BEIJING: China’s military has grown stronger in the past year in its fight against corruption, President Xi Jinping told the Chinese armed forces on Wednesday, making a rare public reference to the graft probes linked to the country’s top generals.
China’s two highest-ranked generals have been ensnared in disciplinary probes, with He Weidong expelled in October last year and Zhang Youxia placed under investigation in January, marking one of the most high-profile purges of the Chinese military in decades.
“The past year has been unusual and extraordinary,” Xi told the military in a virtual address. “The People’s Army has deepened its political education, effectively addressed various risks and challenges, and undergone revolutionary forging in the fight against corruption.”
Military leadership body shrinks to two people
The downfall of Zhang and He, the two vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission, has cut China’s seven-man supreme military leadership body to just a committee of two people – Xi himself as the chair of CMC and a newly promoted vice chairman Zhang Shengmin.
The seats of CMC’s three remaining members are currently empty. Li Shangfu was expelled in 2024 and Miao Hua in 2025, while Liu Zhenli was placed under investigation for corruption last month. An unknown number of commanders, including the leaders of China’s nuclear deterrence forces, have also been purged.
Zhang Youxia – one of the few remaining combat veterans in the People’s Liberation Army – would have been one of the chief decision-makers over whether China would launch an attack on Taiwan, the democratically ruled island claimed by Beijing.
The military’s top leadership is also being purged just as China is stepping up efforts to modernize its armed forces and to project its military power farther afield.
In Xi’s virtual address on Wednesday, he praised the rank and file instead, saying they were “trustworthy.”
“Officers and soldiers across the military, especially those at the grassroots level, had resolutely followed the party’s leadership, loyally fulfilled their duties, focused on overcoming difficulties, and successfully completed all tasks.”
China’s Xi makes rare public reference to recent military purges
https://arab.news/638da
China’s Xi makes rare public reference to recent military purges
- China’s two top-ranking generals caught in disciplinary probes
- Purge has cut supreme military leadership body to two members
US immigration agents’ training ‘broken’: whistleblower
- The fatal shooting of two American citizens in Minneapolis in January reignited accusations that agents enforcing Trump’s militarized immigration operation are inexperienced
WASHINGTON: A former US immigration official said Monday that training for federal agents was “deficient, defective and broken,” adding to pressure on President Donald Trump’s sweeping crackdown.
Ryan Schwank resigned this month from his job teaching law at the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) training academy in Glynco, Georgia, after he said he was instructed to teach new recruits to violate the US Constitution.
The fatal shooting of two American citizens in Minneapolis in January reignited accusations that agents enforcing Trump’s militarized immigration operation are inexperienced, undertrained and operating outside law enforcement norms.
The administration scaled back the deployment after the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in broad daylight by officers sparked mass protests and widespread outrage.
Schwank told a forum hosted by congressional Democrats on Monday that he “received secretive orders to teach new cadets to violate the Constitution by entering homes without a judicial warrant.”
“Never in my career had I received such a blatantly unlawful order,” he said.
He said that ICE cut 240 hours from its 584-hour training program, curtailing subjects such as the US Constitution, lawful arrest, fire arms, the use of force and the limits of officers’ authority.
“The legally required training program at the ICE academy is deficient, defective and broken,” he said.
As a consequence, poorly trained, inexperienced armed officers were being sent to places like Minneapolis “with minimal supervision,” he said.
The lawyer’s comments coincide with the release of dozens of pages of internal ICE documents by Senate Democrats that suggest the Trump administration cut corners on training, the New York Times reported.
Schwank said he resigned on February 13 after more than four years working for ICE, and that he felt duty-bound to report inadequacies with the new training program.
