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China is investigating the two remaining leaders of its armed forces who had survived previous purges, in a move that leaves President Xi Jinping in sole operational control of the People’s Liberation Army.
The Chinese Communist Party is probing General Zhang Youxia, vice-chair of the Central Military Commission, and General Liu Zhenli, CMC member and chief of the PLA’s joint staff, for suspected “serious discipline violations and violations of the law”, the defence ministry said on Saturday.
The removal of Zhang and Liu reduces the CMC to its smallest size in history, leaving as its only members Xi, who heads the body, and Zhang Shengmin, a political commissar who leads the military’s anti-corruption watchdog and was promoted to CMC vice-chair in October.
Xi has been pushing to concentrate his grip on the PLA for several years. The probe follows the purge last April of He Weidong, who was the number two general in the PLA after Zhang. While many analysts said Xi was trying to root out corruption, some argued that bigger factors were at play.
“This is the most stunning development in Chinese politics since the early days of Xi’s rise to power when he purged the General Officer Corps of those he feared would oppose him,” said Dennis Wilder, a former head of China analysis at the CIA.
“He now has only one officer remaining on the powerful CMC. This is like the US Joint Chiefs of Staff with only one general. You cannot run the PLA this way. He has to appoint successors.”
The CMC sets the armed forces’ strategy and directs their operations. In CCP language, the term “discipline violations” often means corruption. But it is closely intertwined with factional struggles, and party leaders from Mao Zedong on have often used such probes to purge rivals.
Since Xi became China’s top party and military leader in 2012, he has used restructuring and purges to make the PLA more reliable and battle ready in pursuit of his ambition to build China into a great power on par with the US.
According to the US and Taiwanese governments, Xi has ordered the PLA to develop the capability to take Taiwan by force by 2027.
The investigations “underscore Xi Jinping’s firm grip over the PLA, showing his willingness to purge senior commanders despite potential risks to institutional stability”, said Tristan Tang, non-resident Vasey Fellow at Pacific Forum, a think-tank.
Tang said the investigations probably reflected concerns over slow progress in building combat capability and inefficient use of defence resources under their leadership.
“Although the PLA has advanced reforms in basic and combined training, joint training remains incomplete and resource intensive, raising questions about readiness for Xi’s 2027 Taiwan timeline,” he said.
“Corruption may emerge during the probes, but underperformance and failure to deliver credible combat readiness appear to be the core issues.”
Zhang, 75, is one of the few PLA officers with combat experience. He fought in China’s war with Vietnam in 1979. His family comes from the same region as Xi’s and their fathers fought together in the Chinese civil war.
He has long been viewed as the Chinese leader’s most important ally in modernising the PLA owing to their shared revolutionary family background and his status as a combat veteran.
Zhang survived a previous round of Xi’s military purges that sought to root out corruption in arms development and acquisition, despite having headed vital institutions in charge of weapons research and procurement.
But since last year, Xi’s crackdown has been more focused on ensuring loyalty and political reliability among the military’s top brass, which analysts said made powerful military officers more likely targets.
Zhang and Liu were absent from state media footage of a study session on Tuesday when Xi addressed top officials including the party’s standing committee, sparking rumours that they were in trouble. Such disappearances from public view are often the first sign of Chinese officials being targeted by purges.
Probes can last months or even years. Most officials who are ensnared in such investigations are detained, found guilty and lose their jobs and party membership.
