China investigates top general Zhang Youxia in rare purge of senior military leaders

China has confirmed opening investigations into two of the country’s most senior military leaders in the latest of a series of purges under Xi Jinping framed as tackling corruption within the People’s Liberation Army.

A notice published Friday by state-run Xinhua News Agency said the two men — Zhang Youxia, the country’s most senior uniformed military officer, and Liu Zhenli, a top operational commander — have been placed under investigation following deliberation by the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee.

The Xinhua News Agency report follows widespread speculation by China watchers amid the absence of Zhang from the opening ceremony of the Central Party School in Beijing earlier this week.

Both Zhang, the first-ranked vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) and a member of the elite Politburo, and Liu, the chief of staff at the CMC’s Joint Staff Department, were said to be suspected of “serious violations of discipline and law,” according to Xinhua. 

The suspicion described in official Communist Party disciplinary actions is not the same as a prosecutor’s suspicion in Western countries, describing a legal threshold for a court case, but instead signals that an internal political decision has been made.

This phrase has been used in almost every purge of senior leaders during Xi’s chairmanship of the Communist Party, including with two other former CMC vice chairmen. The outcome is almost always expulsion from the Communist Party and loss of rank, with prosecutions sometimes following years later.

Until his ouster, Zhang, 75, had effectively been subordinate only to Xi as the Communist Party’s general secretary — as indicated by official rosters and seating at major events.

Liu, 61, was chief of staff at the Central Military Commission’s Joint Staff Department, overseeing combat planning, command support, readiness and joint training across China’s theatre commands.

Both men faced significant responsibilities for the intense operational tempo that Xi has demanded around Taiwan, which he has pledged to see reunified with the mainland under Communist Party rule.

Several U.S. officials have said Xi wants the capability to invade Taiwan to be established by 2027, the centenary of the PLA’s founding, although they have cautioned that capability does not equal intent.

The nature of the suspicions against the men has not been publicly disclosed, and investigations and prosecutions are conducted by the Communist Party’s disciplinary bodies rather than independent courts.

Western analysts generally assess that corruption was endemic across the PLA when Xi took power in 2012, but note that the timing of high-profile purges indicates political calculations rather than the typical tempo of law enforcement operations.

Last October, Xi purged the PLA’s number-two general alongside eight other senior commanders in what the defence ministry described as “major job-related crimes involving especially large sums of money,” as reported by the Financial Times newspaper.