China Ousts 3 Defense Leaders as Purge Widens

Oct 30, 2025 - 11:03

Updated: 7 months ago

China Ousts 3 Defense Leaders as Purge Widens

The Chinese leadership has expelled two senior military commanders and an aerospace leader from the Communist Party-controlled legislature, as purges of key personnel in the nation’s defense establishment continue.

Maj. Gen. Sun Bin, the military’s top auditor, has been removed as a delegate to the National People’s Congress (NPC), a legislative body that rubber-stamps the decisions made by the Communist Party leadership.

No reason was given for Sun’s departure. The decision was announced in a brief notice issued by the NPC Standing Committee after a four-day meeting that ended on Oct. 28.

China’s political system, known for its opacity, has become increasingly secretive about investigations into senior officials, especially amid the far-reaching anti-corruption campaign that has raised questions about the leadership’s stability.

Following a routine meeting in mid-September, the NPC’s governing body announced the ouster of four military leaders, with no explanation. Only in mid-October did the NPC reveal in a working report that these commanders were under investigation for “serious discipline and law violations.”

Sun, who headed the auditing office of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), an agency directly managed by the elite Central Military Commission, was a member of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Communist Party’s leading anti-corruption body.

In addition to Sun, the NPC also revoked the membership of Xu Dazhe, an aerospace engineer, according to the Oct. 28 notice. No explanation was provided for Xu’s expulsion.

Xu has spent more than 30 years in the aerospace sector, before being transferred to local political posts in 2016. He was the chief administrator of the space agency from 2013 to 2016, leading the country’s lunar exploration project. Prior to that, he was the Party chief at the nation’s largest missile maker, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, which has been sanctioned by the United States.

At the latest session, the NPC also approved the decision to unseat Yuan Huazhi, former political commissar of the navy, according to the notice.

Yuan was one of nine military leaders expelled by the Chinese Communist Party earlier this month. The reason the defense ministry’s spokesperson cited for the dismissal at the time was severe violations of Party discipline and serious duty-related crimes “involving an extremely large amount of money.”

Among the generals ousted was He Weidong, the country’s second-most-senior uniformed officer and a longtime ally of Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The last time Beijing targeted military figures at such a high level was more than a decade ago during Xi’s first term as Party leader, when two retired vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission, loyal to a political faction opposing Xi’s rule, were purged.

According to Chinese military insiders who spoke to The Epoch Times recently, the ongoing political cleaning in the military was driven by the power struggles between Xi and Gen. Zhang Youxia, the first-ranking vice chairman of the Central Military Commission.