President Xi Jinping has dismissed top Chinese generals amid a seeming cleansing of the ruling party.
Mr Xi dismissed two top generals at the head of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force in what appears to be a purge, with allegations of corruption expected.
Wang Houbin, a former deputy commander of the Navy, has been named the new commander of the Rocket Force, which is in charge of managing land-based missile defence. He will collaborate with political commissar Xu Xisheng, who was transferred from the Air Force.
The Second Artillery Corps’s successor, the PLA Rocket Force, became a significant part of China’s armed forces in 2016.
It oversees China’s vast stockpile of tactical and strategic land-based missiles.
The purge is an example of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) continued campaign to oust its leadership.
Despite the lack of specifics, the action sheds some light on the persistent crisis of military corruption.
According to reports, Li Yuchao, the former commander of the PLA Rocket Force, Liu Guangbin, his deputy, and Zhang Zhenzhong, a former deputy, were all imprisoned in June.
China has not yet made a formal declaration of a corruption inquiry.
