China announced on Friday that one its top military commanders had been dismissed and would be prosecuted on charges of corruption and abuse of power, confirming that the Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s extraordinary succession of purges in the People’s Liberation Army had reached its topmost ranks.

中国于上周五宣布，一名高级军事指挥官已被免职，并将因腐败和滥用职权受到起诉。这一消息证实，中国领导人习近平对人民解放军的一系列大规模反腐清洗行动已经延伸到了最高层级。

The commander, Gen. He Weidong, a member of the 24-member Politburo, the Chinese Communist Party’s second-highest tier, was also a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, the party body that controls the armed forces. That put him third in China’s military hierarchy, after Mr. Xi and another commander.

这名指挥官何卫东上将是中共中央政治局24名成员之一，政治局是中国共产党的第二层级领导机构。他同时还担任中央军委副主席——该机构是中共掌控军队的最高权力机关。他在中国军队的权力序列中仅次于习近平主席和另一位高级将领，位居第三。

The Ministry of National Defense said General He and eight other senior military officers had been expelled from the military and from the party. Some were already known or rumored to be under investigation, and General He stopped making public appearances earlier this year, an indication that he was probably in trouble.

中国国防部表示，何卫东上将及另外八名高级军官已被开除军籍和党籍。其中一些人此前已被证实或传闻正在接受调查，而何卫东自今年早些时候起便不再公开露面，这也被视为他可能出事的迹象。

The ministry gave no details about the misdeeds that General He and the other commanders were accused of. But it said the charges involved corruption.

国防部没有透露何卫东及其他几名将领所涉不当行为的具体细节，但表示指控与腐败有关。

The punishments “underscore the clear stance that there is absolutely no place for corrupt elements to hide within the military,” Senior Col. Zhang Xiaogang, a spokesman for the ministry, said in a statement on its website.

国防部发言人张晓刚大校在官网声明中表示，这些惩处“彰显了军中绝不允许有腐败分子藏身之地的鲜明态度”。

Some experts have said that the recent graft investigations and the ensuing disruption in the military command may have undermined Mr. Xi’s confidence that the People’s Liberation Army was ready for major combat. But Colonel Zhang offered a positive view, saying the punishments would “further strengthen the purity” of the military and give it “greater cohesion and combat effectiveness.”

一些专家表示，近期的反腐调查以及由此引发的军队指挥体系动荡可能削弱了习近平对解放军具备打硬仗能力的信心。但张晓刚大校持乐观态度，称这些惩处将促进“人民军队更加纯洁巩固”，并使军队“更具强大凝聚力战斗力”。

The other expelled commanders include Adm. Miao Hua, who oversaw political work in the military and was placed under investigation last year. Another was Gen. Lin Xiangyang, who was in charge of the Eastern Theater Command. That regional command would be central to any war over Taiwan, the democratically governed island that has resisted Beijing’s claims of sovereignty over it.

其他被开除的将领还包括苗华上将，他曾负责军队的政治工作，于去年被立案调查；另一名是林向阳上将，他曾担任东部战区司令员。一旦爆发台海战争，该战区将成为核心区域。台湾是一个民主治理的岛屿，一直抵制北京对其主权的主张。

In a recent assessment of the purges in China’s military, Mark Parker Young, a former U.S. deputy national intelligence officer for East Asia, wrote that Mr. Xi’s “willingness to sacrifice institutional cohesion and capacity in the P.L.A. suggests he still does not anticipate fighting a war in the near-term.”

在最近一份关于中国军队清洗行动的评估中，美国前国家情报委员会东亚事务副主任马克·帕克·杨写道，习近平“愿意牺牲解放军的制度凝聚力和能力，这表明他仍不预期短期内爆发战争”。

The dismissals were announced days ahead of a Communist Party leadership meeting. That four-day gathering of the Central Committee, which starts on Monday, will give Mr. Xi an opportunity to promote new commanders.

