The suspended officer, Admiral Miao Hua, served on the ruling Central Military Commission, China's highest-level military command body, and was stationed in the coastal province of Fujian when President Xi Jinping worked there as a local official, according to his official biography.

Miao is director of the Central Military Commission’s political work department, which oversees party ideology and personnel changes.

A member of China's powerful Central Military Commission has been suspended and put under investigation, the country's Defense Ministry said Thursday. Miao Hua was director of the political work department on the commission,