The official biography of Chen Guoqiang, a senior Chinese military discipline official once considered a key figure in the People’s Liberation Army’s anti-corruption apparatus, has been removed from the website of China’s top anti-graft body, according to checks conducted on March 15.
Chen, an air force lieutenant general who previously served as deputy secretary of the Central Military Commission Discipline Inspection Commission, the military’s internal anti-corruption watchdog, had long been regarded as the second-ranking official within the PLA’s discipline system.
His biography’s disappearance from the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and National Supervisory Commission has fueled speculation about his current status.
Deletion from CCDI website
A post on the social media platform X by the account “Chinese Personnel Watch” said the CCDI updated its “Leadership” page on March 14. The updated page shows that Chen no longer serves as a member of the CCDI Standing Committee, though he still appears to retain the title of CCDI member.
Following his removal from the standing committee list, Chen’s biography page was also deleted from the website.
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A search for “Chen Guoqiang CCDI National Supervisory Commission” leads to a CCDI web address that now displays a message stating that the content no longer exists or has been removed.
The situation contrasts with another official who also stepped down from the CCDI Standing Committee, Wang Xiaoping. Her biography remains online and still identifies her as vice minister of the Chinese Communist Party’s Organization Department.
In previous cases involving Chinese officials, the removal of biographies or personal information from official Party or government websites has sometimes preceded public announcements of disciplinary investigations, according to analysts who track Chinese elite politics.
Earlier signs of trouble
Chen’s absence from a major Party meeting earlier this year had already drawn attention from observers.
In January 2026, Chen did not attend the fifth plenary session of the 20th CCDI, according to attendance lists compiled by “Chinese Personnel Watch.” He was among ten military discipline officials who did not appear at the meeting.
Even after leaving the CCDI Standing Committee, Chen remained a CCDI member and would normally have attended the session.
By comparison, Wang Xiaoping, who stepped down from the CCDI Standing Committee after becoming China’s minister of human resources and social security, still attended the meeting in her capacity as a CCDI member.
Attendance records from the same source indicate that 22 senior military officers participated in the fourth plenary session of the 20th CCDI in January 2025, but only 12 attended the fifth plenary session in January 2026. Several generals were listed as absent, including Chen and multiple political commissars and discipline officials across the PLA.
Career trajectory
Chen, born in April 1963 in Hebei province, spent most of his career in the political system of the PLA Air Force.
He served as political commissar of the 44th Division of the former 15th Airborne Corps beginning in 2009. In 2014 he became director of the corps’ political department.
Chen was promoted to the rank of major general in 2016. After a restructuring of China’s airborne forces in 2017, he continued as director of the political work department of the newly formed PLA Airborne Corps.
In 2018 he moved to the Strategic Support Force, serving as director of the political work department of its aerospace systems department.
Chen was promoted to lieutenant general in March 2021 and became deputy political commissar of the Central Theater Command as well as director of its political work department. Later that year he was transferred to the Central Military Commission Discipline Inspection Commission as its full-time deputy secretary.
That role placed him at the center of the PLA’s internal anti-corruption investigations.
In 2024, Chen was reassigned as political commissar of the National University of Defense Technology, a position carrying vice-theater-level rank within China’s military hierarchy.
Links to military anti-corruption campaigns
Commentators have described Chen as a key executor of the Chinese military’s recent anti-corruption investigations.
Independent commentator Xiang Yang wrote on X in September 2024 that Chen had played a central role in investigations involving former defense ministers Li Shangfu and Wei Fenghe, as well as former Rocket Force commander Li Yuchao.
According to that analysis, Chen served as a leading investigator within the military discipline system.
Analysts have also linked Chen’s rise to Admiral Miao Hua, who previously served as director of the Central Military Commission Political Work Department.
Miao, who oversaw personnel selection for senior military positions, was widely viewed as a key ally of China’s leader Xi Jinping within the armed forces.
Chen’s career advancement coincided with Miao’s tenure overseeing military personnel decisions. In November 2024, China’s Ministry of National Defense announced that Miao had been removed from office and placed under investigation.
Reports later indicated that Chen also lost his post as political commissar of the National University of Defense Technology by late 2025, with another official reported to have taken the position.
Chen’s absence from the CCDI plenary session in January 2026, followed by the removal of his biography from the CCDI website, has prompted renewed scrutiny of his status among observers of Chinese elite politics.
By Li Deyan
