Sweeping change in China's military points to more firepower for Xi

The changes would make room for President Xi Jinping to install trusted allies in key positions at a key party congress that begins on October 18. A list of 303 military delegates to the Communist Party Congress, published by the army's official newspaper on Wednesday, excluded Fang Fenghui and Zhang Yang, both members of the Central Military Commission. The commission is China's top military decision-making body.

Reuters reported this week that the 66-year-old Fang, who accompanied Xi to his first meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in April, is being questioned on suspicion of corruption. Three sources familiar with the matter said Zhang, the director of the military's Political Work Department, is also the subject of a probe. China's Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. The personnel changes herald a clean sweep of the top-ranking generals heading up the department. All three of Zhang's deputies — Jia Tingan, Du Hengyan and Wu Changde - were also missing from the list of congress delegates. "This is a very clear message: they're out," said Cheng Li, an expert on Chinese elite politics at the Brookings Institution. "Their political careers have come to an end."

On Friday, news reports carried by the People's Liberation Army Daily and the official news agency Xinhua abruptly referred to the navy's political commissar, Miao Hua, as the Political Work Department director.