China is now investigating its top military general, Gen. Zhang Youxia, over claims he handed over sensitive nuclear weapons info to the United States.
This is a huge deal for China’s armed forces and probably the biggest shake-up since Xi Jinping took charge.
Is China’s top military general Zhang Youxia in trouble?
Over the weekend, China said it’s looking into its highest-ranking army officer for some pretty serious violations both of law and military discipline. Zhang was just one step below Xi in the military hierarchy.
On Saturday, the Defence Ministry confirmed the investigation into Zhang. He’s the senior of the two vice chairs on the Central Military Commission. Another commission member, Gen. Liu Zhenli, is also under the microscope. Liu ran the Joint Staff Department.
This move basically guts the commission that runs the military. Xi sits at the top, but now only one of its six members hasn’t been swept up in the crackdown.
“This is one of the biggest purges of China’s military leadership in the history of the People’s Republic,” said Neil Thomas from the Asia Society Policy Institute.
Xi’s making it clear he’s coming down hard on corruption and disloyalty in the military, harder than anyone since Mao Zedong. Nobody really knows yet how this will ripple through the army or the rest of the country.
What are the allegations against Zhang Youxia?
The most serious charge? Zhang leaked crucial technical data about China’s nuclear weapons to the US. Nobody’s shown public proof yet, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Some of the evidence apparently came from Gu Jun, the former boss of China National Nuclear Corp the state company handling both civilian and military nuclear programs. Just last Monday, Beijing said Gu himself was under investigation for serious violations.
During a closed-door briefing Saturday, officials said they’d found a link between Gu and Zhang to a security breach in the nuclear sector. They didn’t give any details about what actually happened.
Beijing’s reaction
Embassy spokesman of the Chinese Liu Pengyu told The Wall Street Journal that the investigation demonstrates that the party believes in its full-coverage, zero tolerance against corruption.
Similar to Xi, Zhang is a princeling or as it is said, the term denotes children of high-ranking revolution leaders. The father, Zhang, fought on the same front as Xi, during the civil war that saw the Communists takeover in the year 1949.
Christopher Johnson of China Strategies Group said that this move is the wholesale killing of the high command.
Authorities also attributed the downfall of Zhang to his position of advancing his predecessor and former defence minister Li Shangfu. Largely, Zhang is said to have assisted Li to come to power in exchange for huge bribes.
Li went missing in public in 2023. He was removed as the defence minister and expelled from the party in 2024 on grounds of corruption.
