China’s Military Earthquake: Inside Xi Jinping’s PLA Purge

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BBC reports the shock investigation of Xi Jinping’s trusted general, exposing deep cracks inside the PLA and China’s ruling elite

By TRH Op-Ed Desk

New Delhi, January 28, 2026 — On January 24, China’s Ministry of National Defence announced that Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) and a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC), was under investigation for “serious violations of discipline and law,” alongside Liu Zhenli, chief of the PLA’s Joint Staff Department.

The fallout has stunned even seasoned China watchers. Zhang Youxia, 75, was the highest-ranking active-duty general in the People’s Liberation Army, a fellow Shaanxi native of Xi Jinping, and a “red second-generation” revolutionary elite. Long regarded as one of Xi’s most trusted military figures, Zhang survived repeated purges and retained power well beyond the informal retirement age—until now.

Rumours of his downfall surfaced on January 20, when state media footage from a high-level cadre training session showed both Zhang and Liu conspicuously absent. Just eight days earlier, Zhang had appeared publicly at the Fifth Plenary Session of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection—his last confirmed appearance. In contrast, another CMC vice chairman, He Weidong, had already vanished from public view for seven months before his disappearance was officially acknowledged.

The scale of the upheaval is extraordinary. Since the 20th CPC National Congress in 2022, five of the seven core CMC leaders have now exited, leaving only Xi Jinping and Zhang Shengmin, the CMC’s discipline chief.

“This is an earthquake,” former US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who had met Zhang personally, told The New York Times. “It is shocking and raises many questions.”

Yet analysts argue the warning signs were visible. Neil Thomas of the Asia Society Policy Institute told BBC Chinese that Zhang’s long oversight of the PLA’s equipment procurement system—now at the heart of corruption scandals—made him vulnerable. The downfall of his former deputy Li Shangfu and the investigation of close aides suggested a crisis long in the making, added the report.

What makes this purge exceptional is Xi’s choice. “Zhang was due to retire quietly after the next Party Congress. Xi declined that path,” added BBC Chinese in the report.

Historically, the PLA was nearly untouchable. Before Xi, only one CCP general was punished. “Under Xi, 25 generals have been expelled,” added BBC Chinese.

The message is unmistakable: no rank, lineage, or loyalty guarantees protection anymore—and the PLA is now firmly inside Xi Jinping’s political firing zone.