China's Top Military Generals Fall In Xi's Crackdown

China’s most powerful general, Zhang Youxia, is under investigation. Along with another senior officer, Liu Zhenli. This is one of the most serious shake-ups in the Chinese military in years. Zhang was serving as vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, the highest-ranking general in China after President Xi Jinping, the commander-in-chief.

Since October 2022, Zhang had been the most senior figure in the People’s Liberation Army. He was also the highest-ranking military officer in the Communist Party of China’s Politburo, the party’s powerful decision-making body, placing him at the centre of both China’s military command and political leadership. Liu Zhenli, meanwhile, had served as commander of the PLA’s Ground Force and later headed the CMC’s Joint Staff Department. According to China’s defence ministry, both are under investigation for serious violations of discipline and law. Although they have not been formally expelled from the party, such probes have historically led to dismissal in China.

An editorial in the PLA’s official newspaper accused the two generals of betraying the Communist Party’s trust and undermining its control over the military. While details of the allegations remain unclear, they reportedly include corruption within the PLA Rocket Force, leaking information about China’s nuclear weapons programme to the United States, and accepting bribes for official acts, including the promotion of an officer to defence minister. Political disloyalty, despite Zhang being a long-trusted ally of Xi, is also seen as a possible factor alongside corruption. He had earlier been allowed to remain on the CMC beyond the usual retirement age. Coming from a revolutionary family and having rare combat experience from China’s 1979 war with Vietnam, Zhang also shared close historical ties with Xi’s family. These credentials, along with the fact that Xi personally selected him for the CMC, may have suggested a degree of political protection.

But Xi appears determined to prove otherwise. For him, there is nothing more important than strengthening party discipline and ensuring that no individual stands above the party. Xi has repeatedly warned that corruption led to the collapse of the Soviet Union and has framed his anti-corruption campaign as a major struggle vital to China’s future.

The PLA is not an independent institution but an arm of the Communist Party, which Xi controls as party leader, president, and chairman of the CMC. With Zhang and Liu sidelined, the military is likely weakened, making an attack on Taiwan less probable in the short term, as leadership attention is now concentrated on Xi and the CMC’s anti-corruption chief, Zhang Shengmin.

China remains a political black box for the outside world. However, reports indicate that around two dozen senior military figures have been dismissed or investigated since 2022, particularly over corruption in procurement and high-technology sectors of the armed forces. Most experts agree that corruption is a feature of the system rather than a flaw. Zhang and Liu are expected to be questioned over the charges against them, a process that could bring more names into the spotlight.