The collective absence of members of the Central Military Commission (CMC)—the top defense command and decision-making body of the Chinese regime’s military—at the 99th anniversary banquet of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has drawn wide attention. Analysts who spoke with The Epoch Times said it reflects the impact of the ongoing purge of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping, and that he hasn’t yet fully consolidated control over the military.
The CCP’s Ministry of National Defense held an “August 1 Army Day” reception at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on July 31. State media Xinhua reported that Defense Minister Dong Jun attended and delivered a speech. However, no mention was made of Zhang Shengmin, a vice chairman of the CMC and, besides Xi, the sole remaining member of the CMC. The official report said only that “leaders from various departments of the Central Military Commission organs and relevant military units stationed in Beijing” attended the event.
Dong took office in December 2023 after the downfall of former Defense Minister Li Shangfu; however, in an unusual departure from convention, he has not yet been promoted to the rank of CMC member.
U.S.-based China analyst Li Linyi told The Epoch Times that according to the CCP’s established practice, only officials at the rank of CMC member or higher are listed when they attend an event. Consequently, at previous “August 1” banquets, incumbent CMC members were in attendance, and state media invariably listed them.
“The absence of all Central Military Commission members effectively downgraded the status of the ‘August 1’ banquet,” he said. “This was primarily the result of the collapse in the Commission’s personnel structure caused by Xi Jinping’s sweeping purges.”
Previous official reports indicate that the number of high-ranking generals attending the annual “August 1” banquet has been dwindling in recent years, coinciding with Xi’s purge: The 2023 reception included CMC members Li Shangfu, Liu Zhenli, Miao Hua, and Zhang Shengmin; at the 2024 reception, three CMC members—Liu Zhenli, Miao Hua, and Zhang Shengmin—were present, while Defense Minister Dong attended and delivered a speech; for the 2025 reception, CMC members Liu Zhenli and Zhang Shengmin attended, with Dong also present to deliver a speech; and in 2026, only Dong attended and delivered a speech.
“This is a true and concrete portrayal of the predicament Xi Jinping currently faces—Xi is isolated and abandoned by his own allies,” Yuan Hongbing, a Chinese legal scholar living in exile in Australia who has informants in the CCP’s upper echelons, told The Epoch Times.
“There is a whispered saying within the CCP establishment and Beijing’s official circles: the United States didn’t need to lift a finger; Xi Jinping himself carried out a ‘decapitation strike’ and total annihilation against the command structure of the PLA—the CCP’s ‘Party Guard.’”
PLA as ‘Party’s Guard’
On July 30, ahead of the CCP’s Aug. 1 Army Day, the Political Bureau of the CCP’s Central Committee, the top leadership body of the CCP, held a group study session focused on national defense and the military. At the meeting, Xi reiterated the need to ensure that “the military always obeys the Party’s command.”
The CCP’s rhetoric and its leaders’ repeated emphasis on “the military always obeys the Party’s command” have drawn public criticism, as it’s against the universal principle that a country’s military should serve the state, not any single political party.
In 2021, Gao Xiaosong, a Chinese music producer, writer, and talk show host, mocked the CCP’s saying on his talk show Xiaosong Qitan, noting that “a military that obeys the Party’s command is called Schutzstaffel.”
Consequently, Gao became a target of the CCP’s censorship; however, his saying that the PLA is the CCP’s SS has been widely cited by international media and resonated with the Chinese public, given the CCP’s dictatorship and the PLA’s brutality in suppressing Chinese people.
A post on Pincong, an overseas Chinese online discussion forum, called on governments and media worldwide to use the term “CCP’s SS” to refer to the People’s Liberation Army, which struck a chord with others who commented under the post.
“‘Liberation’ is a positive word, [but] the past several decades have proven that the CCP didn’t bring liberation to the Chinese people but slavery, threats, and oppression,” the post read.
“The CCP’s PLA is even more brutal and evil than the Nazi SS of World War II, yet one simply cannot think of a more fitting term.”
Xi feels obliged to constantly emphasize and reinforce the Party’s absolute leadership over the military, which, in reality, is about further cementing the absolute loyalty of the entire CCP officialdom including the military, to himself, Yuan noted.
“Yet, it is impossible for any single person to command absolute loyalty from another. Such a demand from Xi Jinping runs counter to both basic human nature and fundamental political logic,” he said.
Xi is compelled to carry out one round of massive purges after another, ceaselessly, as a result, Yuan said, “what Xi Jinping is facing now is that he is alone and separated from all his former confidants. He could only rely on a huge secret service organization to conduct secret police rule, and this rule was obviously unsustainable.”
On this year’s “Aug. 1 Army Day,” Xi once again stressed the need to strengthen the party’s absolute leadership over the military, because “the CCP is now the party of Xi Jinping’s personal absolute dictatorship,” Yuan said. “The so-called acceptance of the party’s leadership means accepting the absolute leadership of Xi Jinping, the leader of the CCP political gang.”
