NEW DELHI: China’s Communist Party has expelled two of the country’s most senior military commanders from both the Party and the armed forces, placing their cases before military prosecutors in the latest and most consequential phase of the leadership purge inside the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
Zhang Youxia, former vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and Liu Zhenli, former member of the CMC and chief of the Joint Staff Department, were removed after authorities accused them of serious violations of political, organisational and financial discipline. The decisions were approved by the Politburo on September 21 placing the two senior generals at the centre of an expanding campaign involving PLA leadership, political loyalty, corruption allegations and an internal power struggle within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli removed from CCP and PLA
According to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency, the Central Military Commission’s discipline and inspection authorities investigated Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli before their cases were reviewed by the Politburo on September 21. Zhang had served as a Politburo member and CMC vice chairman, making him the highest-ranking uniformed officer removed in the current PLA purge.
Liu was a CMC member and had served as chief of the Joint Staff Department, one of the PLA’s key operational positions. Both had already been placed under investigation in January 2026 and were removed from the CMC in August.
The official accusations go beyond financial misconduct. Xinhua said Zhang and Liu had seriously violated political discipline and political rules, acted against Party principles and were disloyal and dishonest toward the CCP.
The authorities also accused the two generals of using their positions to assist others with appointments and promotions in exchange for large sums of money, accepting gifts and payments, and failing to exercise proper responsibility over people under their authority. Their cases will now be transferred to military prosecutors for further legal proceedings.
The September 21 decision represents a major development in Xi Jinping’s campaign to impose political discipline and Party control over the PLA. The CMC is the institution through which the CCP exercises control over China’s armed forces, and Xi Jinping serves as its chairman.
The removal of Zhang and Liu therefore affects not only military personnel but also the political structure governing the PLA and the relationship between the CCP leadership and China’s military establishment.
CMC leadership decimated by continuing military purges
The latest removals follow several years of investigations and dismissals involving senior PLA commanders. A February 2026 assessment by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) identified more than 100 senior military officers who had been purged or potentially purged since 2022.
CSIS described the campaign as an extensive restructuring of the PLA leadership, affecting the CMC, theatre commands, service headquarters and other senior military positions.
The scale of the purge has dramatically changed the composition of the CMC. When Xi Jinping unveiled the leadership lineup following the 20th Party Congress in 2022, the CMC consisted of Xi as chairman, two vice chairmen and four other members. Several of those senior officers have since been removed.
Following the fall of Zhang Youxia and other senior commanders, Xi Jinping and General Zhang Shengmin remain at the centre of the CMC leadership structure, with Zhang Shengmin having played a prominent role in the military disciplinary and anti-corruption apparatus. CSIS said the removals had left the PLA’s highest command structure heavily depleted.
The continuing purge has also affected officers associated with the military leadership appointed under Xi Jinping. CSIS said the campaign has included former defence ministers, CMC members, political work officials and commanders from major military organisations.
The organisation’s February assessment identified the removal or potential removal of more than 100 senior PLA officers since 2022, illustrating the breadth of the ongoing internal power struggle.
The political dimension of the latest cases has attracted particular attention because Zhang Youxia was previously regarded as a long-standing associate of Xi Jinping. Zhang belonged to the generation of so-called “princelings”, the descendants of senior Communist Party officials. His father, Zhang Zongxun, was a senior Chinese military commander who had fought alongside Xi Jinping’s father, Xi Zhongxun, during the Chinese Civil War period. Zhang Youxia and Xi Jinping therefore had longstanding family and personal connections before Xi became CCP general secretary in 2012.
Xi Jinping subsequently appointed Zhang to the CMC, and Zhang eventually became the commission’s second-ranking official. In 2022, when Zhang was widely expected to retire because of his age, Xi retained him for another term. His subsequent investigation and expulsion therefore represent a significant reversal involving a general who had occupied one of the most senior positions in the PLA hierarchy.
Allegations of disloyalty, promotions and “cliques”
The Politburo’s September 21 statement placed considerable emphasis on political loyalty. Chinese authorities accused Zhang and Liu of forming groups and “cliques”, violating political discipline and failing to demonstrate loyalty to the Party.
The statement also alleged that they used their positions to influence military appointments and promotions while receiving large amounts of money. These allegations connect political discipline, personnel appointments and corruption within the PLA leadership.
The wording differs in emphasis from an earlier military statement issued after the two generals were placed under investigation in January. At that time, the PLA’s official newspaper accused them of undermining the system through which Xi Jinping exercises authority over the military.
That particular formulation was not included in the September 21 announcement. Instead, the latest announcement focused heavily on political discipline, corruption, appointments and the alleged creation of networks within the military.
The accusations of “cliques” and political disloyalty could also have implications beyond Zhang and Liu themselves. Analysts cited in the source material said the investigation could extend to officers who worked with the two generals, their subordinates and personnel whose appointments or promotions were associated with them.
Such an expansion could produce further changes in the PLA command structure and deepen the ongoing internal power struggle surrounding military leadership.
Zhang and Liu were also among the relatively small number of senior Chinese commanders with direct battlefield experience. Zhang participated in China’s 1979 war with Vietnam, while Liu served during border clashes with Vietnam in the 1980s. Their removal further reduces the presence of combat veterans at the highest levels of the PLA command structure.
CSIS has noted that the continuing purge has removed or potentially removed numerous senior officers across the Chinese military establishment.
October party plenum and next phase of Xi’s military restructuring
The September 21 Politburo meeting also set the date for the next major Party gathering. The Fifth Plenum of the 20th Central Committee will take place in Beijing from October 26 to October 29, 2026. The meeting is expected to bring together roughly 200 senior Central Committee officials and will address major Party issues, including continued efforts to strengthen internal discipline.
State media Xinhua said Xi Jinping chaired the September 21 Politburo meeting and that documents concerning the further implementation of comprehensive Party discipline would be submitted to the Fifth Plenum.
The September Politburo meeting occurred shortly before Xi Jinping’s scheduled state visit to the United States, adding an international dimension to the timing of the leadership decisions.
The meeting was also held earlier in September than the Politburo’s usual monthly schedule. The purge therefore comes at a moment when Xi Jinping is simultaneously managing Party discipline, military leadership restructuring and China’s external diplomatic agenda.
The continuing removal of senior PLA commanders has generated questions about the consequences for military command and organisational continuity. CSIS assessments have noted that the purge has affected senior operational and administrative positions across the PLA, while Reuters reported on September 23 that the leadership removals had raised questions about China’s military readiness and command structure.
At the same time, the political consequences are directly connected to Xi Jinping’s longstanding effort to maintain Party control over the PLA and enforce discipline within the military hierarchy.
The cases of Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli now move into the military prosecution process, leaving the next stage of their legal proceedings to China’s military judicial authorities. Their expulsion marks another major change in the PLA’s senior command structure and comes as Xi Jinping prepares for the October 26–29 Fifth Plenum.
With the purge extending from senior commanders to officers across multiple levels of the PLA, the restructuring of China’s military leadership remains closely linked to Party discipline, personnel control, anti-corruption investigations and the internal political balance surrounding Xi Jinping’s leadership.
