Liu Zhenli, a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) top military body, the Central Military Commission (CMC), was not seen at a recent political meeting, fueling speculations over his whereabouts amid reports on top military leaders being purged by Party leadership.
The CMC comprises seven members, with CCP leader Xi Jinping as chairman, Generals He Weidong and Zhang Youxia as two vice-chairmen, and Gen. Liu, Li Shangfu, Zhang Shengming, and Miao Hua as the other four members.
As of Sept. 25, half of the members of CMC were out of the public eye or missing.
Gen. He, vice chairman of the CMC, gave a speech at the seminar that can be seen as a loyalty show to Mr. Xi. Attendees include the remaining two CMC members—Miao Hua and Zhang Shengmin.
Political analysts have said it’s still too early to conclude whether or not Gen. Liu could be among those military leaders who have been purged by Mr. Xi.
But if Gen. Liu has been purged, it will send another shockwave through the CCP’s military, suggesting that Mr. Xi’s purge is escalating to the extent that he can’t trust anyone as most of the fallen generals are widely known as cronies of the “Xi family army.”
Despite a lack of an official statement about the disappearances, multiple sources and military insiders said the 73-year-old Gen. Zhang, the CMC vice chairman, has been placed under house arrest and residential surveillance.
Gen. Li, the newly appointed Defense Minister, disappeared from the public at the end of August as he is under investigation for corruption in arms procurement.
Gen. Li and Gen. Zhang are both second-generation princelings; furthermore, Gen. Zhang was once the head of the General Armament Department, which was later passed on to Gen. Li.
“All these points to their power-inherent bond,” Mr. Chen said.
Youngest General
Public information showed that Gen. Liu was born in August 1964, a native of north China’s Hebei Province, and was less than 20 years old when he joined the CCP military in 1983.He served in the former Beijing Military Region, successively as chief of staff and commander of the former 65th Group Army, commander of the former 38th Group Army, chief of staff of the Armed Police Force, and director of staff of the Army.
In early March, Gen. Liu became chief of CMC’s Joint Staff Department after rapid promotions, such as being a member of the 19th Central Committee in 2017 and becoming commander of the army in 2021 and a CMC member in 2022.
Gen. Liu’s smooth ascendence “has presented a steady and promising” military career, and the youngest general could have been highly valued by Mr. Xi, in Mr. Chen’s view.
Gen. Liu is one of the two CMC generals with real combat experience. He participated in fighting against Vietnam from 1986 to 1987, including the battle of Laoshan in 1986 at the age of 22. The other CMC member with combat experience is Gen. Zhang Youxia, a regiment commander of the 14th CCP Army who also took part in the battle of Laoshan.
How Far Will Xi Go?
In an interview with The Epoch Times on Sept. 18, Lan Shu, a U.S.-based current affairs commentator, said that neither Gen. Zhang nor Gen. Liu attended the military-political education conference on Sept. 15, which he views as a serious signal from Mr. Xi about his tough stance towards the top brass of CCP military.“We need to keep a close eye on the situation,” he said, adding Mr. Xi has appointed all these senior generals himself, and now he is working on rooting them out, adding that he doesn’t see any hesitation on Mr. Xi’s behalf.
“Xi Jinping will have to carry out a major surgical operation on the military, and the scale of the operation will probably reach an unimaginable level,” Mr. Lan said.
Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, almost killed all the generals of the Soviet army in his past political campaigns, “It remains to be seen whether Xi will go that far,” Mr. Lan said.
Rocket Force
Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu has been missing for nearly one month, and his scheduled trip to Vietnam on Sept. 7-8 was canceled.Gen. Li’s predecessor, former Defense Minister Wei Fenghe, has also been missing for several months, and he has not been seen in public since he was replaced in a reorganization of the CCP State Council this March. Gen. Wei was the commander of the Rocket Force from December 2015 to August 2017.
Mr. Lan believes the two defense ministers’ disappearance is Mr. Xi’s uprooting of the high echelon of Rocket Force, a CCP military’s “trump card” for its crucial role in the war that connected with land-based nuclear and conventional ballistic missiles.
Multiple Chinese media have reported the dismissal of former Commander Li Yuchao and Political Commissar Xu Zhongbo and the removal of Vice Commander Liu Guangbin. Former Vice Commander Zhang Zhenzhong was also rumored to have been taken away for investigation.
