Xi’s Surprise Shake-Up Exposes Problems at Top of China’s Nuclear Force

The Chinese leader’s replacement of two commanders has fanned speculation about corruption or failings in the force that manages China’s nuclear missiles.

In the years since China’s leader, Xi Jinping, transformed the People’s Liberation Army, one of his crowning creations has been the Rocket Force, the custodian of China’s expanding nuclear arsenal. The force, with its array of missiles and launch silos, embodied Mr. Xi’s ambitions to elevate his country as a respected, and feared, great power ready to counter American supremacy in the region.

But this week, Mr. Xi abruptly replaced the Rocket Force’s two top commanders with outsiders with no experience in the nuclear force. It was the highest-level upheaval in China’s military in over five years. The move comes as China is also dealing with questions about the fate of its former foreign minister, Qin Gang, who disappeared from public view in late June before being replaced without explanation.

The shake-up in the rocket force indicated that the force’s expansion has been accompanied by serious problems in its top ranks. Suspicions of corruption or disloyalty to Mr. Xi may slow or complicate China’s upgrade of its conventional and nuclear missiles, several experts said.

“I imagine this could disrupt the modernization,” said David C. Logan, an assistant professor at the Fletcher School of Tufts University who studies the Rocket Force and China’s nuclear weapons modernization. “Instability at senior levels is never good when you’re carrying out large-scale changes, and the shifts taking place in the Rocket Force are significant. Plus, its senior leadership now appears to have little relevant experience with the missile forces.”

The reasons for the removal of the former commanders of the Chinese rocket force — General Li Yuchao and his deputy, General Liu Guangbin — are unclear. The force is extremely tight-lipped, even for the opaque Chinese military. The two men have not appeared in official media reports for months.

Their absence has set off a flurry of speculation, including rumors that one or both were recruited as spies, and allegations of corruption which were reported last week in the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong newspaper. Several analysts said that graft involving the force’s big spending on missiles, silos and technology seemed the most plausible cause for the downfall of the two leaders.

“There is a lotof money going to the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force right now as they built up their infrastructure, particularly their nuclear silos,” said Matt Bruzzese, an analyst at BluePath Labs, a consultancy firm in Washington, who wrote a recent study of the Rocket Force. “Historically, contracting has been one major avenue for P.L.A. corruption.”

Aside from the disappearance of General Li and General Liu, word of the death of Wu Guohua, a former deputy commander in the force, also fanned the speculation about corruption investigations in the force. A Chinese news website issued a report that Mr. Wu had died of cancer, but the report was taken down, inspiring more uncorroborated speculation that his death was suspicious. And last week, too, the procurement office for the Chinese military issued a call for information about possible corruption in contracts dating back to 2017.

Whatever the cause, Mr. Xi’s move to replace the force’s leadership suggests that he is anxious to reinforce his dominance over it.