Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping’s unceremonious ousting of Gen. Zhang Youxia from the upper echelons of the Communist Party has unsettled power dynamics in Beijing not long before the regime’s annual general meeting.
Zhang, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission and sitting member of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party, was removed from his offices this week on accusation of having “severely impacted the political and ideological foundation for unity and progress among all officers and soldiers.”
The general, who has served in the People’s Liberation Army for close to six decades, would have been given a seat of honor at the upcoming Two Sessions meetings in Beijing — but now he will likely be watching from state custody, and who will fill his chair remains to be seen.
Liu Zhenli, the chief of staff of the Central Military Commission’s Joint Staff Department, was also purged alongside Zhang.
“Given that March each year is the party’s busy month for meetings, [Zhang’s removal] is setting the stage for an interesting period,” a former U.S. diplomat with extensive experience in China told the Washington Examiner. “It doesn’t give Xi a lot of time to pick the replacement figures who will be on stage with him.”
The diplomat added, “Also Chinese New Year is late this year, beginning in mid February — most everything shuts down then, which adds more speculation about what March will look like.”
The “Two Sessions” are annual meetings held by the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, typically in March. These are high-profile political events that demand widespread media coverage both domestically and abroad as the Communist Party’s top officials gather to set the nation’s political and social agenda.
The speeches, seating arrangements, and even casual banter between Communist Party officials is tightly choreographed — and footage of the Two Sessions is routinely dissected for insights about interpersonal dynamics within the organs of power.
However, the purge of hundreds of officers from the People’s Liberation Army over the past few years — culminating in Zhang’s dismissal — has thinned the ranks of reliable, recognizable military leaders.
Xi spearheaded the widespread purges — ostensibly targeting corruption, ideological opposition, and illicit patronage networks — that ultimately led to Zhang’s ousting.
Xi and Zhang were both raised as “princelings” or “red heirs” — children of prominent Communist Party officials who were groomed for leadership from a young age and excelled in politics through nepotism and elite connections. Their fathers fought side by side in the civil war, which ultimately installed Mao Zedong to power and ushered in the People’s Republic.
With the removal of Zhang and Liu, the Central Military Commission is now down to just two members — Xi, who is a civilian without military service, and Gen. Zhang Shengmin, the 67-year-old secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission, who has little experience in combat.
Last year, an analyst with CNA’s China Studies Program reported that the “pace of high-level PLA purges” had accelerated so dramatically that it resulted in the “highest proportion of vacancies on the CMC since the Mao [Zedong] period.”
TOP CHINESE GENERAL PURGED FROM MILITARY ON ACCUSATIONS OF BETRAYING XI JINPING
“Such dismissals were unheard of under Xi’s immediate predecessors, Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, who did not investigate any PLA generals during their respective tenures,” CNA reported.
The Wall Street Journal published a report that asserted Zhang had been purged for leaking Chinese nuclear secrets to the United States, citing anonymous sources.
These allegations have not been confirmed and the Chinese Communist Party is likely to keep the granular details of Zhang’s perceived crimes under wraps, as they have on similar purges of top officials.