He Weidong, who was the vice-chair of the powerful Central Military Commission, is the most senior official targeted so far in an ongoing anti-graft drive against Chinese military leaders.

The nine officials are suspected of serious crimes involving exceptionally large sums of money, defense ministry spokesman Zhang Xiaogang said in a statement posted online.

Their cases have been investigated and referred to military prosecutors for review and prosecution, Mr Zhang said.

Government anti-corruption drives have become a signature policy of Chinese leader Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012. Thousands of officials have been purged, including high-profile political rivals.

Mr He, who was elevated to the Central Military Commission in 2022, has not been seen in public for months – often the first indication an official is in trouble. The announcement on Friday was the first confirmation of what had happened to him.

He also was one of the 24 members of the Politburo, the second-highest Communist Party body after the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee.

He was formerly head of the Eastern Theatre Command, which holds primary responsibility for operations against Taiwan should hostilities break out.

The eight other dismissed officials include the director of the Central Military Commission's political work department, Miao Hua, who was put under investigation last November.

The commission, chaired by Mr Xi, is the top military body in China.

“The offenses were of grave nature, with extremely harmful consequences,” Mr Zhang said. He did not provide details of the alleged crimes.

My assessment is that this is a purge triggered by a power struggle between the CMC’s first-ranked vice chairman, Zhang Youxia, and the ambitious up-from-the-troops ordinary soldiers, He Weidong and Miao Hua.

Zhang represents the old, princeling elite of the PLA. His father was a Red Army hero of the 1920s and 1930s and was equal in stature to Xi Jinping’s father. Zhang Youxia built his military career on being a hero during the 1979 border war against the Vietnamese. My friends who have met him tell me he is a tough old soldier in the Maoist tradition: profane, entitled, and intolerant.