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Chinese leader Xi Jinping widens military purge

Updated Jun 30, 2025, 8:19am EDT
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Xi Jinping
Maxim Shemetov/File Photo/Reuters

Chinese leader Xi Jinping extended his purge of the upper echelons of China’s armed forces.

A senior official was removed from the country’s top military command body, the Central Military Commission, while the navy chief of staff and a top nuclear scientist were fired from China’s legislature: In all, eight officials were removed, more than a dozen generals and defense industry figures have been investigated for corruption, and the vice-chair of the CMC has not been seen publicly for months.

Xi once sought to single out officials to deter graft in the wider ranks — killing the chicken to scare the monkeys, as Beijing put it. Now, one analyst said, he is “killing the monkeys.”

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