China Targets Senior Admiral in New Round of Defense Purges
中国在最新一轮国防清洗中瞄准高级海军上将

The spokesman, Sr. Col. Wu Qian, didn’t elaborate on the allegations against Miao when he spoke in a monthly briefing for selected media. Miao couldn’t be reached for comment.
发言人吴谦上校在为部分媒体举行的月度简报中，没有详细说明针对苗某的指控。无法联系到苗某置评。

Miao is one of the highest-ranking military officers to be purged under Xi. The admiral’s downfall added another prominent scalp to a disciplinary sweep that has ensnared more than a dozen senior People’s Liberation Army officials and defense-industry executives over the past year and a half. 
苗某是习近平上任以来被清洗的最高级别军官之一。这位上将的落马，为过去一年半以来已牵涉到十多名高级人民解放军官员和国防工业高管的纪律整肃行动，又增添了一个显赫的“战利品”。

The shake-up has jarred Xi’s efforts to build a modern fighting force and raised questions over the PLA’s combat readiness. Some Western defense analysts say corruption probes could lead to more scrutiny on personnel appointments and procurement, as well as intensified ideological training, potentially slowing Xi’s military modernization efforts.
此次人事震荡冲击了习近平建设现代化战斗力的努力，并引发了对解放军战斗力的质疑。一些西方国防分析人士表示，反腐调查可能导致对人员任命和采购的审查更加严格，以及加强意识形态培训，这可能会减缓习近平的军队现代化努力。

The purges also underscored the depth of corruption and ideological decay in China’s military—affecting even officers closely associated with Xi—and could fuel disquiet within the party elite over the leader’s decision-making and personnel picks, said Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.
新加坡李光耀公共政策学院副教授吴木銮表示，清洗行动也凸显了中国军队腐败和意识形态堕落的严重性——甚至影响到与习近平关系密切的军官——并可能加剧党内精英对领导人的决策和人员选择的不安。

By taking down Miao, Xi is showing his determination to tackle military graft and disloyalty regardless of reputational costs for himself and the PLA, according to Wu.
吴说，通过拿下苗华，习近平展现了他决心解决军队腐败和不忠问题，而不顾及自身和解放军的声誉损失。

“For Xi, control over the military is paramount to safeguarding his authority,” Wu said. “This goes back to Mao’s maxim, that ‘political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.’”
吴说：“对习近平来说，控制军队至关重要，这关系到维护他的权威。”“这可以追溯到毛泽东的格言：‘枪杆子里面出政权’。”

Since last year, Chinese authorities have launched disciplinary proceedings against senior military officials, including a defense minister and his retired predecessor, a former air force chief, senior commanders at the PLA’s strategic-missile force, as well as officers who had worked in procurement. Several executives at major defense contractors have also been abruptly removed as government advisers, stirring speculation over their fate.
自去年以来，中国当局对高级军官展开了纪律处分，其中包括国防部长及其前任、前空军司令、解放军战略导弹部队的高级指挥官，以及曾在采购部门工作的军官。几家主要国防承包商的高管也被突然免去政府顾问职务，引发了对其命运的猜测。

Xi obliquely acknowledged the crackdown in June when he convened the first military political-work conference in a decade to demand renewed efforts to combat corruption and ideological slippage in the PLA. 
习近平在 6 月间间接承认了此次打击行动，当时他召开了十年来首次军事政治工作会议，要求解放军进一步努力打击腐败和意识形态滑坡。

The announcement of the Miao probe came just over a year after Beijing removed another Central Military Commission member, Gen. Li Shangfu, as defense minister in October 2023. Beijing eventually dismissed Li and his predecessor, Wei Fenghe, from the party and the military on corruption charges in June.
苗族探测器的宣布是在北京于 2023 年 10 月撤换另一名中央军事委员会委员李尚福上将担任国防部长一年多后。北京最终以腐败罪名将李尚福及其前任魏凤和开除出党和军队。

Xi has used anticorruption crackdowns to assert control over China’s politically influential PLA and push through modernization efforts aimed at transforming a Soviet-style military into a 21st-century fighting force. These purges helped clear the way for Xi to promote officers whom defense analysts considered to be more professional and politically reliable.
习近平利用反腐运动来巩固对中国政治影响力巨大的解放军的控制，并推动旨在将苏联式军队转变为 21 世纪战斗力的现代化努力。这些清洗为习近平提拔国防分析人士认为更专业、更可靠的军官铺平了道路。

Miao is the seventh member of the Central Military Commission—current and retired—to be purged since Xi took power in late 2012. If removed, Miao’s departure would add a second vacancy to the current commission, which had six members following the removal of Li, the former defense minister.
苗华是自习近平 2012 年末上任以来，第七位被清洗的中央军事委员会现任和退休成员。如果被免职，苗华的离开将使目前的委员会再出现一个空缺，此前国防部长李尚福被免职后，委员会已有六名成员。

As of Thursday evening, the Chinese Defense Ministry’s website continued to list Miao as a member of the Central Military Commission, or CMC.
截至周四晚上，中国国防部网站继续将苗列为中央军事委员会（CMC）成员。

In 2017, two CMC members disappeared for months before Beijing disclosed corruption probes against them. One of them, Gen. Zhang Yang, was Miao’s immediate predecessor as director of the political-work department and died by suicide during the probe. The other general was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2019.
2017 年，两名中央军委委员在北京披露对其进行腐败调查之前消失了数月。北京披露对其进行腐败调查。其中一人，张阳上将，是苗华担任政治工作部主任的直接前任，并在调查期间自杀身亡。另一位将军于 2019 年被判处无期徒刑。

Born in November 1955 in the southern province of Fujian, Miao joined the military in 1969 and spent most of his career in the PLA Ground Force, according to official biographies. He served with PLA units based in Fujian, the region closest to the island democracy of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory. Miao’s years in Fujian overlapped with Xi’s time in that province as a local and regional administrator.
苗出生于 1955 年 11 月，福建南部省份。官方传记显示，他于 1969 年参军，大部分军旅生涯都在陆军服役。他曾在驻扎在福建的解放军部队服役，该地区最靠近北京声称拥有主权的台湾岛。苗在福建的服役时间与习近平在该省担任地方和区域行政官员的时间重叠。

Miao made an unusual switch between armed services in 2014, when he was appointed the PLA Navy’s political commissar. In 2017, he became director of the CMC’s political-work department and joined the CMC as one of four ordinary members, under Xi and two vice chairmen.
2014 年，苗华在军队系统内进行了不同寻常的调动，被任命为海军政委。2017 年，他成为中央军委政治工作部主任，并成为中央军委四名普通委员之一，在习近平及两位副主席之下。

Miao’s last public appearance came in October, when he traveled to China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang as deputy leader of a central-government delegation sent there to commemorate the 70th anniversary of a quasi-military organization tasked with developing the area. 
苗最后一次公开露面是在 10 月份，当时他作为中央政府代表团的副团长前往中国西北地区新疆，纪念一个负责开发该地区准军事组织成立 70 周年。

During the celebrations, Miao read out a congratulatory message on behalf of the CMC, according to state media.
据官方媒体报道，在庆祝活动期间，苗代表中国共产党中央委员会宣读了贺词。

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