President Xi Jinping has fired additional Peoples Liberation Army Generals, Nuclear scientists, engineers and multiple high-ranking military officials.
According to South China Morning Post and CGTN, these high-ranking military officers are General Li Qiaoming (Former Army Commander), General Shen Jinlong (Former Navy Commander), General Former Qin Shengxiang (Navy Political Commissar ), General Yu Zhongfu (Former Air Force Political Commissar), Political Commissar General Li Wei (Former Information Support Force ), Lieutenant General Wang Donghai (Political Commissar of the National Defense Mobilization Department of the Central Military Commission), Major General Bian Ruifeng (Assistant Director of the Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission), Major General Ding Laifu (Commander of the Army’s 73rd Group Army), Major General Yang Guang (Commander of the Rocket Force’s 64th Base), Zhou Xinmin (former Chairman of AVIC), Luo Qi (Chief Engineer of China National Nuclear Corporation, CNNC) and Liu Cangli (President of the China Academy of Engineering Physics).
Established in 1951, the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) is China’s largest aviation enterprise, responsible for producing essentially all of China’s domestic military aircraft, UAVs, and helicopters, as well as a wide range of civilian aircraft and other aviation and non-aviation products and services.
In 2017, the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) decided that China Nuclear Fuel Co., Ltd. and China Nuclear Energy Industry Co., Ltd. would build a new Chinese Nuclear Energy Industry Co., Ltd. The Communist Party has realized the integrated operation of nuclear fuel research and development, manufacturing, exports and international trade services.
CNEIC’s operations and management business scope has expanded rapidly, and its industrial development capacity has been strengthened. Now, CNEIC has entered the world nuclear fuel market and become a nuclear fuel industry company with international influence, including Iran, Pakistan and North Korea.
Luo Qi (Chief Engineer of China National Nuclear Corporation, CNNC) removal comes after the U.S. and Israeli air strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Luo Qi has been purged for corruption and embezzlement and may be leaking information to Western companies.
This news was disclosed yesterday (April 17) in the second public bulletin of this year released by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.
The bulletin states that these individuals were removed from their positions as National People’s Congress deputies due to “suspected serious violations of discipline and law.”
What is puzzling is that these individuals were already removed from their NPC deputy positions in February this year, but the news was only made public yesterday.
The bulletin also disclosed for the first time that after his demotion, Shen Jinlong served as a full-time member of the Strategic Planning Committee of the CPC Central Military Commission, and Yang Guang was demoted to Deputy Commander of the Hubei Provincial Military Region.
Additionally, Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia and Central Military Commission member and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli are still in the “under investigation” stage, with no news of their removal.
The Chinese Communist Party broke with convention by convening an emergency session of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC).
Normally, the committee meets once every two months and, by routine, the next session should have been held in late February.
Outside observers widely believe this emergency meeting was called by Xi Jinping to formalize the handling of Zhang Youxia, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and Liu Zhenli, Chief of the CMC Joint Staff Department, specifically, to strip them of their NPC delegate status.
Under the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Deputies to the National People’s Congress and to the Local People’s Congresses at Various Levels, NPC deputies, during their term of office, may not be arrested, placed under criminal detention, or prosecuted without permission.
The authority to grant such permission rests with the Presidium of the National People’s Congress. Therefore, to formally arrest or prosecute Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, their NPC delegate status would first have to be revoked. However, the official meeting announcement shows that the individuals whose qualifications were revoked were three other people (see my previous post), not Zhang Youxia or Liu Zhenli.
This means that all actions taken against Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli to date, including restrictions on their personal freedom, are illegal and lack any legal basis.
As of now, it has been ten days since the CCP’s Ministry of National Defense announced that cases had been filed against Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli.
Yet within the military, there has been no expression of support for this decision in the name of the “Party Central Committee.” Instead, there has been an eerie silence. The detention of Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli followed neither normal Party procedures nor any discussion within the Central Military Commission, and therefore also lacks procedural legitimacy.
China observers believe that today’s emergency NPC Standing Committee meeting was, to a great extent, convened by Xi Jinping precisely to remove Zhang Youxia’s and Liu Zhenli’s NPC delegate status.
Yet the outcome of the meeting failed to deliver what he appeared to be seeking. This may indicate that Xi Jinping’s agenda has encountered soft resistance.
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