China’s defense minister reappears, as military purge marches on
Dong attended a security forum in Shanghai last Thursday on the security situation in the Gulf of Guinea. This marked his first public appearance since taking part in a meeting with counterparts from Southeast Asian countries and the United States last month in Laos.
During the forum, Dong met with heads of delegations from 18 African countries and expressed China’s willingness to strengthen maritime cooperation with regional countries and help maintain security in the Gulf of Guinea, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Prior to his re-emergence last week, the Financial Times reported on November 26 that Dong was facing an anti-corruption-related investigation, citing unnamed current and former U.S. officials.
The Chinese defense ministry dismissed the report during a regular press conference on November 28, calling it a “sheer fabrication” spread by rumor-mongers with evil motivations.
However, a suspension and disciplinary investigation that the defense ministry announced November 28 against another official, Admiral Miao Hua, still raised questions about Dong’s fate.
Analysts say Dong’s reappearance on December 5 signals that he is “politically safe for now.”
“The Chinese government wants to show that Dong remains safe and, despite some changes at the top of the Chinese military, the Chinese leadership still maintains a certain level of control,” said Lin Ying-yu, an expert on the Chinese military at Tamkang University in Taiwan. Lin spoke with VOA in a phone interview.
It remains unclear, however, whether Dong’s personal relationship with Miao might affect him later, said Wen-ti Sung, a political scientist at the Australian National University, or ANU.
“Miao Hua’s role as head of political works [in the Central Military Commission] is in part akin to the Chinese military’s chief human resource officer and it means virtually any official whose career got fast-tracked over the last seven years will have to have Miao’s seal of approval,” he told VOA in a written response.
He said the personal ties between Dong and Miao “can be a big deal in political purges but can also be nothing.”
Campaign intensifies
Since Chinese President Xi Jinping took power in 2012, he has carried out a sweeping anti-corruption campaign against the People’s Liberation Army, or PLA. The campaign has intensified over the past year. The investigation into Miao is the latest case.
At least nine generals in the PLA and several defensive industry executives have been removed from China’s national legislative body due to corruption-related charges.
In June, two of Dong’s predecessors, former defense minister Li Shangfu and Wei Fenghe were removed from their roles and expelled from the Chinese Communist Party amid allegations of corruption.
Experts say the investigation into Miao, who is an admiral in the Chinese navy, shows how widespread and deep-rooted the problem of corruption is across different branches of the military.
“The Chinese navy was previously plagued by corruption in 2020, leading to the removal of several naval commanders. Since last year, the Chinese military’s rocket force became the focus of the Chinese authorities’ anti-corruption campaign,” said Su Tzu-yun, a military expert at the Taipei-based Institute for National Defense and Security Research.
During an inspection of the PLA’s information support force on December 4, Chinese President Xi urged the military to “improve conduct, enforce discipline and combat corruption,” emphasizing that the Chinese military “must be entirely loyal, pure and reliable.”
Sung at ANU said the investigation against Miao will likely set off “a new round of purges inside the Chinese military.” “Since Miao has essentially been the PLA’s head of HR, many appointees [in the PLA] need to get into his good graces, and what kind of entanglement that entails leaves a lot of room for imagination,” he told VOA.
Impact on warfighting and morale
Experts say that while there are legitimate reasons for Chinese authorities to root out rampant corruption in the military, Xi has used the anti-corruption campaign to maintain his control over the PLA.
“Xi uses the anti-corruption campaign to strengthen his control over the Chinese military and under this ‘reign with terror,’ it’s difficult for the military to challenge his authority,” Tamkang University’s Lin told VOA.
In addition to maintaining control over the military, Xi is using the anti-corruption campaign to eliminate military commanders from other factions within the Chinese Communist Party, said Su Tzu-yun. He adds that such a vicious cycle could negatively impact morale in the military.
The constant personnel reshuffling at the top level will also affect the military’s operation and long-term planning, according to Sung.
Military purges "will inevitably lead to personnel reshuffling thus slow down [the Chinese military’s] long-term planning for force building and warfighting,” he told VOA.
Since Xi has urged the military to combat corruption and it is used to control the military, Lin said the pace of Beijing’s anti-corruption campaign against the PLA will likely continue in 2025.