BEIJING: A top Chinese military official has been removed from office for “serious violations of discipline”, Beijing said on Thursday (Nov 28), the latest senior apparatchik to fall in a sweeping crackdown on graft in the country’s armed forces.
The ruling Chinese Communist Party “has decided to suspend Miao Hua from duty pending investigation”, Wu Qian, a spokesman for Beijing’s defence ministry, told a press briefing.
Wu did not provide further details about the charges against Miao, an admiral and member of Beijing’s powerful Central Military Commission (CMC).
But “serious violations of discipline” are commonly used by officials in China as a euphemism for corruption.
Miao sat on the CMC alongside five other men – including President Xi Jinping at the top – and headed its most important office, the Political Work Department.
Miao has been described as a “close ally” of Xi and a “trusted interlocutor” between the military and the party by Lyle Morris, a senior fellow at the Asia Society.
Beijing has deepened a crackdown on alleged graft in the armed forces over the past year, with Xi this month ordering the military to stamp out corruption and strengthen its “war-preparedness”.
The intensity of the anti-graft drive has been partially driven by fears that endemic corruption may affect China’s ability to wage a future war, Bloomberg reported citing US officials this year.
The investigation into Miao is “in line with Xi’s added scrutiny on the armed forces” said Chong Ja Ian, an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore.
His removal reveals the “endurance of corruption and discipline issues across the system in the (armed forces), despite the strong efforts made by Xi,” said Dylan Loh, an assistant professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.
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