No One Safe: Xi Jinping's Ruthless Crackdown Rocks Chinese Military Elite

Paul Riverbank, 1/25/2026Xi Jinping's crackdown unsettles China's military elite, exposing high-stakes power struggles and growing instability.

Zhang’s not the only one on the chopping block. Alongside him is General Liu Zhenli, trusted chief of staff for the commission. What raised eyebrows wasn’t just the sweep of these investigations, but the silence that greeted them as details trickled in. In China, formal accusations typically come shrouded in party language, leaving outsiders piecing together the underlying message from scant official hints.

Notably, this isn’t an outlier event. Since Xi took command in 2012, more than 200,000 officials—military and civilian—have run afoul of what Beijing continues to describe as a wide-ranging anti-corruption effort. This year alone, the campaign’s floodlights have illuminated the very top. It’s worth recalling: last autumn, He Weidong, another Central Military Commission vice chair, was abruptly ejected, and before long, two ex-defense ministers also vanished from the scene, cited for graft.

If you look only at the party’s rhetoric, it’s all about reform. Yet for many seasoned China observers, there’s another layer: this is about Xi’s tightening grip on power, about sewing up any pockets of resistance or divided loyalty inside the People’s Liberation Army. The term “anti-corruption” rings out on newswires, but analysts suspect the real stakes lie in absolute obedience to the man at the top.

Voices like author Gordon Chang put the stakes starkly. “We don’t know the whole story behind these military purges, which have reached a fever pitch this year,” he comments, highlighting just how little filters out from the closed world of Chinese elite politics. “But what is clear is a regime grappling with internal instability. Xi Jinping’s drive for total control may be fracturing the very system he wants to dominate. The pressing question now is whether he can pull it back together—and at what cost.”

Chang’s warning echoes: once institutional purges accelerate, they can become self-sustaining, breeding suspicion and undermining trust. “The PLA was already an institution mired in corruption—how do you unwind that, especially with a ruler obsessed with loyalty?”

There are others, like former CIA analyst Christopher Johnson, who see the investigation into Zhang as completely uncharted territory for the Chinese military. Johnson goes so far as to note that the targeting of Zhang, who’s rumored to have longstanding ties to Xi (some even say they grew up together), signals that old alliances offer no particular safety net anymore. No friendship, apparently, outranks loyalty to the party chairman.

Zhang himself is no lightweight. His tenure with the PLA dates back to the tumultuous late 1960s. He’s held his seat at the table of military power for decades, outlasting numerous political storms. Yet, at 75, even his vast experience couldn’t insulate him from China’s latest turbulence.

Despite the government’s reluctance to spell things out, one point comes through with clarity: nobody is untouchable. Public purges are, if anything, a recurring motif in how Beijing keeps its upper ranks disciplined and its message of zero tolerance front-of-mind.

Domestically, the backlash from these sweeping removals isn’t always predictable. Such top-down actions can dent trust among elites, especially since the rules seem to shift without warning. As Chang puts it: “Strongman politics breeds its own form of unease. The Communist Party’s tradition of ‘struggle’ creates cycles of instability, making for an inherently volatile leadership culture.” Interestingly, Chang doubts these purges foretell foreign adventures, like a sudden dash for Taiwan, but cautions that accidents or miscalculations remain a risk when systems become tense and brittle.

On the world stage, U.S. defense planners have taken note. Recent Pentagon strategy documents now rank China as the primary military challenge. Their aim, however, isn’t confrontation for its own sake. The focus, according to the latest review, is on deterring aggression while still leaving space for stable coexistence: “A durable peace, with terms acceptable both to Americans and—crucially—to the Chinese, is within reach.”

Yet, for all the measured talk, there’s latent anxiety about just where Beijing’s leadership is headed. Xi’s consolidations and the air of secrecy blanketing PLA reshuffles have clouded Western assessments of China’s trajectory. Every fresh removal in party or military ranks clears away another layer of collective leadership, making the system ever more personal and vertical.

As for what comes next, precious few in Beijing know for certain. The rest of us are left watching—a reminder that, in China’s corridors of power, answers tend to arrive late and always filtered through the party’s lens.

