WHY ZHANG YOUXIA’S CASE STANDS OUT
Saturday’s announcement came after about a week of speculation, largely confined to overseas Chinese-language and Taiwan-based media, that Zhang could be in trouble.
The reports highlighted his absence on Jan 20 from a high-level study session on the fourth plenum that was attended by senior party and military leaders.
In footage of the event broadcast by CCTV, newly minted CMC vice-chair Zhang Shengmin appeared seated in the front row alongside other Politburo members. Zhang Youxia, a Politburo member, was not seen.
He and Liu were last seen in public on Dec 22, when they attended a CMC ceremony conferring the rank of general on two senior officers.
Xi – who is also CMC chairman – was present at the event, and Zhang Youxia read out the promotion orders signed by the president, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
The investigation into Zhang Youxia carries particular weight, considering his senior position and long-standing ties to Xi, noted analysts.
“Very unusual to see someone like Zhang Youxia, with such a long record of service and deep personal ties to Xi, being taken down,” Yang Zi, a research fellow at Singapore’s S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), told CNA.
“Something severe must have happened. Xi likely views him as disloyal and a potential threat.”
A veteran of the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese border war and later commander of multiple key military regions, Zhang Youxia, 75, had risen through both combat and organisational tracks of the PLA, eventually overseeing operations, training and weapons development.
Dylan Loh, an associate professor in the Public Policy and Global Affairs programme at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU), described the move as one of the most consequential at the top of the PLA in decades.
Zhang Youxia’s investigation, he said, could represent “the highest-ranking serving military figure to be targeted since the late 1980s,” when senior officers were purged or sidelined in the aftermath of political turmoil surrounding the 1989 Tiananmen incident.
Those earlier episodes saw sweeping shake-ups within the military leadership, as the party reasserted control and removed figures deemed politically unreliable.
Since then, Xi’s anti-corruption drive has ensnared former defence ministers such as Li Shangfu and Wei Fenghe, as well as retired CMC vice-chairs such as Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong. The campaign had also extended to a serving CMC vice-chair, namely the second-ranked He Weidong, who was removed in October last year.
But Zhang Youxia stands out as one of the most senior serving uniformed leaders to face investigation.
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