Two senior generals expelled from CCP, Chinese military — Xi’s ‘anti-graft’ crackdown continues

Liu Zhenli; Zhang Youxia

The Chinese military has been a major target of a broader anti-corruption campaign launched by Xi after he became president in 2013. In August, General Zhao Zongqi, who commanded the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Western Theatre Command during the 2017 Doklam standoff and the 2020 Galwan Valley clash with India, was sacked from Beijing’s top political advisory body. Investigations against Zhang and Liu were announced in January, and both were removed from the state Central Military Commission in late August. No reason was given for his removal, and no investigation against him was announced.

The two “crossed red lines and basic limits”, the documents said, adding that their “political and economic wrongdoing were intertwined, and “corrupt self-enrichment” coexisted with dereliction of duty and abuse of office”. “The sums involved were exceptionally large; the nature (of their conduct) was extremely serious and the impact extremely egregious,” it said. Zhang Youxia, a vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the CCP’s top military command body, was second-in-command under President Xi Jinping and has long been regarded as one of his closest military allies. Liu Zhenli was also a CMC member and headed its Joint Staff Department.

In December last year, China’s parliament removed three senior military officials as part of a broader “anti-corruption crackdown.”