China has replaced two "missing" generals in command of the country's nuclear missile forces, as President Xi Jinping carries out his first major military shake-up in years.

General Li Yuchao, commander of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force, and his deputy General Liu Guangbin have vanished from public sight for several months, Financial Times reported.

Citing unnamed intelligence sources, the Telegraph claimed that the two generals are being investigated for allegedly leaking military secrets.

Their disappearance also comes during an anti-corruption drive in the armed forces and a renewed push to supposedly ensure the PLA's complete loyalty to the party and Xi himself.

New leaders

On Monday, state media Global Times announced that Wang Houbin, the deputy commander of the PLA Navy since 2020, will now be the head of the party's Rocket Force.

Xu Xingsheng, an air force officer and party central committee member, was recognised as the Rocket Force's new political commissar.

Both officers have also been promoted to the rank of general, the highest rank for officers in active service in China, as they took on their new posting in the Rocket Force.

The Rocket Force is a significant arm of the PLA as it is responsible for the country's land-based nuclear deterrent, which Beijing is swiftly expanding, and for conventional ballistic missiles.

Largest purge at top levels of military in a decade

The leadership change marks the country's largest purge at the top levels of the military in a decade since Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong, former deputy chairs of the Central Military Commission, who were expelled more than a decade ago and were eventually prosecuted for corruption charges in 2014.

FT dubbed the case as a part of a broad purge to reassert PLA's control over the country's armed forces, which was weakening when Xi came to power in 2012.

Chinese officials often vanished from view due to corruption investigations or for other reasons. China's former foreign minister, Qin Gang, was absent for one month before he was replaced by his predecessor, Wang Yi, last week.

Some analysts said Xi's decision to promote two officers from other parts of the PLA as the Rocket Force leaders indicate a desire to sever networks of loyalty or corruption that had formed under the previous leaders.

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Top image via Kevin Frayer/Getty Images.