China removes 3 lawmakers with defence-sector ties after top general probed

BEIJING – Three Chinese lawmakers with ties to the defence sector have been removed from their positions, state media said in the wake of an investigation of the nation’s top general, just as Beijing tries to modernise its military.

The announcement on the evening of Feb 4 by the Xinhua news agency did not give a reason for the dismissals or say that the lawmakers, who are from the defence, aerospace and nuclear industries, were under investigation.

In President Xi Jinping’s years-long corruption purge, the Defence Ministry said on Jan 24 it was investigating General Zhang Youxia – second only to Mr Xi in China’s military leadership – over suspected “serious violations of discipline and law”.

The probe of Gen Zhang, seen as a top Xi ally, meant the US lost a respected, well-known contact within China’s military as successive US administrations have worked to build senior-level ties to avoid mishaps between the world’s two most powerful militaries.

The sacked lawmakers are Mr Zhou Xinmin, the former head of state-owned conglomerate Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), which produces most of China’s military aircraft and drones, longtime nuclear-weapons researcher Liu Cangli and Mr Luo Qi, chief engineer of state-owned nuclear-power giant China National Nuclear Corporation.

The provincial governments responsible for the lawmakers’ dismissals did not immediately respond to faxed requests for comment.

The dismissals were announced a month before China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress, convenes for its yearly meeting, marking the start of a five-year planning cycle for the ruling Communist Party of China.

Mr Xi wants China, the world’s biggest military spender after the US, to achieve what he calls full military modernisation by 2035, although the US Pentagon has said that corruption in the military’s ranks could be impeding progress toward that goal.

Mr Zhou was named AVIC chairman in March 2024, but his name is no longer on the company’s website. The day before his removal, AVIC held a meeting on anti-corruption, the company said on social media. He is also a former top executive at Shanghai-based planemaker COMAC.

Former AVIC head Tan Ruisong was expelled from the party for corruption in February 2025.

Nuclear-weapons researcher Liu ran the China Academy of Engineering Physics from 2015 to 2024, and had long conducted nuclear weapons research, according to his biography on the website of the Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. REUTERS