For China's People's Liberation Army (PLA), 2023 was marked by a long purge. It's not likely to stop in 2024, according to the People's Liberation Army Daily's New Year editorial, which promises to continue the "difficult and protracted war against corruption." Over the past year, "we have persevered in correcting conduct, strengthening discipline and fighting corruption," continued the army's mouthpiece.
This major clean-up cost defense minister Li Shangfu his job, having disappeared in August before being officially sacked in October, without the slightest explanation. While there is still no news of him, the National People's Congress Standing Committee announced his successor on December 29 through the state agency China News. Dong Jun, the newly appointed minister, had been commander of the navy for two years.
He has been promoted to a representative, non-strategic position: "The post of defense minister is not very important in the Chinese military hierarchy. It is mainly intended to deal with foreign military relations, which, as we have seen in the case of US-China military relations, have been marginalized," explained Tai Ming Cheung, a professor at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of San Diego (California). Command of China's military falls to the Central Military Commission, headed by the president, Xi Jinping, and a general, Zhang Youxia, the commission's vice-president.
Against a backdrop of growing tensions with the United States, around Taiwan and in the South China Sea, this appointment should nevertheless help to resume dialogue. China had cut off communication channels after Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan in August 2022, but Joe Biden and Xi announced the resumption of dialogue at their meeting in San Fransisco on the sidelines of APEC, in November 2023. In this context, Dong may appear as a new minister for a new phase in relations, while his predecessor had been placed under US sanctions, which did nothing to help China-US relations.
Dong knows his institution well. Before becoming navy commander, he served in the North Sea Fleet, where the Chinese army collaborates with Russia, in the East Sea Fleet, which watches for any potential conflict with Japan and in the Southern Theater Command, which oversees the South China Sea – the current hot spot for Chinese military involvement.
As proof that the anti-corruption campaign did not end with the arrival of a new minister on December 29, nine officers were expelled from the National People's Congress (China's parliament) and three representatives of the military-industrial complex were excluded from the Consultative Assembly. Among the nine officers, four were generals in the Rocket Force, one of the five PLA branches, which is responsible for nuclear weapons. Two generals who headed this force were replaced, amid rumors of corruption.
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