The Chinese authorities removed two of the country’s most prominent military leaders, Zhang Yuxia and Liu Zhenli, from the ranks of the Communist Party and the army, on charges of disloyalty, corruption, and committing serious violations of party and political rules.
Zhang served as Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, the highest military command body in China, making him the second man in the military chain of command after President Xi Jinping, as well as being considered for many years a close ally of the president within the military establishment. In the same context, Liu served as a member of the same committee, in addition to assuming the duties of Chief of Staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The official dismissal decision, which was announced on Monday, was the culmination of a process that began with the announcement of investigations against them last January, followed by their removal from the Central Military Commission in late August.
According to official documents reported by the Xinhua News Agency, the two former military leaders were charged with “disloyalty to the party, abandoning its principles, failing to impose strict party discipline, and forming close groups,” in addition to crossing red lines and basic boundaries through intertwining political and economic violations, and associating the accumulation of wealth with a breach of duty and misuse of office. The documents indicated that the amounts of money involved were “exceptionally large,” and that their behavior was extremely dangerous and had a “catastrophic” impact.
These developments come within the framework of a broad campaign to combat corruption and improve discipline launched by President Xi Jinping since he took power in 2012. It is the largest campaign in modern Chinese history, during which millions of people were subjected to investigation, and dozens of senior officials in the party, government, and army were overthrown.
The campaign has intensively targeted the military establishment over the past few years, resulting in the number of active members of the Central Military Commission being reduced to only two figures, one of whom is President Xi, after the body previously included seven members.
