Hong Kong
CNN
—
Early in Xi Jinping’s government’s fight against corruption, the Chinese leader tightened his grip on the world’s largest military by removing powerful generals from rival factions and replacing them with allies and proteges loyal to him. .
Ten years later, the supreme leader who gave the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) a structural overhaul and shared top positions with his own subordinates is still knee-deep in a never-ending battle against corruption and disloyalty. .
And like many powerful leaders throughout history, he has increasingly turned against his own hand-picked supporters.
Late last month, Mr. Xi purged one of his military aides, a decades-old colleague who instilled political loyalty in the People’s Liberation Army and was tasked with reviewing senior promotions.
The Ministry of Defense announced that General Miao Hua, a member of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the highest command body chaired by Mr. is often used as a euphemism.
As head of the Central Military Commission’s political work department, which oversees political indoctrination and personnel affairs, Mr. Miao is the most senior official in Mr. Xi’s latest military purge. Since last summer, more than a dozen senior officials in China’s defense establishment have been replaced, including the last two defense ministers promoted to the Central Military Commission by Mr. Xi.
But none of them boast as long a relationship as Mr. Miao and top leaders, dating back decades to Mr. Xi’s early political career in coastal Fujian province.
The investigation into the Miao people opens a new front in the growing purge, raising questions about Mr. Xi’s ability to end systemic corruption in the military and strengthen combat readiness amid heightened geopolitical tensions. .
Over the past decade, Mr. Xi has overseen an ambitious transformation of the People’s Liberation Army into a “world-class” fighting force to rival the U.S. military. A key goal of its modernization drive is to ensure that China is ready to fight and win a war over Taiwan, an autonomous democratic island that China claims as its own.
But Miao’s fall reignites questions raised during last summer’s purge, with the Pentagon wondering how much trust Xi has in the senior generals responsible for leading the war. said Joel Usnow, a senior research fellow at the National Defense University.
“If he fears that he’s bringing in people who are unequivocally not loyal to him and his policies, that would be a big problem.”
Experts say Xi’s purge of longtime followers illustrates a familiar dilemma for autocrats, including his predecessor Mao Zedong. Even after eliminating political opponents, the supreme leader never stops looking for new threats to his absolute hold on power, including within his own inner circle.
The history between the Miao people and the Xi clan goes back 30 years. A native of Fujian province, he served as a political officer in the former 31st Group Army from the 1980s to the early 2000s, when Mr. Xi rose through the ranks as a local civil servant and became governor of Fujian province.
“According to reliable sources, President Xi regularly visited the 31st Group Army at the time” and is known to have had personal contact with the Miao people, said a longtime PLA observer. , said James Cha, an assistant professor at the South Rajaratnam School of International Relations. Singapore.
Miao’s military career began as soon as Mr. Xi came to power. In 2014, he received a major promotion to become political commissar of the People’s Liberation Army Navy, an unusual turn from a career in the ground forces. Three years later, he was again promoted to the CMC, the pinnacle of military power.
“You cannot find more followers of Xi Jinping than the Miao people,” Cha said. “Even if Miao were ultimately indicted for corruption, clearly Mr. Xi himself did not anticipate the sordid scope of corruption that exists among the PLA elite.”
Over the past 18 months, Mr. Xi’s sweep has primarily targeted officials involved in arms procurement and the Rocket Force, which oversees China’s nuclear and conventional missiles. But the fall of the Miaos signals an expansion of the crackdown into new areas, such as politics and the navy, which Mr. Xi describes as the military’s “lifeblood.”
“No matter where they look, they will always find problems and incidents. It’s just a matter of which sector they choose,” Char said.
The Ministry of Defense has not released details about the allegations against Miao.
As the People’s Liberation Army’s chief political commissar, Miao is tasked with ensuring loyalty to the ruling Communist Party. He oversaw promotions in the military and scrutinized the political loyalties of major candidates, a role he also held in the Navy.
In the past, such roles have provided fertile ground for bribes, especially for promotions. Miao’s predecessor, General Zhang Yang, committed suicide while under disciplinary investigation for bribery charges.
As the geopolitical conflict between the United States and China intensifies, the People’s Liberation Army Navy has also seen a significant increase in its procurement of warships and other weapons, creating ample opportunities for corruption, said Victor Shi, a political science professor at Sun University. he said. Diego.
But there may be another potential reason behind the Miao’s downfall, Shi said.
Mr. Xi has repeatedly warned against the formation of factions within both the party and the military. “Of course, the only person who can do that is Mr. Xi himself,” Shi added.
Some analysts believe that Miao has recommended several senior Navy officials for promotion to key positions, including Rocket Forces Commander Wang Hoobin and Defense Minister Dongjun.
The announcement of Mr. Miao’s investigation came a day after the Financial Times reported, citing current and former U.S. officials, that Mr. Dong was being investigated on corruption charges. The Ministry of Defense dismissed the report as a “total fabrication” and a few days later Mr Dong made a public appearance at a security forum.
Wuthnow, an expert at the National Defense University, said it was a “loss of confidence” that led to the Miao’s downfall, but the reasons remained unclear.
In one scenario, Mr. Usnow said, Mr. Xi may have considered the Miao too powerful and independent and wanted to uproot what he saw as a bastion of influence that he could not fully control. He said no.
“I don’t think a leader who is confident in his power and his ability to corral the bureaucracy would behave like this. In fact, I don’t think he feels the need to constantly tip the apple cart. seems like a sign of weakness, if not paranoia,” he said.
“This kind of thing happens over and over again.”
Miao’s fall came less than a year after former Defense Minister Li Shangfu was removed from the Central Military Commission.
When Mr. Xi began his unprecedented third term two years ago, the powerful organization had six members, all of whom were considered Mr. Xi’s supporters, and the supreme leader. I was working under. If the Miao ethnic group is also excluded, there will be two vacant seats.
Shi, an expert on China’s elite politics, said many dictators, from former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to Mao Zedong, eventually turned against their own disciples.
“Once all the real competitors are gone, dictators can never think, ‘Oh, the threat is all gone.’ They can just relax.” Because we always think that new threats may emerge from people who have been exposed to the virus. This happens over and over again,” he said.
As a result, dictators are constantly looking for increasingly subtle signs that someone is plotting against them, say the authors of “The Coalition of the Weak,” an examination of Mao Zedong’s late power grab. said Mr. Shi.
In Mao’s later years, he rebelled against his longtime disciple, former defense minister, and potential successor Lin Biao, accusing him of plotting a coup d’état.
“This kind of power relationship will become increasingly challenging as he gets older, as Xi Jinping’s health is not as strong as it used to be. His sensitivity to signs of potential challenges to his power will also increase over time. It’s going to get even sharper,” Shi said.
For now, top leaders appear determined to continue the fight against corruption and dishonesty.
Earlier this month, Mr. Xi toured the People’s Liberation Army’s intelligence support unit with his four remaining supporters on the Central Military Commission.
“We must ensure that our military remains absolutely loyal, absolutely pure and absolutely trustworthy,” Xi said to officers taking notes.
