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Hayley Wong

Yuanyue Dang

Miao Hua, one of the top generals in charge of Communist Party work at China’s powerful Central Military Commission (CMC), has been placed under investigation for suspected “serious violations of discipline”, the defence ministry said on Thursday.
Miao is director of the political work department of the CMC, which oversees China’s People’s Liberation Army. The department handles party ideology and personnel changes within the military.
Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said Miao had been suspended from duty.
In the second such denial from Beijing in two days, Wu also rejected a media report that Defence Minister Dong Jun was under investigation for alleged corruption.
On Wednesday, the foreign ministry dismissed the report as “groundless”, while Wu used a stronger tone, describing it as “sheer fabrication”.
“The Chinese side expresses its strong dissatisfaction against such a slanderous act,” Wu said, confirming that Dong remained in his position.
Wu did not provide further details about the investigation of Miao, but the term “serious violations of discipline” is usually a euphemism for corruption.
The announcement also comes ahead of the expected monthly meeting of the Politburo, the 24-main core party leadership, which is where senior-level personnel changes are usually discussed.
A mainland political analyst who declined to be named said the investigation indicated that corruption in the military was “beyond imagination” and may compromise the progress of the military reform.


Miao is the latest member of the top brass to fall since Beijing doubled down on its anti-corruption campaign within the military, with several PLA generals and defence industry executives placed under investigation and removed from the national legislature in the past year or so.
Miao is also the second CMC member to be removed from office since the current line-up took office in 2022. The first was former defence minister Li Shangfu, who was fired in October last year. Li and his predecessor, Wei Fenghe, were both expelled from the party in June for “serious violations of discipline”.
This has left the seven-member CMC, chaired by President Xi Jinping, with a rare double vacancy and only two serving members apart from Xi and the two vice-chairmen – a situation not seen in decades.
Unlike in the West, China’s defence minister is not the most powerful military figure in the system, as the armed forces are headed by the CMC. The defence minister serves mainly as the international face of the PLA.
But Dong does not wield the same power as his predecessors. Former defence ministers Li and Wei were both also members of the CMC as well as state councillors – a senior role in China’s cabinet. Dong holds neither of these titles.
CMC membership means direct access to Xi, while the state councillor role provides direct access to Premier Li Qiang, the party’s No 2 official and head of government.
This year, Xi has repeatedly stressed the need for loyalty to the party among the PLA, especially its leaders. The drive comes amid a heightened focus on ideology to ensure firm party control of the armed forces, as China seeks to achieve its goal of becoming a military superpower amid growing external headwinds.


Addressing key military officials and political commissars at a CMC political work conference in June, Xi said: “We must make it clear that the barrels of the guns must always be in the hands of those who are loyal and dependable to the party … And we must make it clear that there is no place for corrupt elements in the military.”
He also requested senior cadres to carry out “deep soul searching” and face their own shortcomings in an unstable and fast-changing world.
Miao was last seen in public on October 7, when he attended the 70th anniversary celebrations of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a state-run paramilitary organisation in the western Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
Miao, 69, joined the PLA at the age of 14. He spent years doing party work in a PLA unit based in the southeastern coastal province of Fujian, described by state media as “frontline forces facing Taiwan”.
Miao’s time in Fujian overlapped with Xi’s years as a senior official in several cities around the province and as provincial governor.

From 2010 to 2014, he worked in the western Lanzhou Military Region, later renamed as the Western Theatre Command, which oversees troops in regions including Tibet and Xinjiang. Miao also served as political commissar or head of party work in this military region.
His career took off after Xi came to power in late 2012. In December 2014, Miao was transferred to the PLA Navy as political commissar. A few months later, he was promoted to become the youngest serving PLA admiral.
Miao has been director of the CMC’s political work department and a member of the commission since 2017.
In a statement on Sunday, the CMC stressed that “senior party committees and senior cadres [of the army] must take the lead in respecting, studying, obeying and applying the law”.
It was the Politburo that announced Li and Wei’s ousting from the party in June. It also said they were being investigated for corruption.
Both were accused of taking bribes, and Li was also suspected of offering bribes, although it was not made clear to whom. The pair were also stripped of their rank as generals and of PLA membership.
Others under investigation include generals from the PLA Rocket Force, the core of China’s nuclear missile industry once led by Wei, and officials in charge of military procurement, a sector where Li worked for decades.
Additional reporting by Amber Wang


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China’s Communist Party

Miao Hua is under investigation and been suspended from duty. Photo: Handout

Miao Hua visits Pyongyang, North Korea in October 2019. Photo: AFP

The Chinese foreign ministry has described a Financial Times report about Defence Minister Dong Jun as “shadow chasing”. Photo: AP

Former defence minister Li Shangfu was ousted after serving just seven months in the position. Photo: EPA-EFE 

The party chief of Shanghai’s Pudong New Area, Zhu Zhisong, has been placed under investigation on suspicion of corruption. Photo: Weibo/侠客岛

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Miao is director of the Central Military Commission’s political work department, which oversees party ideology and personnel changes


Miao is director of the Central Military Commission’s political work department, which oversees party ideology and personnel changes.


Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign