Months after the largest purge in years, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has promoted two commanders to crucial posts overseeing the Taiwan Strait and Beijing, suggesting the purge is over and that he has reshaped the military brass to his liking — for now.
Months after the largest purge in years, Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday promoted two commanders to crucial posts overseeing the Taiwan Strait and Beijing, suggesting the purge is over and that he has reshaped the military brass to his liking — for now.
Xi has promoted Yang Zhibin, who commands the Eastern Theatre Command, to the rank of full general, according to Chinese state media.
Yang has replaced Lin Xiangyang, who was expelled from the Communist Party of China (CPC) during the purge in October. He was one of the nine top military officers who were purged in one go.
In the second promotion, Xi made Han Shengyan a full general. He heads the Central Theatre Command that oversees Beijing and its surroundings.
Han has succeeded Wang Qiang, who was last seen at the fourth plenum in October and has not been seen since, according to South China Morning Post.
The newspaper noted that these promotions suggest that the “dust has begun to settle” following a massive purge in the military over corruption concerns.
In October, Xi had carried out a major purge and reshuffle in the CPC and its top institutions. In the first tranche,
he sacked nine top military officers days ahead of the ‘fourth plenum’ conference, which included He Weidong, the Vice Chair of the Central Military Commission (CMC).
In addition to replacing Xi, the country’s second highest-ranking general, Xi also replaced 10 other top officials, making it the
largest reshuffle since 2017 when he had similarly replaced 11 officials at the top.
Moreover, there were signs that dozens of others had been purged as well.
At the conclusion of the four-day ‘fourth plenum’ conference, Xinhua reported that only 168 full members and 147 alternate members attended the conference as against the full strength of 205 full members and 171 alternate members. The reduced numbers suggested that many of them had been purged since they were appointed in 2022.
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