China’s top general under investigation in latest military purge

Gen. Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission attends the opening session of the National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Wednesday, March 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

BEIJING — The Chinese military’s top general is being investigated for suspected serious violations of discipline and law the Defense Ministry said Saturday.

Zhang Youxia, the senior of the two vice chairs of the powerful Central Military Commission, is the latest figure to fall in a long-running purge of military officials.

Analysts believe the purges are designed both to reform the military and to ensure loyalty to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who also chairs the military commission. They are part of a broader anti-corruption drive that has punished more than 200,000 officials since Xi came to power in 2012.

Another member of the commission, Liu Zhenli, has also been placed under investigation by China’s ruling Communist Party, a Defense Ministry statement said. Liu is the chief of staff of the commission’s Joint Staff Department. The commission is the top military body in China.

The statement did not provide any details on the alleged wrongdoing.

Zhang, who is 75, joined the People’s Liberation Army in 1968 and is a general from its ground forces.

The Communist Party expelled the other vice chair of the commission, He Weidong, last October and replaced him with commission member Zhang Shengmin.

In 2024, the party expelled two former defense ministers over corruption charges.

The Trump administration released a new National Defense Strategy on Friday acknowledging China as a military power that it said needs to be deterred from dominating the U.S. or its allies.

“This does not require regime change or some other existential struggle,” the strategy said. “Rather, a decent peace, on terms favorable to Americans but that China can also accept and live under, is possible.”