High-ranking military official in China placed under investigation, defense ministry says

BEIJING (AP) — China has suspended a high-ranking military official while he is being investigated, its Defense Ministry announced Thursday.

The official, Miao Hua, is director of the Political Work Department on the powerful Central Military Commission that oversees the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). He is one of five members of the body that oversees the world’s largest standing military, in addition to China’s leader Xi Jinping, who heads the commission.

Defense Ministry spokesperson Wu Qian said Miao is under investigation for “serious violations of discipline,” which usually alludes to issues of corruption.

It is the third recent major shakeup for China’s defense establishment. In June, China announced that former Defense Minister Li Shangfu and his predecessor Wei Fenghe were accused of corruption and expelled from the party. They were being investigated for corruption and bribery, after initially facing suspension.

Yet, the high-level investigation is not likely to have any significant consequences, given Xi’s tight grip on power.

“Most countries would incur at least some reputational cost to their international reputation were such frequent, high-profile personnel purges to have happened in their own armed forces – but the PRC is no ordinary country,” James Char, a research fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies at Nanyang Technological University, in Singapore, said in an email. “These purges can go on so long as its commander-in-chief approves of them.”

In Xi’s first term as Party Secretary, he was known for a multi-year campaign against corruption that has brought down numerous high-profile political rivals, and thousands of officials. This has led some to allege a widespread purge of officers suspected of conspiring with outside forces or simply being insufficiently loyal to Xi.

Xi’s dedication to his anti-corruption campaign has continued throughout his rule. High-ranking officers occupy an elevated position in Chinese politics and can command extensive privileges, official and unofficial.

Miao being placed under investigation comes after the Financial Times reported that Defense Minister Dong Jun was under investigation for corruption.

Miao’s position on the commission, which is a Communist Party committee, outranks Dong and anyone who holds the position of defense minister, as Communist Party positions are more powerful than government institutions in China.

Experts say a possible corruption investigation would not be a surprise, given the PLA’s history.

In the 1990’s, the PLA was allowed to run businesses as the country opened up during the “reform and opening up” period, when the country stopped many of its planned economic policies and transitioned to a more market-based economy.

Miao has come up through the political department in the military and had served as the political commissar of the PLA’s Navy. He was already fairly senior before Xi came to power in 2012.

“If the investigation is about corruption, it’s not out of line with people’s expectations,” said Tiehlin Yan, deputy director at the Taiwan Center for Security Studies, who studied the PLA. “It’s very difficult for anyone not to have have blemishes if you were a mid-level or senior cadre in the 1990’s.”

Meanwhile, the Defense Ministry spokesperson Wu, said Dong was not under any investigation and called the newspaper report a “sheer fabrication.”

In response to a question about who China’s defense minister was, Wu smiled and raised his hands in a shrug.

“Why do you ask this nonsensical question? I just said this many times: Minister Dong Jun.”

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This version has corrected the official’s name to Hua not Li.

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