China’s Xi purge of top military leaders leaves just one general remaining  

Over the weekend, China’s top leader Xi Jinping wrapped up the most sweeping purge of senior military leadership seen in decades, according to multiple media reports.

The purge removed or sidelined top commanders who until recently were viewed as core members of Xi’s inner circle, including Gen. Zhang Youxia, a Politburo member.

“Zhang’s removal means that truly nobody in the leadership is safe now,” Jonathan Czin of the Washington-based Brookings Institution, told Reuters.

The purge of military officers has been ongoing under Xi, but gained new steam in October. Altogether about 20 generals have been axed.

Zhang, 75, also served as vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), China’s highest military decision-making body, according to Reuters.

Zhang’s removal marks a significant break from Xi within China’s ruling elite.

Both Xi and Zhang belong to the “princeling” class, the second generation of Communist Party leaders whose fathers helped lead the Chinese revolution.

The princeling network has long been one of the most powerful forces inside the party and the military, making the purge unusually sensitive, according to ThinkChina.

Xi’s and Zhang’s fathers fought together during the early Communist era.

Chinese authorities said Zhang is under investigation for “serious violations of discipline and law,” a standard formulation used in internal party probes.

Another senior officer, Gen. Liu Zhenli, 61, chief of staff of the Central Military Commission’s Joint Staff Department, was also removed or placed under investigation, according to official announcements cited in reports by in The Straits Times.

The shake-up has sharply reduced the number of senior officers actively serving on the Central Military Commission.

Xi in control of army

The purge leaves Xi exercising an unprecedented degree of direct control over the PLA with few remaining senior commanders positioned to act as counterweights to Xi, noted the Financial Times.

Zhang had long been regarded as one of Xi’s most trusted military enforcers and a key guarantor of loyalty within the armed forces.

His downfall has raised questions among China-focused analysts about whether Xi now faces distrust or dissent even within his own inner circle, noted Zi Yang, an academic in Singapore who specializes in China’s military.

The purge leaves Xi and a single remaining loyalist as the dominant figures within the Central Military Commission, further concentrating power at the top of China’s political and military system, according to Intelligence Online.

“The current situation is akin to having only one general left in the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff,” Professor Dennis Wilder at Georgetown University told the Chosun Daily

Unsubstantiated claims circulating on social media in recent days alleged that a brief confrontation involving military units and internal security forces occurred in Beijing during the early phase of the purge.

Those claims have not been confirmed by independent reporting and Chinese authorities have made no public reference to any such incident.

While unverified, the circulation of such claims underscores the secrecy surrounding elite political developments in China, where internal power struggles are rarely acknowledged publicly and information about security matters is tightly controlled, according to Reuters.

U.S. updates national defense policy

On Friday, the Trump administration issued an update to its national defense policy, which sought to reassure Beijing that it does not aim at regime change.

It noted American military strength in the region is not for the “purposes of dominating, humiliating, or strangling China.”

The document added, “It is simply to ensure that neither China nor anyone else can dominate us or our allies. This does not require regime change or some other existential struggle.”

The military purge comes as China continues to grapple with the political and economic aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Xi has spent much of his rule positioning himself as a transformational leader, with ambitions to secure a place in Chinese history comparable to Mao Zedong, anchored by his signature vision of the “Chinese Dream.”

That vision was premised on sustained economic growth, rising global influence and centralized but effective governance.

China’s prolonged zero-COVID policies, an uneven recovery and a wounded supply chain disrupted that trajectory. Instead, Beijing is left grappling with property-sector instability, weak consumer confidence and elevated youth unemployment.

Posing a threat?

For now, there is no indication that Xi faces an immediate challenge to his rule.

However, the scale of the purge highlights the growing difficulty of maintaining rigid political control while governing a modern economy in a post-pandemic environment.

Video from Beijing shows the city on high alert.

For neighboring Taiwan, long a target of a rumored Chinese invasion, critics are split if the crisis makes them safer.

“Gutting the PLA high command suggests that Xi is not contemplating a major military escalation against Taiwan in the near term,” Neil Thomas, a fellow at the Asia Society told Reuters. “But his crackdown is designed to elevate a cadre of more competent and loyal generals who will pose more of a threat in the future.”

But an anonymous Taiwanese military official disagreed.

“Due to a decision-making structure dependent on Chinese leaders, the military could convert internal pressure into external conflicts targeting Taiwan,” the official told the Chosun Daily.