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In China, purging winds are blowing: Zhang Youxia, the highest-ranking general, has been ousted and accused of "serious violations of discipline and the law."
This is the fifth high-ranking military official removed from those appointed by Xi to the Central Military Commission since 2022, as part of the government campaign to eradicate corruption and disloyalty, according to the New York Times.
According to The Wall Street Journal, which had access to sources involved in meetings where this matter was discussed, Zhang Youxia is said to be accused of leaking information about the Chinese nuclear weapons program to the United States and accepting bribes.
But behind these accusations lies the purge that punishes the general's attempt to form "political cliques," adds the WSJ.
“This measure is unprecedented in the history of the Chinese military and represents the total annihilation of the high command,” Christopher K. Johnson, a former CIA analyst, told the NYT.
The Central Military Commission is the organ of the Communist Party that controls the Chinese armed forces, and Zhang Youxia was only surpassed in power within that apparatus by Xi himself.
General Liu Zhenli, who heads the Joint Staff Department of the army, is also under investigation.
Xi decided that he needs to make a deep generational cut to find an untainted group of officials, Johnson believes.
"The purging of even a childhood friend, Zhang Youxia, demonstrates that Xi's anti-corruption zeal knows no bounds," it states.
Zhang, 75 years old, was a childhood friend of the Chinese president, who had kept him in office beyond the usual retirement age. His parents, veterans of the revolution, were personally acquainted.
He is one of the few Chinese commanders with extensive combat experience, having played a prominent role in the border conflict between China and Vietnam that began in 1979 and lasted for years. He has been a member of the Central Military Commission since 2017.
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