The highest-ranking officer in China’s armed forces is being investigated on suspicion of “serious violations of discipline and the law”, the country’s Ministry of Defense announced this Saturday.
Zhang Youxia, the more senior of the two vice-presidents of the powerful Central Military Commission, is the most recent figure to fall in a purge that has been ongoing for several months within the military hierarchy.
Analysts believe that this process of removals aims to reform the armed forces and, simultaneously, guarantee absolute loyalty to the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, who also chairs the aforementioned commission. These measures are part of a broader anti-corruption campaign that, since Xi’s rise to power in 2012, has already punished more than 200,000 state officials and staff.
Another member of the commission, Liu Zhenli, was also placed under investigation by the Chinese Communist Party, according to the Defense Ministry statement. Liu is the chief of staff of the commission’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, China’s top military body.
The official statement did not provide details about the nature of the alleged irregularities.
Zhang, 75, joined the People’s Liberation Army in 1968 as a general from the ground forces. Last October, the Communist Party had already expelled the other vice-president of the commission, He Weidong, replacing him with Zhang Shengmin.
