China has suspended a high-ranking military official suspected of “serious violations of discipline”, the latest in a series of senior figures targeted in a widening crackdown on corruption in the armed forces.

The Ministry of Defence said on Thursday that Miao Hua, director of the political work department on the powerful Central Military Commission that oversees the People’s Liberation Army, was being investigated for disciplinary breaches, commonly read as a euphemism for corruption.

The governing Communist Party “has decided to suspend Miao Hua from duty pending investigation”, ministry spokesperson Wu Qian told a news briefing.

Wu did not provide further details about the charges against Miao, one of five high-ranking officials on the commission that oversees the military and is headed by President Xi Jinping.

Xi’s campaign against corruption has focused in the past year on the armed forces, with nearly 20 military and defence industry officials removed since 2023, as well as defence ministers.

Wu, the spokesperson, also criticised media reports that Defence Minister Dong Jun had been placed under investigation for corruption.

British newspaper The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that Dong, who oversaw a recent thaw in military ties between China and the United States, had been caught up in the country’s sweeping anticorruption purge, quoting current and former US officials familiar with the situation.

“The rumour mongers are ill-intentioned. China expresses its strong dissatisfaction with such slanderous behaviour,” Wu told reporters in a direct reference to the FT report.

China’s former Defence Minister Li Shangfu at the 20th IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore prior to his disappearance from public view [File: Caroline Chia/Reuters]

While reports on the investigation into Dong remain unconfirmed, two other defence ministers have been caught in the anticorruption dragnet.

Dong’s predecessor, Li Shangfu, was removed after seven months into the job, and then expelled from the Communist Party, for offences that included bribery, according to state media. He has not been seen in public since.

Li’s predecessor, Wei Fenghe, was also kicked out of the party after serving in the post from 2018 to 2023, and referred to prosecutors for alleged corruption.

A Communist Party statement at the time said the pair “betrayed the trust of the party and the Central Military Commission, seriously polluted the political environment of the military, and caused great damage to … the image of its senior leaders”.

They were found to have received huge sums of money in bribes and to have “sought personnel benefits” for others, it said.