The Chinese regime has launched an investigation into the military’s most senior general, an unexpected development that raises fresh questions about the country’s armed forces’ readiness and the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) ability to mount an invasion of Taiwan.
The Ministry of National Defense announced an investigation into Gen. Zhang Youxia, the first deputy chairman of the Central Military Commission and a member of the elite Politburo, in a two-line statement on Jan. 24.
No further details were provided, except for the accusation of “serious discipline and law violations.” This party jargon is a common euphemism for corruption, but it can also refer to disloyalty or other misconduct.
Outside observers say the latest probe of Zhang and his associate Gen. Liu Zhenli, whose investigation was also made public by the defense ministry on Jan. 24, could have far-reaching consequences for the military and the CCP.
Under Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the CCP’s anti-corruption campaign is charging full steam ahead, and dozens of senior commanders and defense leaders have been ousted in recent years, raising doubts about Beijing’s investments in modernizing its military amid competition with the United States.
Unlike military chiefs previously targeted, Zhang and Liu are among the few active-duty generals in the country with battlefield experience. Zhang served in China’s 1979 war with Vietnam, while Liu took part in border skirmishes with Vietnam in the 1980s.
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“The impact will be enormous,” James Wen, an emeritus professor of economics and international studies at Trinity College in Connecticut, told The Epoch Times. “It will likely deal another major blow to Xi Jinping’s ability to command the military and to the Chinese Communist Party’s rule over the nation.”
With Beijing’s latest announcement, five of the six men appointed to the Central Military Commission—which exercises the CCP’s control over the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)—at the start of the current five-year term in late 2022 have been purged.
Currently, the only surviving member of this powerful commission under Xi is Gen. Zhang Shengmin, the military’s chief anti-corruption enforcer, who was promoted to vice chair in October 2025, following the ousting of his predecessor, He Weidong.
A close confidant of Xi, He was expelled from the party and the military along with eight generals in the largest single-day purge of senior commanders in decades. The defense ministry’s spokesperson cited severe violations of party discipline and serious duty-related crimes “involving an extremely large amount of money” as the reason for their dismissal at the time.
According to military insiders who previously spoke to The Epoch Times, the downfall of Xi’s lieutenants was fueled by his power struggle with factions led by party elites, including Zhang Youxia.
For decades, Zhang Youxia was regarded as Xi’s ally. Their fathers had fought side by side during the Chinese Civil War nearly 80 years ago. Xi and Zhang Youxia have known each other since childhood. When Xi came to power in late 2012, he appointed Zhang Youxia to the Central Military Commission, where the general eventually rose until he was second only to Xi.
However, in recent years, Zhang Youxia and Xi have grown apart on significant policy issues, particularly regarding how the party should handle Taiwan, according to those close to the military leadership.
Analysts say that understanding the true reasons for Zhang Youxia’s purge is challenging, given the opacity of the Chinese regime. But they view the top military officer’s downfall as the result of ongoing factional warfare within the party, rather than the corruption the authorities suggest.
“The latest development underscores the deep contradictions and internal rifts within the party and the military, once again laying bare the authoritarian nature of the CCP regime,” Wen told The Epoch Times.
Instead of peaceful or judicial solutions, Wen said, “internal disagreements—whether within the party or among its factions—are settled only through life-or-death struggles.”
In an editorial published a day after the investigation into the two generals was made public, the official PLA Daily accused Zhang Youxia and Liu—who is also the military’s chief of staff and a member of the elite Central Military Commission—of “seriously trampling upon and undermining” the elite military body’s “chairman responsibility system,” a political term referring to Xi’s dominant role in military decision-making.
The biggest challenge facing the CCP is determining whom it can tap to fill these vacancies in the PLA leadership, according to Shen Ming-shih, an expert on China’s military at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a Taiwanese government-funded think tank.
Given the seniority of the latest purged officers, many current lieutenant generals who advanced through the ranks under them could be implicated in the ongoing investigation into the military chiefs, potentially leading to further dismissals, Shen said.
“This could hollow out the PLA’s top ranks,” Shen told The Epoch Times.
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—Dorothy Li
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