Military representatives lost influence at China’s signature political gathering

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Leader Xi Jinping’s purge cast a shadow on Beijing’s largest annual political event, with the size of the military delegation of the Chinese Rubber-Mark Stamp Parliament being declining and likely to shrink further.

Military delegations at the annual plenary session of the National People’s Congress, which opened on Wednesday, will drop by 267 from the 281 appointments in 2023.

Of the 2,997 appointments to NPC in 2023, there are 2,942 more.

Military delegations – including representatives of the People’s Liberation Force and the People’s Armed Police, which are larger in size than any other provincial delegation, government or industry sector, the Political Advisory Conference of the Chinese People (CPCC) (CPCC), NPC List, NPC List, NPC, official announcements and official official media reports.

These data emphasize that Xi Jinping’s crackdown on the Chinese Communist Party’s commonly referred to as “illegal acts” is heavier than in other parts of society.

As Communist leaders are expected to prioritize the economy this year, namely the “two meetings” (CPPCC and NPC annual meetings), the removal of corruption is out of corruption.

Beijing will worry that rising U.S. tariffs will trigger booming exports in China, which has offset the deep property downturn in the domestic economy over the past two years.

China’s leaders are expected to announce another ambitious GDP growth target of 5% this year, driven by larger stimulus measures.

However, military personnel evacuated from the NPC and CPPCC due to the anti-corruption investigations, as the country competes with the United States for dominance in Taiwan and the South China Sea, is a reminder of Xi’s long-term focus.

“The reduction in military delegations will not have an impact on the NPC, but they will certainly emphasize that XI continues to push his control over the armed forces,” said Lin Ying-Yu, a professor at Taiwan’s Tamkang University.

Official military spending has increased this year and is expected to be included in the budget on March 5, while Xi Jinping’s speech to military representatives on March 7 is the main military activity.

Despite destroying the main echelon of the entire PLA, the suppression had no obvious impact on the military’s capabilities and operating rhythm. The Army continued to put pressure on Taiwan and deployed to locations far away from China.

After Xi Jinping began defeating the Rocket Force, Beijing removed 10 military NPC representatives ahead of two meetings last year, which was responsible for the PLA department of the missile and weapons procurement bureaucracy including nuclear bombs.

Since March last year, four more senior military officials have lost their NPC representative status after an entangled investigation: Former Defense Secretary Li Shanghaifu and former PLA deputy commander Deng Zhiping were recalled in September.

Deng was also deprived of his mission in December last year as Deputy Commander of PLA Haitao and former Navy Commander Li Pengcheng, former Navy Commander of the PLA Southern Military Forces.

The PLA’s presence in next year’s plenary session may be smaller: Miao Hua, the supreme political committee of the Chinese military, was trapped in the repression, when he served as a member of the Central Military Commission, an agency led by XI, who served as the supreme command of the armed forces and served in the political work department of the CMC in November. The NPC has not announced his removal as a representative, but the MIAO is not expected to participate.

Observers are considering three more military representatives who have recently disappeared from the public’s view: Li Qiaoming and Wang Chunning, commanders of the PLA and the People’s Armed Police, and Yuan Huazhi, political commissar of the PLA Navy, were absent at key meetings in December and January.