这些高层免职的消息是在中共一次重要领导层会议召开前几天宣布的。该中央委员会会议为期四天，将于周一开始，习近平将有机会提拔新的军队指挥官。

Soon after coming to power in 2012, Mr. Xi launched a campaign against corruption and disloyalty in the military and elsewhere. Former commanders were imprisoned on charges of taking bribes, selling promotions in rank and other crimes. The anticorruption investigations in the P.L.A. appeared to wane for a few years, but they regained momentum after Mr. Xi began a third term in power in 2022, indicating that he believes there are still problems there.

在2012年上台后不久，习近平便在军队和其他领域发起了一场反腐与清除不忠分子的运动。多名前高级将领因受贿、买官卖官及其他犯罪行为而被判入狱。解放军内部的反腐调查一度平息了数年，但在习近平于2022年开启第三个任期后再次加大力度，这表明他认为军队内部依然存在问题。

General He, 68, is the most senior commander to fall in the renewed campaign. His rise reflected Mr. Xi’s patronage, and his downfall could be an embarrassment to the top leader.

68岁的何卫东是这轮反腐风暴中落马的最高级别指挥官。他的仕途曾体现出习近平的支持，如今的倒台也可能让这位最高领导人颜面受损。

Mr. Xi catapulted him into the Politburo in 2022, when he also became one of two vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission. Previously, General He had served in Fujian, the Chinese province facing Taiwan, and as commander of the Eastern Theater Command.

习近平于2022年将何卫东提拔进中共中央政治局，并任命他为中央军委两名副主席之一。在此之前，何卫东曾在与台湾隔海相望的福建省任职，并担任过东部战区司令员。

Late last year, the authorities announced that Admiral Miao had been suspended, on suspicion of “serious violations of discipline.” He had also been on the Central Military Commission, though at a lower rank than General He. Also last year, Communist Party leaders formally accused two former defense ministers — Gen. Li Shangfu and Gen. Wei Fenghe — of corruption, including taking huge bribes and trading in military promotions.

去年年底，当局宣布苗华上将因涉嫌“严重违纪”被停职调查。他同样是中央军委成员，但级别低于何卫东。同年，中共领导层还正式指控两名前国防部长——李尚福上将和魏凤和上将——犯有腐败罪行，包括收受巨额贿赂以及买卖军衔。

In 2023, Mr. Xi abruptly removed two commanders of the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force, which controls China’s nuclear missiles. A dozen or more other military officers and senior managers of defense industry companies have also been purged, apparently a result of investigations by anticorruption officials.

2023年，习近平突然撤换了两名掌管中国核导弹部队火箭军的高级将领。此外，还有十多名军方高官以及军工企业高层管理人员被清洗，显然是反腐调查行动的结果。

Despite the upheavals in its highest ranks, the Chinese military has continued to rapidly expand and upgrade its weaponry. The party-run legislature this year approved an increase of 7.2 percent in the defense budget, bringing official military spending this year to about $246 billion. Many experts say China’s real military expenditures are markedly higher.

尽管最高层接连出现动荡，中国军队仍在迅速扩充和升级武器装备。今年，中共主导的全国人大批准了国防预算增长7.2%，使今年的官方军费总额达到约2460亿美元。许多专家认为，中国的实际军费开支远高于这一数字。

China’s unbroken decades of rising military spending have paid for more and increasingly sophisticated missiles, warships and submarines. American intelligence officials have said that Mr. Xi has ordered that the P.L.A. must be able to seize Taiwan by 2027.

中国数十年来持续增长的军费投入推动了导弹、军舰和潜艇的数量与技术水平不断提升。美国情报官员表示，习近平已下令要求解放军在2027年前具备攻占台湾的能力。

“In most systems, repeated purges of senior military leaders would trigger crisis or resistance,” said Craig Singleton, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who studies China’s military. “Xi’s ability to churn and burn through top generals without sparking significant institutional pushback reveals the strength, not fragility, of his rule.”

“在大多数体制中，反复清洗高级将领往往会引发危机或抵抗，”研究中国军队的捍卫民主基金会高级研究员克雷格·辛格尔顿表示，“而习近平能够频繁更换甚至清除顶级将领，而不引发显著的体制反弹，这恰恰显示出他的统治之强势，而非脆弱。”