Gen. He Weidong, vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC), attends the opening ceremony of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in Beijing on March 4, 2025. Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images
In a dramatic move on Oct. 17, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) expelled nine high-ranking military leaders and handed them over for investigations on accusations related to corruption and abuse of power, including a top general considered to be a close ally of Party chief Xi Jinping.
He Wiedong, a member of the Politburo—the CCP’s second-highest decision-making body—and a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), which exercises the CCP’s control over the armed forces, was stripped of his Party membership and taken down from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), according to a spokesperson for China’s defense ministry.
