China military anti-corruption campaign showed no signs of slowing this week as six senior People’s Liberation Army officers were stripped of their seats in the country’s top legislative body. The move offers fresh evidence that President Xi Jinping’s sweeping crackdown on graft within the armed forces remains firmly in motion.

A Late-Night Announcement

According to a notice issued late Friday by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, a total of 13 members of the legislature were removed and one additional member resigned. The dismissals extended beyond the military as well.

Among those removed were two prominent civilian figures: a former top financial regulator and the former Communist Party chief of Xinjiang. Their inclusion underscores that the campaign reaches well past the ranks of the PLA.

Signs of Trouble Already Visible

For some of the dismissed commanders, the writing had been on the wall. There were already indications that several were under investigation before the formal removals.

One example is General Xu Xueqiang of the Central Military Commission’s Equipment Development Department, who notably missed a major party meeting in October, a common signal that an official has fallen out of favor or come under scrutiny.

A Far-Reaching Purge

The anti-corruption drive has already toppled dozens of senior commanders, including members of the powerful Politburo. The consequences for those swept up have varied:

• Some have been placed under formal investigation for corruption.
• Others have simply vanished from public view without any official explanation.

The scale of the campaign becomes especially striking at the highest levels of military leadership. Of the seven members of the Central Military Commission named at the party’s national congress in 2022, only two remain in place: Xi Jinping himself and the PLA’s anti-corruption chief, Zhang Shengmin.

That dramatic turnover at the very top highlights just how deeply the purge has reshaped China’s military hierarchy, reinforcing Xi’s grip while signaling that the campaign is far from finished.