Absence of 2 senior Air Force officials from Xi-led event fuels speculation amid anti-graft campaign

Beijing, Dec 24 (PTI) Absence of two top air force officials of the PLA from a high-profile event attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping has fuelled speculation about their status amid ongoing anti-corruption purges at the top of China’s military.

  In the footage carried by state television, CCTV General Chang Dingqiu and Guo Puxiao, Air Force commander and political commissar, respectively, were not present at a ceremony on Monday organised to fill top-level vacancies caused by the sweeping crackdown.

Besides the Presidency, Xi, 72, also holds the powerful posts of head of the ruling Chinese Communist Party and the Central Military Commission (CMC), the overall high command of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

Chang, 58, has long been viewed as a rising military star on a fast track to promotion. He was for many years the youngest officer at his rank, including when he was promoted to Air Force commander in August 2021 at age 54, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

Chang’s profile on the Chinese search engine Baidu has been inaccessible since last week.

The PLA has not made any statement on Chang’s status.

His last public appearance was in October, in official coverage of the fourth plenary session for the sitting Central Committee of the Communist Party.

He attended as a full member of the committee, which is China’s top policymaking body.

The absence of Chang recalls those of other PLA generals, including the commanders of the PLA ground force and the navy, both of whom have not been seen in public for months and also missed October’s party conclave, the Post report said.

Their absence followed the recent purges at the top.

Ground force commander Li Qiaoming and navy commander Hu Zhongming were among the 17 military officers absent from the fourth plenum, according to CCTV footage. The duo remains full members of the Central Committee and have not been publicly targeted by the anti-corruption watchdog.

Monday’s ceremony was the first of its kind all year, signalling that the military command was starting to fill vacancies left by the massive corruption crackdown, which had seen dozens of generals abruptly removed.

On Monday, Yang Zhibin and Han Shengyan, commander and political commissar of the Eastern and Central Theatre Command, respectively, were promoted at the ceremony by Xi to the rank of full general, the highest active-duty rank in the PLA.

Senior leadership promotions have slowed markedly, with the CMC holding four such ceremonies in 2023 and only three in 2024, the Post reported.

All top generals on active duty are expected to attend the ceremonies.

Multiple senior PLA officers have been sacked over the past two years under an intensified anti-corruption campaign as Xi continued to exercise strong control over the military, insisting that the PLA function strictly under the command of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Among the most high-profile dismissals was that of He Weidong, a former CMC vice-chairman and member of the 24-man Politburo – the party’s top decision-making body.

Other top generals to have fallen from grace include Miao Hua, once the PLA’s ideological and personnel chief, and two former defence ministers – Wei Fenghe and his successor Li Shangfu – both placed under investigation in 2023. PTI KJV RD RD