BEIJING, October 17 — China’s Ministry of National Defense announced on Saturday that General Zhang Youxia and General He Weidong, two of the most senior officers in the People’s Liberation Army, had been expelled from the Chinese Communist Party and dismissed from their military posts, with the ministry alleging disloyalty to the party. The announcement, carried by state media including Xinhua and CCTV, accused both men of serious violations of party discipline and of failing to uphold the party’s absolute leadership over the PLA.
It was timed to coincide with a plenary session of the party’s Central Committee in Beijing, a gathering that typically reviews discipline and personnel matters. Zhang had served as vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, the body that directs the PLA under the leadership of the party’s Central Committee.
He Weidong held the same rank. Both were members of the 20th Central Committee, elected at the party’s 20th National Congress in October 2022.
An unusual double removal
The removal of two sitting vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission in a single announcement is unusual in the recent history of the PLA. The commission is the highest military decision-making body in China, and its vice chairmen rank among the most powerful figures in the country’s armed forces. Zhang, born in 1949, is a veteran of the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese border war and had been a member of the Politburo.
He Weidong, born in 1957, previously commanded the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command before being elevated to the commission. State media said the decision to expel the two generals was made in accordance with the party constitution and relevant regulations, and that their cases would be handled in line with party procedures.
The announcement did not provide a detailed list of specific allegations, and no independent confirmation of the charges was available.
Background and what comes next
The expulsions come amid a broader campaign of anti-corruption and discipline enforcement within the PLA that has intensified in recent years, with several senior officers placed under investigation since 2023. For all the noise surrounding such announcements, the salient point is the scale of the turnover at the top of the command structure. No successor was named for either position, and it was not immediately clear how the vacancies would be filled.
The plenary session in Beijing was expected to conclude with a communique summarizing its decisions, which state media said would be released in due course. Foreign governments and military analysts were monitoring the development for signs of any impact on the PLA’s command structure and on China’s defense policy.
No official foreign reaction had been reported at the time of the announcement. What to watch next is the communique from the plenary session and any indication of who, if anyone, will be elevated to fill the two vacant vice chairmanships.
