Taipei, Taiwan —
Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun has reappeared in public after a media report claimed he was under disciplinary investigation. Analysts say that while his reappearance suggests Dong is politically safe, it does not mean China will stop its anti-corruption purge against the military.
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.
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.
By:VOA