In the early years of Xi Jinping's war on corruption, the Chinese leader consolidated his control over the world's largest armed forces, ousting powerful generals from rival factions and replacing them with allies and protégés who are faithful.
A decade later, after carrying out a structural overhaul of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and filling its senior ranks with his own men, the supreme leader continues his seemingly endless fight against corruption and disloyalty.
And, like many strong leaders in history, he increasingly turns against his own hand-picked loyalists.
Late last month, Xi expelled one of his closest protégés from the military – a decades-old collaborator who had been entrusted with the task of instilling political loyalty within the PLA and controlling promotions of senior managers.
Admiral Miao Hua, who serves on the Central Military Commission (CMC), the top command body chaired by Xi, has been suspended and is being investigated for serious disciplinary violations, the ministry announced of Defense, using a common euphemism for corruption and disloyalty.
As head of the CMC's political work department, which oversees political indoctrination and personnel appointments, Miao was the highest-ranking officer during Xi's latest military purge. Since last summer, more than a dozen top officials in China's defense sector have been ousted, including the last two defense ministers promoted to the CMC by Xi.
But none of them are proud of the kind of long-standing relationship Miao had with the top leader, dating back several decades to the start of Xi's political career in the coastal province of Fujian.
The Miao investigation opens a new front in a growing purge that has raised questions about Xi's ability to end systematic corruption within the military and increase its fighting capacity at a time of heightened geopolitical tensions.
Over the past decade, Xi has overseen an ambitious transformation of the PLA into a world-class fighting force, capable of rivaling the U.S. military. A key goal of this modernization is to ensure that China is prepared to fight and win a war against Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island that Beijing claims as its own.
But Miao's fall renews questions – raised during last summer's purges – about Xi's trust in his top generals who would be tasked with waging a war, according to Joel Wuthnow, a senior fellow at the National Defense University of China. Pentagon, government funded.
If he's concerned that he's brought in people who aren't unquestionably loyal to him or who aren't loyal to his agenda, that would be a big problem.
Experts say Xi's purge of a former follower reveals a dilemma familiar to autocrats, including his predecessor Mao Tse Tung: after eliminating his political rivals, the supreme leader continually seeks new threats to his absolute rule about power – including in your own circle. .
Miao Hua, a longtime protégé of Chinese leader Xi Jinping and a member of the Central Military Commission, has been suspended and placed under investigation. Cha Song Ho/AP
“Vast obscene da corrupo”
Miao's history with Xi dates back three decades. The Fujian native served as a political officer in the former 31st Army Group between the 1980s and early 2000s, when Xi was rising through the ranks as a local official to become governor of Fujian province.
According to reliable sources, Xi regularly visited the 31st Army Group at that time and had personal contact with Miao, revealed James Char, a longtime PLA observer and researcher at the School of International Studies. S. Rajaratnam, in Singapore. .
Miao's military career took off soon after Xi came to power. In 2014, he received a significant promotion to become political commissar of the PLA Navy, an unusual change from a career in the Ground Force. Three years later, he was promoted again to the CMC, the pinnacle of military power.
There is no Xi acolyte more apodictic than Miao, Char said. If Miao ends up accused of corruption, it is clear that Xi himself did not foresee the obscene scale of corruption that exists among the PLA elites.
Over the past 18 months, Xi's purges have primarily targeted officials linked to weapons acquisitions and the Rocket Force, which oversees China's nuclear and conventional missiles. But Miao's fall marks an expansion of that crackdown to new sectors, such as political work — which Xi has described as the lifeline of the military — and the navy.
Wherever you look, I'm sure you'll find problems and cases. It's just a matter of which sector they choose, Char said.
“Loss of confidence”
The Defense Ministry did not provide details of the allegations against Miao.
As head of the PLA's political commissariat, Miao is responsible for ensuring the PLA's loyalty to the ruling Communist Party. He oversees promotions in the military, selecting the best candidates for their political loyalty – a role he also played in the Navy.
In the past, these positions have provided fertile ground for corruption, particularly in promotions. Miao's predecessor, General Zhang Yang, committed suicide while under disciplinary investigation for corruption.
As the geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China deepens, the PLA Navy has also seen a drastic increase in acquisitions of warships and other weapons, providing ample opportunities for corruption, said Victor Shih, professor of political science at the University of China. San Diego.
But there could be another potential reason behind Miao's downfall, Shih added, due to his overly obvious attempt to promote a faction in the military.
Xi has repeatedly warned against the formation of factions within the party and military. Of course, the only person capable of doing this is Xi himself, Shih added.
Some analysts believe Miao recommended the promotion of several Navy colleagues to important positions, including Rocket Force Commander Wang Houbin and Defense Minister Dong Jun.
The announcement of the investigation into Miao came a day after the Financial Times reported that Dong Jun had been investigated for corruption, citing current and former U.S. officials. The Defense Ministry dismissed the report as a complete fabrication, and days later Dong appeared publicly on a security forum.
Wuthnow, the National Defense University expert, said what led to Miao's downfall was a loss of confidence, but the reasons remain unclear.
According to Wuthnow, Xi may have seen Miao as becoming too powerful and independent, and wanted to uproot what he saw as a bastion of influence that he could not fully control.
I don't believe this is the behavior of a leader who is confident in his own power and ability to control the bureaucracy. In fact, it seems to me a sign of weakness, even paranoia, that he feels the need to constantly change the situation, he said.
It happens again and again
Miao's fall comes less than a year after former Defense Minister Li Shangfu withdrew from the CMC.
The powerful body had six members – all considered loyal to Xi – who worked under the top leader when he began his unprecedented third term two years ago. If Miao is also removed, two seats will remain vacant.
Shih, an expert on the politics of China's elite, said many dictators, from former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to Mao, eventually turned on their own protégés.
When all his real competitors disappear, a dictator can never think: well, all the threats are gone. I can relax. Because he always thinks that new threats may arise, including from people who were once very close to him. It happens again and again, he said.
As a result, the dictator is always looking for increasingly subtle signs that someone is plotting against him, said Shih, the author of Coalitions of the Weak, which examines Mao's hold on power in the final phase of his life.
In the last years of Mao's life, he turned on Lin Biao, his longtime protégé, former defense minister and heir apparent, accusing him of planning a coup.
This type of dynamic will become increasingly serious as Xi Jinping ages, as his health is no longer as robust as it once was. Your sensitivity to signs of a potential threat to your power will also become more acute over time, Shih said.
For now, the top leader appears determined to continue his crusade against corruption and disloyalty.
Earlier this month, Xi inspected the Information Support Force of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) with his four loyal CMC members.
We must ensure that the troops remain absolutely loyal, absolutely pure and absolutely reliable, Xi told an audience of officers taking notes.
