Two senior Communist Party officials absent at top Chinese political event

BEIJING, March 4 (Reuters) - Two senior Chinese officials were absent on Wednesday from the ranks of China's highest tier of power at the opening of the country's two largest political events of the year, with top Communist Party cadres ensnared in a wave of purges.

Zhang Youxia, China's highest-ranking general, was not among the party's 23-member politburo at the opening of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), according to a Reuters witness. Neither was Ma Xingrui, formerly the party's top official in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang.

Zhang, also a vice chairman on the Central Military Commission (CMC), was put under investigation in January. Ma has not been in the public eye since late October.