Could China's Nuclear Unit Purge Have Been Sparked Partly by Wagner Rebellion?
China has replaced the heads of the elite unit in charge of its nuclear arsenal, in a move an expert told Newsweek was likely spurred by alarm at the Wagner rebellion in Russia.
Former deputy navy chief Wang Houbin and party central committee member Xu Xisheng were named as head of the People Liberation Army's (PLA) Rocket Force division, which controls China's nuclear and conventional missiles. Both have been promoted from the rank of lieutenant general to full general, which is China's highest rank for active service officers.
The appointments followed speculation about the whereabouts of the previous head of the unit, General Li Yuchao, and his deputy, General Liu Guangbin. The South China Post reported earlier in July that the pair, as well as Li's former deputy, Zhang Zhenzhong, were facing corruption probes.
China's President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on June 19, 2023. He has replaced two leaders of his country's Rocket Force unit, in what has been described as a purge. LEAH MILLIS/Getty Images
Craig Singleton, China Program deputy director and senior fellow at U.S. think tank the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), said Xi was likely influenced by the Wagner mutiny, in which the large mercenary group headed by its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, tried to overthrow the country's military establishment, in a direct challenge to Vladimir Putin.
"The failed Wagner rebellion almost certainly reinforced Xi's fixation on ideological control, even at the expense of economic growth and China's ongoing military modernization," he told Newsweek.
The unexpected personnel changes were announced at a ceremony at the commission's headquarters in Beijing a day before the 96th anniversary of the PLA's founding on August 1. It follows the removal of Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang last week, after a month-long absence from public view. He was replaced by Wang Yi, who served as foreign minister between 2013 and 2022.
Singleton said that the move coming so soon after Qin's dismissal, "marks one of China's most profound leadership shake-ups in years.
"Xi has repeatedly referred to the Rocket Force as China's core strategic deterrence power against the United States," he told Newsweek. "This high-level purge occurs amidst China's not-so-transparent effort to significantly expand its nuclear forces."
"This purge highlights that Xi's decade-long effort to exert tight ideological control over China's armed forces remains a work very much in progress."
Chinese media reported last month that Xi, who is also chairman of China's top military command, the Central Military Commission, said the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) must maintain "absolute leadership over the military."
Singleton noted how Rocket Force has received a huge influx of funds to expand China's nuclear arsenal, and that "it was only a matter of time before the officers overseeing these huge procurement portfolios ran afoul of the Central Military Commission's Discipline Inspection Commission."
Source: Newsweek
