Xi’s Military Purge: China’s Top Generals Fall in Brutal Crackdown

Paul Riverbank, 1/25/2026Xi’s sweeping purge of China’s top generals signals deep instability and loyalty demands in the PLA.

Official statements, true to form, offered only that the two men faced probes for “serious discipline and law violations.” But anyone familiar with the codewords of Chinese political life knows by now what’s coming: confiscated assets, severe disgrace, and a likely prison stint. It’s a steep price in a system where political fortunes can reverse overnight — where yesterday’s trusted confidant becomes tomorrow’s pariah.

Across the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and China’s intelligence ranks, purges have become more the norm than the exception. Xi Jinping, now more than a decade into his crusade against “corruption,” is reshaping the upper echelons with a zeal that pushes far beyond mere clean-up. It has shades of a political earthquake, one that rattles both allies and enemies.

Consider the symbolism: Gen. Zhang, like Xi, is a “princeling,” son of a revolutionary veteran. Both of their fathers fought in the trenches of China’s civil war. If bloodlines and loyalty don’t grant immunity, nothing does. In fact, since the end of 2022, Xi has methodically ousted nearly every one of the men he tapped for his six-person Central Military Commission, sparing only a single hand-picked survivor. That body holds the keys to the PLA; to see it hollowed out so quickly is virtually without precedent.

One former CIA China specialist didn’t hesitate to call it a “total annihilation of the high command.” It’s not hyperbole. In the years since Xi took office, he’s expelled or retired more than 120 senior officers, in many cases offering only the vaguest accusations of wrongdoing.

The pattern is surfacing elsewhere, too. Barely a week ago, authorities stripped Gao Yichen, the former deputy head of state security, of his party stripes, seized what assets they could, and denounced him for collaborating with business interests and “contaminating the political environment.” Gao’s retirement was nearly a decade past, but evidently no one is safe from scrutiny — or retribution.

To outsiders, the justifications are always framed in terms of “corruption.” Scratch the surface, though, and a different concern emerges: utter fealty to Xi himself. As one policy group put it, “Their careers rest on showing not mere compliance, but something close to personal devotion.”

The consequences are, as you might guess, complex and not altogether beneficial for China’s military readiness. A Pentagon report noted the campaign has led to weapon delivery delays, a backlog of promotions, and a tangle of confused leadership. With Taiwan and South China Sea tensions on everyone’s radar, a shaken command structure may, ironically, lower the risk of sudden military adventurism, at least temporarily.

Still, if even Xi’s “old comrades” like General He Weidong can be toppled overnight — He was hauled in for “large sums of money and political disloyalty” — it’s plain that no one is untouchable. The old pattern of incremental, consensus-driven elite politics inside the PLA has been replaced by something far less predictable, and that unpredictability breeds anxiety even among the most ambitious next-generation leaders.

There’s no end in sight to these crackdowns. Analysts are bracing for another wave of high-profile arrests. The mood, from what little escapes party censorship, is one of wary vigilance: show yourself as indispensable to Xi, or risk being made an example.

For the moment, the Party line stands unshaken: “Xi is the Party, and the Party is everything.” But beneath this slogan, you can sense a growing internal contradiction. Technocratic pragmatism is in short supply, while fear and political signaling fill more of the gap. Every new purge tightens Xi’s hold, yet also heightens the underlying unpredictability — a volatile mix for a nation that aspires to global superpower status.

China’s leadership experiment, at its most raw, is being played out in real time. The question isn’t just who will fall next, but whether a system that prizes loyalty over competence can ultimately navigate the sharp turns that lie ahead.

Set aside whatever notions you may have had about the supposed stability atop China’s military hierarchy — the past year has flatly upended all of them. Two of the country’s most influential generals, Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, awoke to find themselves not only stripped of their power but swept into the kind of criminal investigation that spells the end of a public life in China. For Gen. Zhang, a figure with storied family ties to Xi Jinping himself, such a downfall once would have seemed unthinkable.Official statements, true to form, offered only that the two men faced probes for “serious discipline and law violations.” But anyone familiar with the codewords of Chinese political life knows by now what’s coming: confiscated assets, severe disgrace, and a likely prison stint. It’s a steep price in a system where political fortunes can reverse overnight — where yesterday’s trusted confidant becomes tomorrow’s pariah.Across the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and China’s intelligence ranks, purges have become more the norm than the exception. Xi Jinping, now more than a decade into his crusade against “corruption,” is reshaping the upper echelons with a zeal that pushes far beyond mere clean-up. It has shades of a political earthquake, one that rattles both allies and enemies.Consider the symbolism: Gen. Zhang, like Xi, is a “princeling,” son of a revolutionary veteran. Both of their fathers fought in the trenches of China’s civil war. If bloodlines and loyalty don’t grant immunity, nothing does. In fact, since the end of 2022, Xi has methodically ousted nearly every one of the men he tapped for his six-person Central Military Commission, sparing only a single hand-picked survivor. That body holds the keys to the PLA; to see it hollowed out so quickly is virtually without precedent.One former CIA China specialist didn’t hesitate to call it a “total annihilation of the high command.” It’s not hyperbole. In the years since Xi took office, he’s expelled or retired more than 120 senior officers, in many cases offering only the vaguest accusations of wrongdoing.The pattern is surfacing elsewhere, too. Barely a week ago, authorities stripped Gao Yichen, the former deputy head of state security, of his party stripes, seized what assets they could, and denounced him for collaborating with business interests and “contaminating the political environment.” Gao’s retirement was nearly a decade past, but evidently no one is safe from scrutiny — or retribution.To outsiders, the justifications are always framed in terms of “corruption.” Scratch the surface, though, and a different concern emerges: utter fealty to Xi himself. As one policy group put it, “Their careers rest on showing not mere compliance, but something close to personal devotion.”The consequences are, as you might guess, complex and not altogether beneficial for China’s military readiness. A Pentagon report noted the campaign has led to weapon delivery delays, a backlog of promotions, and a tangle of confused leadership. With Taiwan and South China Sea tensions on everyone’s radar, a shaken command structure may, ironically, lower the risk of sudden military adventurism, at least temporarily.Still, if even Xi’s “old comrades” like General He Weidong can be toppled overnight — He was hauled in for “large sums of money and political disloyalty” — it’s plain that no one is untouchable. The old pattern of incremental, consensus-driven elite politics inside the PLA has been replaced by something far less predictable, and that unpredictability breeds anxiety even among the most ambitious next-generation leaders.There’s no end in sight to these crackdowns. Analysts are bracing for another wave of high-profile arrests. The mood, from what little escapes party censorship, is one of wary vigilance: show yourself as indispensable to Xi, or risk being made an example.For the moment, the Party line stands unshaken: “Xi is the Party, and the Party is everything.” But beneath this slogan, you can sense a growing internal contradiction. Technocratic pragmatism is in short supply, while fear and political signaling fill more of the gap. Every new purge tightens Xi’s hold, yet also heightens the underlying unpredictability — a volatile mix for a nation that aspires to global superpower status.China’s leadership experiment, at its most raw, is being played out in real time. The question isn’t just who will fall next, but whether a system that prizes loyalty over competence can ultimately navigate the sharp turns that lie ahead.