Former Chinese defence minister Li Shangfu has been expelled from the ruling Communist Party (CCP), months after being removed from office in an abrupt leadership shake-up.
State-run Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday Mr Li was removed over allegations of corruption and bribery, which he was undergoing investigation for.
The general was ousted from his positions as defence minister and state councillor last October, with no explanation being provided for the dismissal.
Prior to that, he had gone missing from public view for about two months amidst a clampdown on corruption by the Xi Jinping government.
Xinhua said CCP leadership decided on Mr Li's expulsion due to his "serious violation of Party discipline and the law", determined by China's Central Military Commission (CMC) through a probe running since August.
"According to the investigation results, Mr Li seriously violated political and organisational discipline," the news agency reported.
"He sought improper benefits in personnel arrangements for himself and others, took advantage of his posts to seek benefits for others, and accepted a huge amount of money and valuables in return. He is suspected of the crime of taking bribes.
"He was also found to have offered money to others to seek undue benefits, constituting the suspected crime of offering bribes."
It added that Mr Li's apparent contraventions also went against the party's "original aspiration and principles" and hindered growth of the nation's powerful military.
Scant clarity on alleged crimes
Such charges have been levelled in past by numerous military leaders under the rule of Mr Xi, who also heads the armed forces as chairman of the CMC and has made a crackdown on corruption a hallmark of his rule since taking power more than a decade ago.
Another former defence minister, Wei Fengshe, was also expelled by the party's Political Bureau on Thursday for the same reasons.
Both leaders were previously members of the CMC. The commission had been behind the decree to remove them from military posts last year.
Mr Li's "suspected criminal case" is now set to be transferred to the procuratorial organs of the Chinese military, which could likely sentence him to life in prison.
Details on what the graft allegations against him relate to are yet to be made clear.
In its statement, the ministry only said alleged crimes were "exceptionally pernicious" and that they posed "an enormous danger".
Mr Li spent most of his career as a specialist in the missile and procurement branches, and was under travel and financial sanctions from the United States when he dropped from view last September.
That roughly coincided with the sudden disappearance of then-foreign minister Qin Gang and several leading officers in the rocket corps amid unproven allegations of misconduct.
Mr Li was replaced in December by Admiral Dong Jun.
China has the world's largest standing military, its biggest navy, and a rapidly expanding nuclear arsenal, but it has not been tested in warfare in half a century.
It has a highly politicised and bureaucratic structure, led by Xi as head of the party's Central Military Commission, with the defence minister playing a subsidiary role who has few contacts with counterparts from foreign nations.
ABC/AP
