China has suspended a top military official and placed him under investigation for corruption, the defense ministry said, as leader Xi Jinping broadens a sweeping purge in the upper ranks of the world’s largest military.

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.

The confirmation of an investigation into Miao Hua and his suspension marks the latest chapter in a growing corruption scandal engulfing China's military elites.