China Sacks Minister, 9 Military Officials As Part Of Xi's Corruption Purge

The committee also removed 19 delegates from the NPC, state media reported on Thursday.

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Reasons for the removal of the deputies were not specified.
China:

They also voted to remove Liu Shaoyun from his position as head of the People's Liberation Army's military court, without explaining why. 

The committee also removed 19 delegates from the NPC, state media reported on Thursday.

This included former Inner Mongolia party secretary Sun Shaocheng, who is under investigation for "suspected serious violations of discipline and law", a euphemism for corruption.

Among those removed were nine military officials, including former Navy commander Shen Jinlong and ground forces commander Li Qiaoming.

Reasons for the removal of the deputies were not specified.

Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed the military's "fight against corruption" earlier this month in a rare acknowledgement of graft weeks after Beijing escalated a sweeping purge by probing its top general.

Beijing's defence ministry said in January it was investigating Zhang Youxia, a vice chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC), as well as Liu Zhenli, chief of staff of the CMC's joint staff department, which oversees combat planning.

Liu and Zhang were the latest to fall under a huge drive to root out graft at all levels of the Chinese Communist Party and state since Xi came to power more than a decade ago. 

The drive has targeted the military in recent years.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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