Two senior Communist Party officials absent at top Chinese political event

Two senior Communist Party officials absent at top Chinese political event

Zhang Youxia, China’s highest-ranking general, was not among the party’s 23-member politburo at the opening of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

BEIJING: Two senior Chinese officials were absent on Wednesday (Mar 4) from the ranks of China’s highest tier of power at the opening of the country’s two largest political events of the year, with top Communist Party cadres ensnared in a wave of purges.

Zhang Youxia, China’s highest-ranking general, was not among the party’s 23-member politburo at the opening of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), according to a Reuters witness. Neither was Ma Xingrui, formerly the party’s top official in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang.

Zhang, also a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), was put under investigation in January. Ma has not been in the public eye since late October.

China’s defence ministry announced in January that Zhang had been placed under investigation over suspected “serious violations of discipline and law” - a common euphemism for corruption.

The 75-year-old war veteran had been one of President Xi Jinping’s longest-serving allies - overseeing top military operations, training and weapons procurement within the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

His ties with Xi were said to have run deep, with both their fathers being revolutionary comrades.

Zhang was last seen in public at a Dec 22 CMC ceremony, where he conferred the rank of general upon two senior officers. Xi, who is also CMC chairman, was present at the event.

Reuters reported in July that Ma had been removed from his post as Xinjiang Party Secretary and would “be appointed to another position”, according to an official announcement.

According to a Bloomberg report, Ma allegedly said that he “firmly supported” the decision to remove him.

There has been no public announcement since about a new position.

China’s top political advisory body convened in Beijing on Wednesday. CPPCC chief Wang Huning addressed the opening session, saying 2025 was a year of “great significance” for China’s path to modernisation.

“Despite downward pressure, China’s economy continued to move forward, developing in a new and better direction,” Wang said in his speech.

He added that achievements over the past year were “fundamentally attributable to the strong leadership” of the CPPCC and Xi and also pointed out shortcomings in their work, which would be “conscientiously addressed and improved” in future.