A Top Chinese Commander Is Suspended Under Suspicion of Corruption

A senior member of China’s military elite has been suspended from office, under suspicion of “serious violations of discipline,” the Chinese government revealed on Thursday, months after two of the country’s former defense ministers were officially denounced for graft and disloyalty to the Communist Party and its top leader, Xi Jinping.

A spokesman for China’s Ministry of National Defense told a news briefing in Beijing that Adm. Miao Hua was under investigation. His case seems to be another indication that Mr. Xi’s apparently iron grip on the armed forces and his decade-long campaign against corruption have not eradicated graft in its high ranks.

The announcement of Admiral Miao’s suspension while under investigation was made by a spokesman for the ministry, Senior Col. Wu Qian, at a monthly news briefing in Beijing, according to Hong Kong’s public broadcaster, RTHK, and other news outlets at the briefing. The Chinese defense ministry did not release the news on its website.

The reason Colonel Wu cited for the investigation into Admiral Miao, “serious violations of discipline,” often refers to corruption, but it can also cover other misdeeds like political disloyalty.

Since 2017, Admiral Miao has served on the Central Military Commission — the Chinese Communist Party committee that controls the People’s Liberation Army, or P.L.A. — and has been the director of the Political Work Department, which helps enforce party discipline in the military.

With Admiral Miao “as head of the political office of the armed wing of the Communist Party, this case is much more serious than if the target was the defense minister, who controls no budget and commands no troops,” said Drew Thompson, a former U.S. Defense Department official