FPI / January 29, 2026
By Richard Fisher
While the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) abhors transparency, it also jumps to use outsiders’ lack of knowledge to advance deception stratagems for purposes ranging from sowing confusion to masking preparations for aggression.
Such a strategic perspective is necessary to begin to try to understand one of the most serious political ructions, perhaps upheavals, in the post-Mao Zedong era of the CCP: The Jan. 24 announcement by Chinese state media Xinhua/People’s Liberation Army Daily (PLAD) editorial, that “The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has decided to investigate Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli for suspected serious violations of discipline and law.”
The editorial further explained:
“Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, as senior cadres of the Party and the military, seriously betrayed the trust and expectations of the Party Central Committee and the Central Military Commission, severely trampled on and undermined the Chairman of the Central Military Commission’s responsibility system, seriously fostered political and corruption problems that undermined the Party’s absolute leadership over the military and threatened the Party’s ruling foundation, seriously damaged the image and prestige of the Central Military Commission, and severely impacted the political and ideological foundation for unity and progress among all officers and soldiers. They caused immense damage to the military’s political building, political ecology, and combat effectiveness, and had an extremely negative impact on the Party, the country, and the military.”
Being under “investigation” is a modern CCP euphemism for being “purged,” that Stalin-to-current Communist-era catastrophe that includes public humiliation, arrest, trial and punishment — with a strong chance of being executed — and with the likelihood that “investigation” has already extended to family and close professional associates — as many as deemed necessary to satisfy the Party.
The charge “serious violations of discipline and law” usually means corruption, which for the PLA is an endemic “Catch-22,” in which you have to pay for promotions, skim procurement contracts with the obligation to send money to the upper ranks, again, to ensure promotions — meaning most if not all senior officers are guilty to very guilty.
But this charge is most telling, “undermined the Chairman of the Central Military Commission’s responsibility system, seriously fostered political and corruption problems that undermined the Party’s absolute leadership over the military and threatened the Party’s ruling foundation,” meaning there was direct disobedience of CCP leader and CMC Chairman Xi Jinping.
Gen. Zhang Youxia, as Vice Chairman of the CMC, is the most senior officer of the CCP’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), second only to CCP CMC Chairman Xi Jinping.
‘Princelings’ With A Difference
What makes his fall so stunning is that Zhang’s and Xi’s fathers were revolutionary era friends, and both Zhang and Xi inherited their “princeling” status from their fathers’ revolutionary era service.
Zhang, however, was also an actual military “hero,” having commanded troops during the Deng Xiaoping’s February 1979 war against Vietnam, and then in subsequent major battles on the China-Vietnam border, becoming a very rare senior PLA commander with actual military experience, earning wide respect in the PLA.
In contrast, Xi Jinping benefited from his father’s privilege, in April 1979 getting a job as a note-taker/secretary in the General Office of the Central Military Commission under former Defense Minister Geng Biao — where Xi had a ringside seat to watch how Deng Xiaoping used his Vietnam War to reform the PLA and reorder relations with the United States and the West.
However, with the purging of Gen. Zhang, a CMC that usually has seven members now only has two: Chairman Xi Jinping and former PLA Rocket Force Gen. Zhang Shenmin, now a Vice Chairman and Secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CMC.
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Mysteries, deception and danger: Xi ousts fellow ‘princeling’ Gen. Zhang Youxia added by Editor Two on
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