Before the 21st National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the personnel layout has already been initiated. Informed sources within the system revealed to the Epoch Times that the CCP has recently conducted screenings of senior officials through organizational, party affairs, and military anti-corruption systems, focusing on eliminating those suspected of “disloyalty” without necessarily having clear evidence of violations. It is reported that “loyalty to the Party” has become a key criterion for the adjustment of senior officials before the 21st Congress.
In the lead-up to the 21st Congress, Xi Jinping’s screening of top CCP officials is intensifying. Since Xi Jinping’s third re-election at the 20th National Congress of the CCP, the succession arrangements within the Party have been vacant for a long time, and the political factions at the top level of the CCP have shifted towards power selection centered around Xi Jinping’s personal security. The consideration of whether officials possess governance ability has been replaced by the question of whether they are deemed “absolutely loyal.”
Various sources within the system also indicated that the aforementioned screenings may directly impact the composition of Central Committee members and members of the Central Military Commission at the 21st Congress.
Wang Yu (alias), familiar with the operation within the system, disclosed to reporters that this round of personnel adjustments ahead of the ordinary leadership change is characterized by a political scrutiny reshuffle. He said, “Recently, many local officials have been reshuffled—some due to reaching retirement age, others suspected of disloyalty without evidence are also being removed. Some who have expressed loyalty in words but not in actions are considered ‘unreliable’ and are being sidelined.”
Wang mentioned that the deployment of high-level Party personnel is currently underway within the Party. He said, “Before the 21st Congress, key departments at the top have been changing personnel since last year. Li Ganjie, former Minister of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, has been transferred to serve as Minister of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee. Shi Taifeng, former Minister of the United Front Work Department, now heads the Organization Department. Recently, Cai Qi, Director of the General Office of the CCP Central Committee, has also taken on the role of President of the Central Party School. Currently, the military commission system is the most unstable, with power distribution still undergoing repeated adjustments, and the final list has not yet been announced.”
In the first half of 2026, the cleansing of the top CCP leadership has not eased, with the military top brass remaining a focal point of the purge. On January 24, General Zhang Youxia, a member of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, and General Liu Zhenli, a member of the Central Military Commission and Chief of the General Staff of the Joint Staff Department, were both publicly announced to have fallen from grace, indicating that the internal cleaning within the CCP military commission system has reached the core of military command.
Ren Qi Wu (alias), knowledgeable about military matters, informed reporters that public notifications about the purge of military top brass have recently decreased, but restructuring the Military Commission has encountered difficulties. He said, “In the latter half of this year, the personnel deployment of the Central Military Commission and the commanders and political commissars of various theater commands is facing the challenge of assessing the ‘loyalty’ of generals. The principle of ‘the Party commands the gun’ is now being strengthened, but as those who have held the gun for decades step down one by one, promoting new people is not just based on their performance this year, which poses another challenge if their past is scrutinized.”
Ren added that the old guard of the Central Military Commission has been largely eradicated. If the old guard, like Zhang Youxia, promotes new generals who are also uprooted, it will create difficulties in the operation of the command system. He said, “Therefore, the military’s purge is facing the challenging task of reviewing their loyalty.”
In the first half of 2026, articles related to the People’s Liberation Army in the Liberation Army Daily reflected the core logic of CCP governance over the military, which is premised on absolute political loyalty. On May 7, the military court of the CCP ruled on the bribery and bribery cases of two former Ministers of National Defense, Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu. Both were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, which would be commuted to life imprisonment after the suspension of the death sentence, without the possibility of reduction, parole, or probation.
On May 8, the Liberation Army Daily published a commentary titled “Adhering to the Principles of Combating Corruption and Eliminating Greed” on its front page. On the 27th, Xinhua reported that the recent issuance of the “Several Measures on Strengthening the Education, Management, and Supervision of Senior Officials in the Military” by the Central Military Commission consists of 26 articles across seven aspects, involving ideological transformation, collective leadership of the Party committee, political life within the Party, management of party cadres, and principal leadership oversight.
Ren Qi Wu analyzed that the CCP military has always been the most sensitive part in the highest power struggles. After the 20th Congress, incidents occurred successively in the Rocket Force, equipment system, and the military commission office, indicating Xi Jinping’s high concerns about the loyalty of the military. Personnel changes in the military are not just about adjustment within the military system but also involve who will form the Central Military Commission after the 21st Congress and who will wield control over the military.
Scholar Chen Jiannan (alias) told reporters that what is most worth observing before the 21st Congress of the CCP is not who will enter the next senior leadership but who will be preemptively removed from the organizational system and the military system. He said, “Xi Jinping is reconstructing a personnel system that is solely accountable to him through the Party School, Organization Department, and military’s anti-corruption mechanisms. If the military purge continues to expand, there is likely to be a substantial reshuffle in the composition of the Central Military Commission after the 21st Congress. It is said that by next March, before the two sessions, a preliminary framework will be established for the personnel arrangements at the 21st Congress, with the composition of the Military Commission being crucial.”
In recent years, many individuals within the Rocket Force, equipment system, military commission office, and military procurement systems of the CCP have been implicated in scandals. Former Defense Ministers Li Shangfu and Wei Fenghe, as well as former Director of the Political Work Department of the Military Commission Miao Hua, have been dealt with successively. The Ministry of National Defense of the CCP announced on October 17, 2025, that He Weidong, Miao Hua, and nine others had seriously violated discipline and law, leading to their expulsion from the Party and the military.
All three interviewees believe that the military purge has impacted the stability of the CCP’s military command layer, equipment system, and the personnel of the Military Commission, which also affects the CCP’s external military expansion process.