The purge targeted Li Shang-fu and Wei Feng-he, and the expulsions coincided with rising tensions with the United States over Taiwan.
China’s Communist Party ousted former Defense Minister Li Shang-fu, who disappeared and was sacked last year, and his predecessor as part of a crackdown on corruption, state media said.
President Li Keqiang and his predecessor Wei Fenghe were expelled for “serious violations of party discipline and the law,” state news agency Xinhua reported on Thursday. The expulsion comes amid rising tensions between China and the United States over the fate of Taiwan.
Li was dismissed from office in October 2023 after just a few months in office, after disappearing from public view for nearly two months. Xinhua reported that Li’s case will be referred to military prosecutors for a trial that could lead to life imprisonment.
The party’s powerful Politburo convened on Thursday to review Li’s position. They found that he had “betrayed his original mission and lost the party’s spirit and principles,” according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Li is said to have “seriously polluted the political environment and industrial spirit in the field of military equipment, causing great harm to the Party’s undertakings, national defense and armed forces construction.”
The former defence minister has also been charged with bribery, allegedly “using his position to obtain large sums of money for the benefit of others, and giving money to others to obtain illicit benefits”, according to CCTV.
Wei, who will step down as defence minister in 2023 after five years in the position, was accused of accepting money and gifts in violation of regulations, as well as using his position to benefit others and receive money or valuables in return, Xinhua said.
Wei’s case was also referred to the military prosecutor’s office.
President Xi Jinping, the party’s top leader and military chief as chairman of the Central Military Commission, has made fighting corruption a hallmark of his rule since coming to power more than a decade ago.
Insiders claim there has been a widespread purge of officers suspected of colluding with outside forces or deemed not loyal enough to President Xi. Senior officers occupy high positions in Chinese politics and command wide privileges.
China’s Communist Party is set to hold the conference from July 15 to 18, much later than scheduled, to focus on future strategies to boost the world’s second-largest economy amid rising geopolitical tensions over tariff hikes by the United States and the European Union.
