Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
The closest military ally of the Chinese president was accused of disloyalty and forming cliques.
Beijing is preparing for one of the most consequential state visits in years, with the White House already lit for its guest of honor.
Yet the message that landed in Chinese state media on Monday came not from the diplomatic desk but from the Communist Party’s disciplinary apparatus, and it named the man long considered Xi Jinping’s closest ally in uniform.
The party expelled General Zhang Youxia and General Liu Zhenli from its ranks on September 21, the state news agency Xinhua reported. Zhang, who held the senior of two vice chairman posts on the Central Military Commission, was China’s highest-ranked serving general. Liu was a CMC member and chief of the Joint Staff Department.
Xinhua said both men had “become disloyal to the Party” and “crossed red lines” by forming cliques, taking huge sums for personal gain, and using their positions to help others secure promotions. The sums involved were “exceptionally large,” the agency said, and the impact “extremely egregious.”
A purge at the top of the chain of command
The cases have now been transferred to military legal organs for review and prosecution. The two men were placed under investigation in January and stripped of their state military posts in August, but the formal party expulsion is the harshest sanction so far and paves the way for a criminal trial.
Zhang’s removal is not a routine anti-graft case. He was widely seen as Xi’s most trusted general and had served as the CMC’s most senior duty officer, according to Al Jazeera, which noted the anti-corruption sweep across the People’s Liberation Army is “among the largest in modern Chinese history.”
The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates that more than 100 senior PLA officers have been swept aside or gone missing since 2022. The seven-seat Central Military Commission is now down to Xi himself and one other general, Zhang Shengmin, a political commissar whose career has centered on discipline rather than operations.
Two days before Xi lands in Washington
The timing is striking. President Donald Trump is due to receive Xi at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday, with the main bilateral meeting at the White House on Thursday, The National reported. Trade, artificial intelligence, critical minerals, Taiwan, and the U.S. war with Iran are expected to dominate the talks.
A $14 billion U.S. arms package for Taiwan is awaiting approval, and China’s rare-earth export suspension expires November 10, giving Beijing negotiating leverage that Xi is expected to use. Trump has struck a warmer tone in the run-up, telling reporters, “We get along very well, President Xi and I have a good relationship.”
The Xinhua announcement lands squarely in that window. It tells foreign capitals, and China’s own officer corps, that Xi is entering the Washington meeting after removing his own second-in-command from the party, not despite it.
CSIS analysts note that Zhang stood accused of “trampling on the ‘chairman responsibility system,'” the doctrine that puts Xi personally at the head of the armed forces. Whether the expulsion reflects a genuine internal threat or a demonstration of control, the military leadership Xi brings to the table this week is not the one Washington was preparing to face even a month ago.
The party’s Central Committee must still ratify the expulsion at its next plenary session.
