The ruling Communist Party has "decided to suspend Miao Hua from duty pending investigation", Wu Qian, a spokesman for Beijing's defence ministry, told a press briefing.
Wu did not provide further details about the charges against Miao, an admiral and a member of Beijing's powerful Central Military Commission (CMC).
But "serious violations of discipline" are commonly used by authorities in China as a euphemism for corruption.
Miao sat on the CMC alongside five other men -- including President Xi Jinping at the top -- and headed its most important office, the Political Work Department.
Miao has been described as a "close ally" of Xi and a "trusted interlocutor" between the military and the party by Lyle Morris, a senior fellow at the Asia Society.
Beijing has deepened a crackdown on alleged graft in the armed forces over the past year, with Xi this month ordering the military to stamp out corruption and strengthen its "war-preparedness".
The intensity of the anti-graft drive has been partially driven by fears that endemic corruption may affect China's ability to wage a future war, Bloomberg reported citing US officials this year.
The investigation into Miao is "in line with Xi's added scrutiny on the armed forces" said Chong Ja Ian, an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore.
His removal reveals the "endurance of corruption and discipline issues across the system in the (armed forces), despite the strong efforts made by Xi," said Dylan Loh, an assistant professor at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.
- Deepening crackdown -
At the same briefing, Wu denied reports that Defence Minister Dong Jun has been placed under investigation for corruption.
"The reports in question are pure fabrications," Wu said.
"The rumour-mongers are ill-intentioned. China expresses its strong dissatisfaction with such slanderous behaviour," he added.
A former navy commander, Dong was appointed defence minister in December following the surprise removal of predecessor Li Shangfu just seven months into the job.
Li was later expelled from the Communist Party for offences including suspected bribery, state media said. He has not been seen in public since.
His predecessor, Wei Fenghe, was also kicked out of the party and passed on to prosecutors over alleged corruption.
The country's secretive Rocket Force -- which oversees China's vast arsenal of strategic missiles, both conventional and nuclear -- has come under particularly intense scrutiny.
In July, a top Chinese official in the Rocket Force, Sun Jinming, was kicked out of the party and placed under investigation for corruption.
At least two other high-ranking officers connected to the Rocket Force, a relatively new unit of the Chinese military, have also been removed for graft.
"We will see many more investigations into the (armed forces) and this will not end with Miao Hua or Li Shangfu," Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, told AFP.
China's military corruption crackdown explained
Beijing (AFP) Nov 28, 2024 -
Beijing has removed top military official Miao Hua from office pending a probe into "serious violations of discipline" -- a common euphemism for corruption.
Miao joins a host of high-ranking figures, including two former defence ministers, to fall foul of a sweeping crackdown in the country's military in just over a year.
Analysts say corruption may have eroded Chinese combat readiness -- raising fears in Beijing as it conducts its largest military build-up in decades.
Here's how the crackdown has unfolded so far:
- 'Chronic distrust' -
Chinese President Xi Jinping has waged a sweeping campaign against deep-seated official corruption since coming to power over a decade ago.
Proponents say the policy promotes clean governance, while critics say it helps Xi purge political rivals.
In the past year, that drive has focused on the armed forces, with nearly 20 military and defence industry officials removed since summer 2023.
Some of the biggest fish so far ensnared have been defence ministers.
State media has confirmed that both Wei Fenghe and his successor Li Shangfu have been expelled from the ruling Communist Party and are under corruption investigations.
"Xi appears to be chronically distrustful of his most prominent military officials," Ankit Panda, Stanton Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told AFP.
Analysts at the time linked the purge to a wider investigation into the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) Rocket Force, which oversees China's nuclear and conventional missiles and would likely be Beijing's first line of attack in the event of a major conflict.
Both former defence ministers had links to the force -- Wei previously headed the unit and Li Shangfu led a department that developed weapons including missiles.
The unit's chief, Li Yuchao, and chief of staff, Sun Jinming, were expelled from the party and investigated for corruption in July.
Three senior officials were also removed from their posts at state-owned missile defence organisations in December 2023.
- Beyond the Rocket Force -
British newspaper the Financial Times this week reported that defence minister Dong Jun was under investigation -- reports that Beijing on Thursday dismissed as "pure fabrications".
But Miao and Dong's removal, if confirmed, could suggest the graft purge is widening.
Miao had no clear ties to the rocket force, climbing the ranks in the army and then being promoted to admiral in the navy in 2015.
Similarly, the defence minister -- appointed in December -- forged his career in the navy and eventually became its commander.
Reports of Dong's fall suggested "the rot in China's military remains even deeper than previously suspected", Neil Thomas, a fellow on Chinese politics at the Asia Society, told AFP.
The crackdown has come as China has increased military pressure on Taiwan and repeatedly pushed up against its neighbours over disputed territory in the South China Sea.
But analysts say graft in the military may be raising worries that the army isn't up to the job.
"Corruption in the Chinese military rightly should raise questions about its ability to achieve military objectives and reach the 'great rejuvenation' envisioned by Xi," Heather Williams, director of the Project on Nuclear Issues at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies wrote.
- Compromised -
Bloomberg, citing US intelligence, reported this year that rampant corruption in the Rocket Force had led to malfunctioning equipment and even missile fuel being replaced with water.
"If true, these flaws would compromise missile operations, calling into question China's nuclear force readiness and overall capabilities," the Federation of American Scientists wrote in an open letter in response to the claims.
Xi has vowed that the reunification of the Chinese mainland and Taiwan is inevitable and pledged to take "all measures necessary" to achieve that goal.
The recent crackdown "raises the question of who Xi has left that he can trust and how deep the scandals run that have taken down these key officials," said Joel Wuthnow, senior research fellow at National Defense University in the US.
"It has to be a huge distraction... as he presses the PLA to be ready for a war with Taiwan by 2027."
This month, Xi visited members of the country's air force in central Hubei province, urging them to root out corruption and "unhealthy tendencies".
"(We) must keep firmly in mind our duties and missions, increase our sense of war preparedness and tighten our preparations for military struggles," Xi told soldiers.
But with Miao's removal, analysts expect the corruption crackdown to continue to distract from that goal.
"Competition for top positions is so fierce that there might be some mutual recriminations between officers which would lead to endless cycles of arrests, new appointments and recriminations," Victor Shih, an expert on elite Chinese politics, told AFP.
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