China issues new rules to keep senior military officials in check

Beijing: China has issued new measures to enforce discipline for top military officials, state media reported Wednesday, the latest push in President Xi Jinping's years-long effort to purge corruption from the armed forces.

Xi's sweeping anti-graft campaign has gutted the top ranks, bringing down two defence ministers in the past three years and reducing the once seven-member Central Military Commission (CMC) -- China's top military body -- to just Xi and one other general.

The rot at the top and scale of the purge of military officials has left analysts questioning the ability of China's armed forces to fight effectively.


On Wednesday, CCTV reported that the CMC -- which Xi heads -- had published new measures that would "establish iron rules for strict education, strict management, and strict supervision" of senior military cadres.

The measures, which contain 26 articles across seven areas, would "reinforce the supervision and management of key leaders" during their duties and "across all aspects of work and life", CCTV said.

The exact regulations were not published, but they would establish "explicit rules" on the Communist Party's management of military cadres and personnel selection, as well as political education and "ideological rectification", according to CCTV.

The rules "focus on strictly enforcing discipline to alert minds and guide actions, tightly regulating principal officers so they lead by example".

They would "promote the revolutionary forging of the senior officer cadres" and "advance modernisation of national defence", the state broadcaster added.

China has significantly upgraded its military in recent years, but the armed forces have consistently battled corruption.

On May 7, Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu, who both served as defence minister between 2018 and 2023, were handed suspended death sentences for taking and offering bribes.

In January, China's defence ministry said it was investigating the country's most powerful general, Zhang Youxia, who also sat on the CMC.

China has the second-largest defence budget in the world, though still well behind the United States.