Recently, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with military officials stationed in Tibet in Lhasa, triggering speculation due to the absence of Tibet Military Region Commander Wang Kai and rare absence of Central Military Commission Office Director Fang Yongxiang.
President Xi met with colonel-ranked and higher military officials stationed in Lhasa, Tibet on August 20. According to CCTV news footage, Wang Kai, the Commander of the Tibet Military Region, did not attend the group photo session. Apart from Military Commission member and Discipline Inspection Commission Secretary Zhang Shenmin, only Deputy Director of the Central Military Commission Office Major General Qiu Yang accompanied Xi, with no sign of Lieutenant General Fang Yongxiang, the Director of the Commission’s office.
Fang Yongxiang, a 59-year-old native of Tong’an, Fujian, and a former Deputy Minister of Veterans Affairs, Assistant Director of the Central Military Commission Political Work Department, and Deputy Political Commissar of the Southern Theater Command, was appointed as the Director of the Central Military Commission Office early last year. He is also an alternate member of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
The Director of the Central Military Commission Office is known as the chief commander of the military and the main confidant of the Chairman of the Military Commission, accompanying the Chairman on official trips. Fang Yongxiang was seen with Xi Jinping in Kunming on March 20, meeting with representatives of troops stationed in Kunming. However, Xi’s subsequent visits to Henan in May and Shanxi in July did not include visits to military camps, leading to Fang Yongxiang not being present.
In March and April, there were reports on certain platforms that Fang Yongxiang had been removed from his position. Anti-Communist internet personality Yin Ke claimed on April 3 that Fang Yongxiang had been reassigned as the Deputy Political Commissar of the Military Science Academy.
Independent commentator Du Zheng wrote in an article for Taiwan’s “Up Media” on August 23 that if Fang Yongxiang was reassigned to the Military Science Academy, it would be considered a demotion.
Fang Yongxiang, along with the disgraced former Director of the Central Military Commission Political Work Department Miao Hua, and Vice Chairman of the Military Commission He Weidong, rumored to have been investigated since March, all come from the former 31st Group Army stationed in Fujian, which had close ties with Xi Jinping in his early career. Recently, the CCP’s military has been purging political workers, with the Central Military Commission issuing a notice last month calling for the “comprehensive purification of toxic influences,” believed to be targeting Miao Hua’s “toxic influence.”
During the Beidaihe Conference, on August 11, Yang Youbin, Assistant to the Director of the Central Military Commission Political Work Department and Miao Hua’s assistant, was removed from his concurrent position as Deputy Minister of Veterans Affairs. According to Communist Party rules, Yang Youbin’s assistant position in the Political Work Department may also be at risk.
Chinese legal scholar Yuan Hongbing, now in exile in Australia, revealed to “Epoch Times” that according to insider sources, Miao Hua lost control on the first day of his detention, staying up all night to confess and implicating over 80 military personnel. With the cooperation of three secretaries, he went on to implicate as many as 1,300 military personnel, including nearly a hundred senior generals and lieutenant generals, many of whom were promoted by Xi Jinping personally or trusted aides.
Current affairs commentator Li Lin told “Epoch Times” that it is not ruled out that Fang Yongxiang may have fallen out of favor due to his involvement in the Miao Hua case, although it is uncertain if he is under investigation.