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William Zheng

Top Chinese military leaders Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli are under investigation for suspected “serious” disciplinary violations, according to the Ministry of National Defence.
Zhang is the first-ranked vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), China’s top military command body headed by President Xi Jinping, while Liu is chief of its Joint Staff Department.
Zhang’s position as CMC No 2 after Xi makes him the highest-ranking uniformed officer in the Chinese military.
Zhang and Liu were “suspected of serious violations of discipline and law”, the defence ministry said in a short announcement on Saturday.
“After deliberation by the CPC Central Committee, it was decided to initiate an investigation into Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli,” a ministry spokesman said, referring to the Communist Party’s highest decision-making body.
Zhang is also a member of the Politburo, the party’s centre of power.




Footage from state broadcaster CCTV indicated that both men were absent on Tuesday from a top-level party seminar presided over by Xi, prompting widespread speculation about their political fate.
A source familiar with the situation said the party elite had been briefed about the investigation on Friday.
The source said Zhang was accused of corruption and of failing to rein in his close associates, family members and relatives. He was also blamed for not flagging problems to the party leadership at the first instance, according to the source, who declined to be named due to sensitivity of the issue.
A second source with knowledge of the matter said Zhang was formally detained by military corruption investigators on Monday.

Zhang, 75, and Liu, 61, are decorated war heroes and the only members of the seven-strong CMC with combat experience. Both took part in PLA campaigns against Vietnam in the late 1970s.
Their downfall – just seven months shy of the People’s Liberation Army’s 99th founding anniversary – marks an unprecedented near-total wipeout of the CMC formed after the 20th party congress in late 2022.
This leaves Zhang Shengmin as the only uniformed official on the commission. The PLA disciplinary head was promoted to CMC deputy chairman at the 20th Central Committee’s fourth plenum in October.
Just days before the plenum, former CMC second vice-chairman He Weidong, also a Politburo member, and top PLA ideological chief Miao Hua were removed from the top commanding body and party over corruption investigations.


Former defence minister Li Shangfu was dismissed over corruption charges in October 2023, becoming the first CMC member to fall since Xi made the military a focus of his sweeping anti-corruption efforts earlier that year. He was expelled from the party last year for offences including suspected bribery.
Since 2023, many top generals have been stripped of their position and put under investigation. They include officers from the PLA Ground Force, Air Force, Navy, Rocket Force and the paramilitary People’s Armed Police, as well as major theatre commands – including the one focused on Taiwan.
Authorities have also detained dozens of senior executives from China’s arms suppliers, including those producing its newest aircraft carriers and stealth fighters.
Xi has vowed to maintain the intensity of the anti-corruption drive. In a new warning to cadres during the fourth plenum, he said that “no one should harbour any illusions” about getting away with corruption.
The disciplinary agencies punished 983,000 officials last year, an 11 per cent increase from 2024 and the highest annual total since the party started releasing such data about two decades ago.
Zhang Youxia has played a pivotal role in planning and implementing Xi’s sweeping military overhaul and modernisation since the Chinese leader took office in 2012.
From 2012 to 2017, he served as director of the CMC’s Equipment Development Department, overseeing new weapons and systems procurement and deployment for the PLA.
He was also a key figure in executing Xi’s military overhaul plan announced in 2015. This aimed to shift the PLA away from a Soviet-style, army-centric model towards a US-inspired structure optimised for joint operations – by reorganising the command structure into theatre commands.
Zhang Youxia was promoted to second-ranked CMC vice-chairman at the 19th party congress in 2017, during Xi’s second five-year term.
During that congress, Xi further set out three broad goals for the PLA: to make “significant progress” on information warfare, military mechanisation and strategic projection by 2027; “basically complete” modernisation by 2035; and to become a “world class” military by 2049 – the centenary of the People’s Republic.
At the 2022 party congress, Zhang moved up a step to become China’s No 1 general at the age of 72, well past the official retirement age of 68, as Xi began his third term at the helm.
Zhang Youxia joined the military at 18 and was a company commander during the Sino-Vietnamese war in 1979. He was promoted to deputy commander of the 40th Army Division in 1984.
Liu also fought in the prolonged skirmishes during the Sino-Vietnamese border conflict, particularly around the 1984 Battle of Laoshan.
He is reported to have cut his teeth as a 22-year-old company commander on the front lines of mountainous Laoshan, repelling more than 30 Vietnamese offensives from 1986 to 1987. He received a first-class merit citation from the CMC, among many other honours.
He later served as chief of staff in the People’s Armed Police, before being transferred to the newly overhauled PLA Ground Force, becoming its first chief of staff in 2015.
He was promoted to PLA Ground Force commander in June 2021 and to chief of the CMC’s Joint Staff Department in March 2023.


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Central Military Commission

China’s top uniformed officer Zhang Youxia among 2 generals under investigation

Zhang Youxia is the first-ranked vice-chairman of the Central Military commission and a member of the Politburo. Photo: AFP

Liu Zhenli is a decorated war hero noted for his valour against Vietnamese forces in the 1980s. Photo: Handout

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Wang Renhua was elevated to the highest rank for officers in active service in March, 2024. Photo: CCTV

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The PLA said the technology was being tested on the front lines. Photo: Xinhua


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China

Politics

Zhang, first vice-chairman of the CMC, and Liu Zhenli, chief of its Joint Staff arm, are suspected to have committed ‘serious violations’


Zhang, first vice-chairman of the CMC, and Liu Zhenli, chief of its Joint Staff arm, are suspected to have committed ‘serious violations’.


China’s military

China’s top uniformed officer Zhang Youxia among 2 generals under investigation

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Zhang, first vice-chairman of the CMC, and Liu Zhenli, chief of its Joint Staff arm, are suspected to have committed ‘serious violations’

Zhang, first vice-chairman of the CMC, and Liu Zhenli, chief of its Joint Staff arm, are suspected to have committed ‘serious violations’