice chairman He Weidong.

Beijing: The Chinese parliament has expelled three high-ranking military officials in the latest crackdown against corruption.

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on Saturday expelled Wang Renhua, head of the Central Military Commission’s (CMC) Political and Legal Affairs Committee; Zhang Hongbing, political commissar of the People’s Armed Police (PAP), and Wang Peng, director of the CMC’s training department.

---

All three remain full members of the Central Committee, the ruling Communist Party of China’s (CPC) top decision-making body, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post said on Sunday.

The announcement confirms speculation about the fate of the generals. The men have been missing from key events in recent months, including a celebration in late July for the anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the party’s fourth plenum in October, the Post reported.

The National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee also expelled former vice chairman of the CMC He Weidong, who was expelled from the CPC and dismissed from the service in October this year.

The CMC, the overall high command of the Chinese military, is headed by President Xi Jinping. The Standing Committee also revoked the membership of He Hongjun, a former senior official at the PLA’s political work department. He was expelled from the party in October on charges of corruption.

Wang Renhua, 63, who was expelled from the Parliament, was promoted to the post of admiral by Xi last year and put in charge of the military’s courts, procuratorates and prisons.

He previously served as director of the political unit at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert, and as deputy head of the PLA Ground Forces political work department.