China's top general, second only to President Xi Jinping in the military hierarchy, Zhang Youshi, is under investigation and accused of "serious violations of discipline and law," China's Defense Ministry said on Saturday. This is the most dramatic escalation in President Xi's years-long campaign against the top leadership of the People's Liberation Army, the New York Times reports.
The ministry statement did not provide details of the alleged violations by General Zhang Youshi, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, the party body that controls the armed forces. It also said General Liu Zhenli, another member of the commission and chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Chinese military, was also under investigation.
The investigation against Zhang represents the most radical move yet in Xi's campaign against what he himself has described as corruption and disloyalty in the highest ranks of the military. The case is all the more surprising because General Zhang was considered one of Xi's close associates.
Following the investigations into Generals Zhang and Liu, the Central Military Commission has been reduced to just two members: President Xi, who is also its chairman, and General Zhang Shengmin, who is in charge of implementing military purges. All six uniformed commanders appointed to the commission by Xi in 2022 have now been removed. General Zhang Shengmin was only promoted to the commission last year.
General Zhang Youshi, 75, was considered a close confidant of President Xi. Their fathers were veterans of Mao Zedong's revolutionary wars and knew each other personally, and Xi kept General Zhang in office after he had passed the normal retirement age. But the widening corruption investigations, as well as possible other violations, have apparently eroded Xi's trust in him.
"This move is unprecedented in the history of the Chinese military and represents a complete destruction of the high command," said Christopher K. Johnson, a former CIA analyst who studies Chinese elite politics. According to him, Xi has concluded that the problems in the Chinese military are so deep that he can no longer trust the current leadership to solve them on its own.
Si, as Johnson states, "decided that he had to cut very deep, and generationally, to find a group that was not compromised."
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