China strips six generals, top officials from legislature amid purge

China stripped six military lawmakers, former financial regulator Li Yunze and Politburo member Ma Xingrui of their seats in the National People's Congress, widening a purge that now reaches both the armed forces and the civilian elite.

The legislature’s notice gave no reason for the removals. The Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress had just concluded its 23rd session in Beijing on June 26, and the lack of explanation left the dismissals to be read alongside earlier disciplinary moves rather than as a routine personnel shuffle.

Ma, a member of the Communist Party of China Politburo, had already been placed under disciplinary and supervisory investigation on April 3. His removal from the legislature pushes a figure once tied to the party’s upper ranks into the same pattern that has swept up military personnel and senior administrators, including the former financial regulator Li. The notice did not spell out whether further punishment would follow.

The latest action fits a broader sequence that has been unfolding for more than a year. On June 27, 2025, the National People's Congress recorded the termination of 13 representatives and one resignation, including military representatives. On February 26, 2026, it announced another large batch of removals and office changes, again including military representatives. At that stage, the body had 2,917 deputies, underscoring how tightly the leadership has continued to manage membership in a chamber that formally serves as China’s national legislature.

Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign has long since moved beyond financial misconduct and into the machinery of elite control. Earlier coverage in 2025 tied the broader defense purge to the removal of Admiral Miao Hua from the Central Military Commission, a sign that the campaign was reaching the command structures that matter most for party discipline and military loyalty. The new removals extend that pressure into the legislature itself, where the loss of posts can precede formal criminal, party or supervisory action.

For China’s military brass, economic regulators and foreign counterparts trying to read Beijing, the message is not just who has fallen out of favor. It is that personnel notices, issued without explanation and followed by investigations or further expulsions, have become one of the clearest signals of instability inside Xi’s governing system.