China’s Communist Party has announced an anti-corruption investigation into yet another senior general who oversaw its nuclear arsenal, adding to a slew of military leaders disgraced over the past year.
Sun Jinming, chief of staff of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force, was expelled from the party, according to a communique released on Thursday, the final day of the party’s third plenum.
The corruption probe into Lieutenant General Sun, which had already been concluded, was endorsed by the plenum.
Sun’s downfall followed anti-corruption probes since last year into at least seven past or serving senior military officials from the PLA’s Rocket Force, which oversees the country’s nuclear arsenal, in the latest anti-corruption purge in the military since last year.
Sun, an alternate member of the party’s 20th Central Committee, took on the role of chief of staff of the force in 2022 after serving a long stint in its predecessor, the Second Artillery Corps.
The rocket force, which was established in 2015 as part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s military overhaul, has been at the centre of the latest anti-corruption campaign targeting the military.
Other disgraced generals who had served in the force include Li Yuchao, who assumed the role of commander in 2022; his predecessor Zhou Yaning, who served from 2017 to 2022; and Wei Fenghe, who headed the rocket force from its inception until 2017.
Wei, who later served as the country’s defence minister from 2018 to 2023, was also expelled from the party at the end of last month.
The plenum also endorsed the Politburo’s previous decision to expel former defence minister Li Shangfu and Li Yuchao from the party.
Li Shangfu was the country’s shortest-serving minister of defence when he was abruptly dismissed in October after just seven months in the post.
The 66-year-old, who previously oversaw military procurement, was put under investigation in late August, accused of accepting “large sums of money” to seek benefits for others, and allegedly bribing others.
Li Yuchao’s downfall was announced in December, when he was dismissed from the country’s top legislature, the National People’s Congress.
While it appeared that most corruption cases involving the military over the past year were coming to a close, they continue to cast a long shadow over the PLA.
The plenum did not announce the anticipated promotion of defence chief Dong Jun to the Central Military Commission (CMC) – China’s top military command body – a position that his predecessors held in the party, leaving him below their rank.
Dong, a former navy top commander, succeeded Li Shangfu two months after he was sacked in October.
Thursday’s communique also contained language that may suggest further rectification of the military after the surge of corruption cases.
The communique called for efforts to “improve the systems and mechanisms for leading and managing the people’s armed forces”, echoing calls from Xi to curb corruption following the string of high-level scandals.
During a meeting with the CMC last month, Xi insisted that there could be no room for corruption in the military.
He also stressed the importance of training “a high-quality cadre team that is loyal, clean, and capable of shouldering the heavy responsibility”.
