China has placed its most senior serving general under investigation, marking the highest-profile military probe in years and intensifying a sweeping anti-corruption campaign within the armed forces.
The defence ministry said General Zhang Youxia and General Liu Zhenli are being investigated for suspected serious violations of discipline and law, without providing further details.
The announcement underscores growing turbulence inside the People’s Liberation Army as Beijing pushes forward an ambitious military modernisation drive.
Zhang serves as vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, the Communist Party body that commands the armed forces, and has long been viewed as President Xi Jinping’s closest military ally.
He is also a member of the Politburo and one of the few top officers with direct combat experience.
Zhang has not appeared in public since November, when he met Russia’s defence minister in Moscow, and his absence had already fueled speculation among analysts and diplomats.
The investigation follows the expulsion of multiple senior officers in recent months, leaving the seven-member CMC reduced to just two active members, Xi and Zhang Shengmin.
Observers say the targeting of such a senior figure signals a widening of the crackdown rather than an isolated disciplinary action.
The military has been a central focus of Xi’s anti-corruption drive since he took power in 2012, with scrutiny intensifying since 2023.
Previous purges have hit the elite Rocket Force, former defence ministers, and eight top generals expelled on graft charges.
Analysts note the campaign has slowed weapons procurement and affected major defence firms.
Zhang’s career spans decades, including combat during China’s border conflicts with Vietnam in 1979 and 1984, following Vietnam’s invasion of Cambodia.
He later emerged as a proponent of modernising military tactics and training.
The probe comes as China adopts a more assertive posture in the East and South China Seas and around Taiwan, while pursuing long-term goals to complete military modernisation by 2035 and build a world-class force by mid-century.