Nine senior PLA officials expelled from CPC

Nine senior People's Liberation Army officials, including He Weidong, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, have been expelled from the Communist Party of China for disciplinary violations and alleged serious duty-related crimes, a Chinese defense spokesman announced.

Zhang Xiaogang, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, made the announcement in a news release on Friday.

In addition to He, the other eight are Miao Hua, former head of the CMC's Political Work Department; the department's former deputy head He Hongjun; Wang Xiubin, former deputy chief of the CMC joint operations command center; Lin Xiangyang, former commander of the PLA Eastern Theater Command; Qin Shutong, former political commissar of the PLA Ground Force; Yuan Huazhi, former political commissar of the PLA Navy; Wang Houbin, former commander of the PLA Rocket Force; and Wang Chunning, former commander of the People's Armed Police Force.

With approval from the CPC Central Committee and the CMC, the military's top anti-corruption watchdog — the Discipline Inspection Commission of the CMC — conducted investigations on them successively, the release said.

The probe found that the nine individuals had committed serious violations of Party discipline and are suspected of severe duty-related crimes involving huge amounts of money, of an "extremely serious nature" and with extremely negative impact, Zhang said.

In accordance with Party regulations and national laws, the CPC Central Committee decided to expel the nine from the Party and transfer their suspected criminal matters to military procuratorial authorities for further review. The CMC had earlier decided to strip them of their military status.

Of the nine individuals, actions to expel eight from the CPC will be confirmed by the CPC Central Committee when it convenes a plenary session, Zhang said.

Xinhua contributed to this story.