It’s rare to see the upper echelons of China’s military leadership shaken, at least not with the suddenness and drama that’s played out in recent months. Over the weekend, Chinese authorities made it official: General Zhang Youxia, the senior vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and a figure just beneath Xi Jinping himself, now faces a government probe. The official language, spare and heavy with implication, points to “serious violations of discipline and law”—but, as is often the case, skips over any specifics.Zhang’s not the only one on the chopping block. Alongside him is General Liu Zhenli, trusted chief of staff for the commission. What raised eyebrows wasn’t just the sweep of these investigations, but the silence that greeted them as details trickled in. In China, formal accusations typically come shrouded in party language, leaving outsiders piecing together the underlying message from scant official hints.Notably, this isn’t an outlier event. Since Xi took command in 2012, more than 200,000 officials—military and civilian—have run afoul of what Beijing continues to describe as a wide-ranging anti-corruption effort. This year alone, the campaign’s floodlights have illuminated the very top. It’s worth recalling: last autumn, He Weidong, another Central Military Commission vice chair, was abruptly ejected, and before long, two ex-defense ministers also vanished from the scene, cited for graft.If you look only at the party’s rhetoric, it’s all about reform. Yet for many seasoned China observers, there’s another layer: this is about Xi’s tightening grip on power, about sewing up any pockets of resistance or divided loyalty inside the People’s Liberation Army. The term “anti-corruption” rings out on newswires, but analysts suspect the real stakes lie in absolute obedience to the man at the top.Voices like author Gordon Chang put the stakes starkly. “We don’t know the whole story behind these military purges, which have reached a fever pitch this year,” he comments, highlighting just how little filters out from the closed world of Chinese elite politics. “But what is clear is a regime grappling with internal instability. Xi Jinping’s drive for total control may be fracturing the very system he wants to dominate. The pressing question now is whether he can pull it back together—and at what cost.”Chang’s warning echoes: once institutional purges accelerate, they can become self-sustaining, breeding suspicion and undermining trust. “The PLA was already an institution mired in corruption—how do you unwind that, especially with a ruler obsessed with loyalty?”There are others, like former CIA analyst Christopher Johnson, who see the investigation into Zhang as completely uncharted territory for the Chinese military. Johnson goes so far as to note that the targeting of Zhang, who’s rumored to have longstanding ties to Xi (some even say they grew up together), signals that old alliances offer no particular safety net anymore. No friendship, apparently, outranks loyalty to the party chairman.Zhang himself is no lightweight. His tenure with the PLA dates back to the tumultuous late 1960s. He’s held his seat at the table of military power for decades, outlasting numerous political storms. Yet, at 75, even his vast experience couldn’t insulate him from China’s latest turbulence.Despite the government’s reluctance to spell things out, one point comes through with clarity: nobody is untouchable. Public purges are, if anything, a recurring motif in how Beijing keeps its upper ranks disciplined and its message of zero tolerance front-of-mind.Domestically, the backlash from these sweeping removals isn’t always predictable. Such top-down actions can dent trust among elites, especially since the rules seem to shift without warning. As Chang puts it: “Strongman politics breeds its own form of unease. The Communist Party’s tradition of ‘struggle’ creates cycles of instability, making for an inherently volatile leadership culture.” Interestingly, Chang doubts these purges foretell foreign adventures, like a sudden dash for Taiwan, but cautions that accidents or miscalculations remain a risk when systems become tense and brittle.On the world stage, U.S. defense planners have taken note. Recent Pentagon strategy documents now rank China as the primary military challenge. Their aim, however, isn’t confrontation for its own sake. The focus, according to the latest review, is on deterring aggression while still leaving space for stable coexistence: “A durable peace, with terms acceptable both to Americans and—crucially—to the Chinese, is within reach.”Yet, for all the measured talk, there’s latent anxiety about just where Beijing’s leadership is headed. Xi’s consolidations and the air of secrecy blanketing PLA reshuffles have clouded Western assessments of China’s trajectory. Every fresh removal in party or military ranks clears away another layer of collective leadership, making the system ever more personal and vertical.As for what comes next, precious few in Beijing know for certain. The rest of us are left watching—a reminder that, in China’s corridors of power, answers tend to arrive late and always filtered through the party’s lens.