BEIJING, 27 February (H.S.): In a sweeping cull of high‑ranking officials, Chinese authorities have removed the country’s emergency management minister and several senior military figures as part of President Xi Jinping’s ongoing anti‑corruption campaign, state and international media reported on Thursday.High‑Level Officials SackedThe Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) voted to strip Minister of Emergency Management Wang Xiangxi of his post amid an investigation by the Communist Party’s anti‑corruption watchdog, according to Chinese state media and financial outlets such as Moneycontrol and Channel News Asia.

Simultaneously, the same committee removed 19 delegates from the NPC, including former Inner Mongolia party secretary Sun Shaocheng, who is under investigation for “suspected serious violations of discipline and law”—a standard euphemism for corruption in China’s political lexicon.

Among the dismissed NPC deputies were nine senior military officials, signalling a sharp escalation of the purge within the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Those removed include former navy commander Admiral Shen Jinlong and PLA Ground Force commander General Li Qiaoming, as confirmed by The Economic Times and other regional defences outlets.

The move follows the earlier removal of Liu Shaoyun as president of the PLA’s military court, a position he held since October 2023. State radio announced his ouster without providing any explanation, deepening uncertainty about the political and legal rationale behind the reshuffle.

The recent shake‑up dovetails with a broader dragnet that has already ensnared members of the Central Military Commission (CMC). Beijing’s defence ministry acknowledged in January that it was investigating Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of the CMC, and Liu Zhenli, chief of staff of the CMC’s joint staff department, which oversees operational‑level war planning.

These cases are part of a decade‑long campaign under Xi to root out graft across the party, government, and armed forces. Since Xi took power in 2012, tens of thousands of officials have faced disciplinary action, including prominent generals and provincial leaders.

Despite the magnitude of the culls, Chinese authorities have offered no detailed public rationale for the removal of the 19 NPC delegates or the sudden dismissal of Liu Shaoyun from the military‑court post.

Analysts outside China say the opaque process—combined with the timing just before the annual “Two Sessions” of the NPC and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference—suggests Xi is using the anti‑corruption drive both to consolidate control and to pre‑empt potential dissent within the military‑political elite.

The latest purge weakens several established factions within the PLA’s leadership at a time of heightened geopolitical tensions, including disputes over Taiwan, the South China Sea, and deepening competition with the United States.

By removing not just operational commanders but also members of the nation’s titular legislature, Beijing is reinforcing a message: loyalty to the party and absolute intolerance of corruption can trump long‑held rank and prestige.

China sacked Emergency Management Minister Wang Xiangxi and stripped 19 NPC delegates of their posts, including nine senior military officers.

Former navy chief Shen Jinlong, Ground Force commander Li Qiaoming, and top military‑court head Liu Shaoyun are among the high‑profile figures discarded.

The purge underscores Xi Jinping’s hard‑line campaign to stamp out graft inside the party and military, even as it creates vacancies at the very apex of China’s security‑and‑governance structure.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar