Zhang Youxia, One of the Most Powerful Men in China's Military, Is Expelled for Corruption
A Politburo meeting on Monday expelled Zhang Youxia, one of two vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission, and former joint staff chief Liu Zhenli from the party over corruption and 'forming cliques' — the most senior military fall in China in a decade, announced two days before Xi Jinping flies to Washington.
China's Politburo has expelled Zhang Youxia — a member of the Politburo itself, one of two vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission, and the most recognisable uniform in the People's Liberation Army — from the party, clearing the way for criminal prosecution. Liu Zhenli, a Central Military Commission member and former chief of the Joint Staff Department, was expelled alongside him. The verdict, read out by Xinhua on Monday evening, is the steepest fall from the top of China's armed forces in a decade (the Xinhua notice).
The charge sheet is written in the party's grimmest vocabulary. The two men stand accused of abandoning the mission they swore to uphold and of 团团伙伙 — "forming little circles", the phrase discipline language reserves for faction-building. They allegedly arranged promotions for others in exchange for enormous sums of money, took gifts in breach of integrity rules, and failed to control relatives and aides. The sums involved are described as "particularly huge"; the case has been handed to military prosecutors.
The fall took eight months to complete. The Defence Ministry announced the investigation on 24 January; the national legislature stripped both men of their state military posts on 28 August (the removal notice); and Monday's session delivered the party expulsion, terminating their status as delegates to the 20th Party Congress. Under party rules the expulsions must still be ratified by the full Central Committee — which convenes for its Fifth Plenum on 26–29 October (the plenum schedule).
Rank is what makes the case historic: no officer at Zhang's level has been formally expelled for corruption since Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou, the two former CMC vice chairmen who fell in the purge wave a decade ago. The official statement leans into that history, insisting the case proves corruption has "no no-go zones, full coverage, zero tolerance" in the army, and calling it a major achievement of the party's fight against graft (the full readout).
The timing is conspicuous. The same Politburo session, chaired by Xi Jinping, set the agenda for that Fifth Plenum, whose declared theme is governing the party with an iron hand (the session readout) — and it lands two days before Xi boards a plane for Washington, opening the most consequential diplomatic week of his year with the top of his own military freshly remade. Within hours the story led CCTV's feed and sat high on Baidu's hot-search board with nearly 6.8 million clicks (the Baidu entry).
The files now sit with the military procuratorate. What the "little circles" allegedly connected to, and who else in the commission's orbit falls with them, is the question hanging over the party when it convenes in five weeks.