China investigating top military officials Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, says defence ministry
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File photo of Zhang Youxia giving a speech at a symposium in Qingdao, China. Photograph: (AFP)
Zhang Youxia is a member of the elite Politburo of the ruling Communist Party and vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, while Liu Zhenli is chief of staff of the CMC Joint Staff Department.
China’s Communist Party has placed senior military officials Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli under investigation for suspected “serious” disciplinary violations, said China’s Ministry of National Defence on Saturday. 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. “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.
Both men were absent from a top-level party seminar on Tuesday presided over by Xi, prompting speculation about their political fate.
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Zhang’s position as CMC No. 2 after Xi makes him the highest-ranking uniformed officer in the Chinese military.
Zhang, 75, is a member of the elite Politburo of the ruling Communist Party and vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, while Liu is chief of staff of the CMC Joint Staff Department, according to the ministry.
Zhang is seen as President Xi Jinping’s closest military ally and one of a few leading officers with combat experience.
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Zhang not been seen in public since November 2025
Zhang has not been seen in public since November 20, when he held talks with Russia’s defence minister in Moscow. In an article before that meeting, Zhang had vowed to crack down on “fake loyalty” and “two-faced men” and called on the military to eliminate “poisonous influences and long-standing problems”.
Zhang joined the army in 1968 and rose through the ranks to the military commission in 2012, and was expected to retire in 2022, as per military practice, but was retained on the CMC for a third term.
Zhang was sent to the front lines to fight the Vietnamese and was quickly promoted. He also fought in another border clash with Vietnam in 1984 as the conflict rumbled on.
Zhang was accused of corruption and of failing to rein in his close associates, family members and relatives, said a Reuters report citing a source. He was also blamed for not flagging problems to the party leadership at the first instance.
Military was among targets of crackdown on graft
The military in China was one of the main targets of a broad corruption crackdown ordered by Xi in 2012. That drive reached the upper echelons of the People’s Liberation Army in 2023 when the Rocket Force was targeted.
Eight top generals were expelled from the Communist Party on graft charges in October 2025, including the country’s number two general, He Weidong, who had served under Xi and alongside Zhang on the CMC.
Two former defence ministers were also purged from the ruling party in recent years for corruption.
However, this crackdown is slowing procurement of advanced weaponry and hitting the revenues of some of China’s biggest defence firms.
China has not fought a war in decades, but has been taking a muscular line in the disputed East China Sea and South China Sea, besides over the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which it claims. Beijing staged the largest military exercises to date around Taiwan late last year.
