Sawt Falasteen - Beijing votes out three generals from political advisory body

Beijing has escalated a sweeping purge of military officials in the days before thousands of delegates from across the country meet for the annual Two Sessions political conclave that starts on Wednesday.

Simultaneous gatherings of China's top legislature, the National People's Congress (NPC), and a separate political advisory body, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), will be held over the course of a week.

The CPPCC voted at a Standing Committee meeting to remove retired military generals Han Weiguo, Liu Lei and Gao Jin, Xinhua reported on Monday.

While they can theoretically appeal the ruling, such decisions are usually final.

The CPPCC also voted to remove two other members. No reason was specified.

Ten other members were officially ousted following an earlier vote to remove them.

The vote comes after the NPC removed 19 of its delegates on Thursday, including nine military officials.

Last week's removals also included the minister of emergency management, Wang Xiangxi, and the head of the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) military court, Liu Shaoyun.

President Xi Jinping has launched a massive drive to root out graft at all levels of the Chinese Communist Party and state since coming to power more than a decade ago, with the campaign mainly targeting the military in recent years.

Xi hailed the military's "fight against corruption" last month in a rare acknowledgement of graft, weeks after Beijing launched a probe of its top general.

Beijing's defence ministry said in January it was investigating Zhang Youxia, a vice chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC), as well as Liu Zhenli, chief of staff of the CMC's joint staff department, which oversees combat planning.

"The detention of Zhang Youxia was the capstone arrest of the greatest series of purges in the history of China's PLA," experts from the Center for Strategic and International Studies wrote in a note.

Only one general remains on the CMC, which usually has six officers of that rank.

In the near term, given the significant vacancies in the top ranks of China's PLA, "it would be incredibly difficult for China to launch large military campaigns against Taiwan", the experts said.

China's Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan, but Beijing claims the island of 23 million people is part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to annex it.

China's defence budget "outpaces the wider" Asia-Pacific region, accounting for some 44 percent of regional military spending, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said in its annual report.

O.Farraj--SF-PST