Xi Jinping purged one of his few remaining generals last week. Why is he doing this? No one really knows for sure but the pattern is undeniable. Xi has purged almost everyone he placed in command of the People’s Liberation Army in just the last few years.
China’s military leadership stood before the nation in March 2023, an image of unity behind Xi Jinping. After nearly a decade in power, Mr. Xi had installed the high command that he wanted: loyalists hand-picked to make the People’s Liberation Army a world-class force.
But not even Mr. Xi’s loyalists have been spared from his sweeping campaign to clean up the military — with purges that are ostensibly focused on corruption but are also about fealty to him. One by one, members of the Central Military Commission have been dismissed and put under investigation. The latest was Gen. Zhang Youxia, Mr. Xi’s top general…
China had at least 30 generals and admirals at the start of 2023 who ran specialized departments and theater commands.
Nearly all of them have been expelled or have disappeared during Xi Jinping’s sweeping purge.
In some cases, Mr. Xi appointed new generals as replacements.
But many of those have also vanished from public view.
Vanished is the correct word here because while some of the generals were purged under claims of corruption, many simply disappeared. Here’s a graphic created by the NY Times:
Xi’s purge of Chinese generals, tracked and illustrated by the NYT: pic.twitter.com/u9yWCK75KJ
— Robbie Gramer (@RobbieGramer) February 3, 2026
The obvious question all of this raises is why? What is driving him to do this? It seems the best guess of the US intelligence community is that Xi is just really paranoid.
U.S. officials have been trying to sift through the murky waters of elite politics in Beijing to figure out why China’s leader took such a dramatic step. They say it is critical for the U.S. government to get a handle on Mr. Xi’s state of mind because his policies, like those of President Trump, affect everything from the global economy to the operations of one of the world’s most powerful militaries.
But current and former U.S. officials say that no obvious reason has emerged behind Mr. Xi’s latest actions…
U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded in assessments in recent years that Mr. Xi has an extreme level of paranoia, the officials say.
Gen. Zhang Youxia, who was removed last week, is apparently being accused of treason involving the United States. All of this was discussed in a secret briefing held before Zhang was removed.
…people familiar with the briefing—which hasn’t been reported until now—said Zhang is under investigation for allegedly forming political cliques, a phrase describing efforts to build networks of influence that undermine party unity, and abusing his authority within the Communist Party’s top military decision-making body, known as the Central Military Commission…
The most shocking allegation disclosed during the closed-door briefing, the people said, was that Zhang had leaked core technical data on China’s nuclear weapons to the U.S.
Some evidence against Zhang came from Gu Jun, the former general manager of the China National Nuclear Corp., a state-owned company that oversees all aspects of China’s civilian and military nuclear programs, said the people familiar with the briefing. Beijing announced an investigation into Gu last Monday for suspected severe violations of party discipline and state laws.
Was Gen. Zhang selling secrets to the US? According to the NY Times’ unnamed sources, that didn’t happen.
Current and former U.S. officials, however, said that they were unaware of General Zhang having been a U.S. intelligence asset or having handed over nuclear information. They also said they had not detected an internal campaign in Beijing to spread the word among officials that General Zhang was a spy for the United States.
Did it happen or is Xi just removing Zhang to keep his own options open? Xi is serving his 3rd five-year term now but that term ends next year.
At the last party congress, in 2022, Mr. Xi took the remarkable step of extending his power for a third five-year term. That fueled anxiety among Chinese citizens, including some party officials, who thought he could become a Mao-like tyrant.
Mr. Xi might have decided to go for a fourth term rather than anoint a successor at next year’s congress, Ms. Sun said, and General Zhang’s removal could be an attempt to head off a potentially influential critic.
Mao was China’s leader for 27 years but since the establishment of the role of president and the system of five-year terms, Xi is the longest serving. Prior to 2018, presidents were limited to two terms. So one more term would further solidify Xi as the most powerful leader since Mao. That may be his goal and could explain why he’s purging anyone who could potentially stop him.
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