On August 26, 2026, the Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) revoked the qualifications of multiple National CPPCC members. Chinese General Zhao Zongqi was relieved of his position as a CPPCC Standing Committee member and Vice Chairman of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee, and his membership was revoked. Zhao Zongqi had previously been absent from several high-level CPPCC meetings.
According to a report from the official Chinese state media Xinhua News Agency, on the afternoon of August 26, 2026, the 18th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th National Committee of the CPPCC concluded in Beijing. The meeting passed decisions to dismiss Zhao Zongqi from his positions as a member of the 14th National CPPCC and Vice Chairman of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee, as well as to revoke his membership; dismiss Zhang Huahua as a member of the 14th National CPPCC and revoke his membership; and accept the resignation of Zhang Li from the 14th National CPPCC. The meeting also approved the previous decisions to revoke the membership of Gu Xueming, Hao Rong, Xin Baoan, and Li Heyue from the 14th National CPPCC.
Among them, Zhang Huahua, Vice Chairman of the Hunan Provincial CPPCC, Central Committee Member of the Agricultural Workers’ Party, and Secretary of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, was disgraced on July 3, 2026.
Gu Xueming, whose CPPCC membership was revoked, is the director of the International Trade and Economic Cooperation Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce; Hao Rong is the former Deputy Party Secretary and Dean of the Central Academy of Drama; Xin Baoan is the former Chairman and Party Secretary of State Grid Corporation of China; Li Heyue is the former Deputy Chief Engineer and Level Two Inspector of the Songliao Water Conservancy Commission of the Ministry of Water Resources. Gu Xueming was publicly implicated for the first time, while the other three had previously been officially announced to have fallen from grace.
Zhao Zongqi, born in April 1955 in Bin County, Heilongjiang Province, held the rank of General. Zhao enlisted in the army in 1970 and served in the 14th Group Army for a long time, holding positions such as regimental commander, deputy chief of staff of the division, and also serving as Deputy Chief of Staff and Chief of Staff of the former Tibet Military Region, Deputy Commander of the Chongqing Garrison, among other positions. He became the Commander of the 14th Group Army in December 2004 and the Commander of the 13th Group Army in June 2007. In January 2008, he was transferred to the position of Chief of Staff and Party Committee Member of the Jinan Military Region, and in November 2012, he was promoted to Commander of the Jinan Military Region, becoming the youngest Corps Commander at that time.
After the military reform in 2016, Zhao Zongqi was promoted to Commander of the Western Theater Command; in 2021, he retreated to the second line as Vice Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People’s Congress; in 2023, he was appointed as a Standing Committee member of the National CPPCC and Vice Chairman of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee. Zhao Zongqi is a member of the 18th and 19th Central Committees of the Chinese Communist Party.
He was promoted to Major General in 2001, Lieutenant General in 2009, and General on July 31, 2015.
During his tenure as Commander of the Western Theater Command, Zhao Zongqi was involved in border incidents such as the 2017 Doklam standoff between Chinese and Indian troops and the 2020 Sino-Indian border clash.
Zhao Zongqi attended the 14th meeting of the 14th National CPPCC Standing Committee held from October 31 to November 1, 2025. However, after 2026, he successively missed high-level meetings of the National CPPCC.
At the meeting of the entire army delegation on the afternoon of March 7, 2026, there was only one army CPPCC member, General Yi Xiaoguang, in attendance. Similarly, at the opening of the CPPCC National Committee meeting on March 4, 2026, only General Yi Xiaoguang was present.
During the 15th meeting of the 14th National CPPCC Standing Committee held on March 1-2, 2026, only General Yi Xiaoguang was present. Generals Han Weiguo, Liu Lei, and Gao Jin had their CPPCC membership and Standing Committee positions revoked at this meeting.
Among the members of the 14th National CPPCC Standing Committee, there were originally 15 military representatives, including 9 generals and 6 lieutenant generals. Apart from Yi Xiaoguang and the dismissed Han Weiguo, Liu Lei, and Gao Jin, there were five remaining general CPPCC Standing Committee members, including former Commander of the Armed Police Force Wang Ning, former Commander of the Western Theater Command Zhao Zongqi, former Political Commissar of the Western Theater Command Wu Shezhou, former Political Commissar of the Central Theater Command Zhu Shengling, and former Political Commissar of the National Defense University Zheng He, all of whom had successively missed the meetings of the Standing Committee of the National CPPCC on March 1-2, the opening meeting of the National CPPCC on March 4, and the entire army delegation meeting on March 7. Zhao Zongqi has now been officially implicated.
In the past three years, the Chinese Communist Party has escalated its purge within the military, and in addition to the aforementioned generals having their National CPPCC membership revoked, nearly 20 generals have been publicly removed from their positions as National People’s Congress representatives. These implicated generals were all personally promoted and appointed by the CCP leader Xi Jinping.
According to publicly available information, Zhang Li, a female born in January 1968 in Weifang, Shandong Province, and a master’s degree holder who is a chief physician, resigned as a member of the National CPPCC. In July 1999, she joined the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang (RCCK).
In April 2021, Zhang Li took up a position at the Heilongjiang Provincial Committee of the RCCK as its Secretary-General; in January 2022, she became a member of the Standing Committee of the Heilongjiang Provincial CPPCC; in June 2022, she was appointed as the Deputy Chairman of the 13th Committee of the RCCK in Heilongjiang Province.
Zhang Li had worked in the medical and health system in Harbin for many years, engaging in scientific research as well as administrative management. The reason for her resignation as a member of the National CPPCC is currently unclear.