As reported by The Wall Street Journal on Sunday, January 25, 2026, General Zhang Youxia, First Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC), has been accused of passing nuclear secrets to the United States.
General Zhang Youxia, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China, and Chairman of the Chinese side of the Russia–China Intergovernmental Joint Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation, during a meeting with Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, and Sergey Shoigu, then Minister of Defense of Russia, in 2017 / Photo: Kremlin Press Service
Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported on a briefing for China’s most senior military officers concerning General Zhang, which took place on January 24. During the briefing, the Chinese general was placed under investigation on charges of forming political cliques, promoting Li Shangfu to the post of minister of defense in exchange for large bribes, and disclosing key technical data related to China’s nuclear weapons to the United States. The newspaper added that some of the evidence against Zhang comes from Gu Jun, former general manager of the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), who is also under investigation. It was also reported that the authorities are examining Zhang’s earlier tenure as head of the General Armaments Department of the People’s Liberation Army, and that Xi sent a task force to Shenyang to scrutinize Zhang’s time in the Shenyang Military Region. The task force reportedly stayed in local hotels rather than military bases, where Zhang was believed to have a support network.
On January 24, the Ministry of National Defense of the People’s Republic of China announced that Zhang and Liu Zhenli, Chief of Staff of the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission, were placed under investigation following a decision by the CCP Central Committee on suspicion of serious violations of discipline (a standard Chinese euphemism for corruption, treason, or other grave offenses – editor’s note).
The Chinese newspaper South China Morning Post reported that Zhang was arrested on January 19. It also stated that on January 23 senior CCP officials were briefed on Zhang’s case and that the general is suspected of corruption for failing to rein in close associates, family members, and relatives, and for not reporting problems to the party leadership at an early stage. Meanwhile, the PLA Daily published an editorial stating that Zhang and Liu had seriously trampled on and undermined the responsibility system of the Chairman of the Central Military Commission. This was a harsher assessment than the earlier evaluation of allegations against He Weidong, a former vice chairman of the Central Military Commission.
It is speculated that Zhang’s downfall may be linked to the corruption scandal in the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) and the state-owned missile and ballistic missile industry in 2023, which was revealed on January 6, 2024 by the U.S. news agency Bloomberg and concerned his tenure as head of the Equipment Development Department of the Central Military Commission.
Among the corrupt practices cited was the fueling of ballistic missiles with ordinary water instead of rocket propellant (indicating that the practice concerned older liquid-fueled missiles – editor’s note), as well as defects found at missile bases in western China in the construction of underground silo lids, which allegedly would have prevented proper missile launch if required.
On December 29, 2023 alone, the National People’s Congress approved the expulsion of nine senior military officers from the Central Military Commission. Many of them came from the PLA Rocket Force. A few days earlier, the dismissal of three heads of state-owned enterprises in the missile and nuclear industry was announced. In October 2023, Defense Minister Li Shangfu himself was removed from office after only seven months in the post.
Zhang, meanwhile, was one of six generals appointed by Xi Jinping to the Central Military Commission at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China who were later removed as part of Xi’s anti-corruption campaign. Zhang’s fall is the most serious incident to affect China’s military leadership since the death of Marshal Lin Biao in 1971, and is widely seen as a key element of Xi’s consolidation of power.
Lin Biao was one of Mao Zedong’s closest associates and was officially designated as his successor in 1969. He reportedly died in a plane crash over Mongolia after allegedly plotting against Mao.
Until now, Zhang Youxia had been regarded as Xi Jinping’s closest ally and right-hand man in the military. The two had known each other for decades; Zhang is the son of one of Mao Zedong’s wartime comrades and enjoyed a very strong position. Hence the frequent comparisons with the Lin Biao affair.
Following the announcement of the investigation, virtually the entire Central Military Commission (with the exception of Xi himself and the newly promoted Zhang Shengmin) has been purged, an unprecedented scale of clean-up at the very top of the military. As a result, questions are being raised in the Western press about the combat readiness of the People’s Liberation Army, China’s plans regarding Taiwan, and the internal struggle over succession. Some analysts are openly speaking of a “night of the long knives” in the military and fears of further purges.