Investigation of Chinese general considered a “close ally” of Xi Jinping. Zhang was second in command to the president

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has decided to open an investigation against senior military officials Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli for alleged serious violations of discipline and law, the Ministry of Defense in Beijing announced on Saturday.

Zhang is a member of the party's elite political bureau, the so-called Politburo, and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the body that controls the armed forces. He was basically second in the military chain of command after President Xi Jinping, according to The New York Times.

Liu is the head of the General Staff Department of the CMC.

Zhang, 75, a reformist veteran, was widely regarded as President Xi Jinping's main military ally and is one of the few senior officers with combat experience. He is one of the two vice-chairmen of the CMC, the supreme command organization of the Chinese armed forces.

Numerous allegations of corruption in the Chinese military

The military was one of the main targets of the anti-corruption campaign that Xi ordered in 2012. The crackdown reached the upper echelons of the People's Liberation Army in 2023, when the missile force was targeted.

Eight high-ranking generals were expelled from the Communist Party following corruption allegations in October 2025, including the country's No. 2 general, He Weidong. He worked alongside Zhang in CMC.

Two defense ministers have also been kicked out of the party over corruption allegations in recent years.

In the CMC, he is currently only one of the six generals appointed by President Xi in 2022.

Zhang has not been seen in public since November 20, when he held talks with the Russian defense minister in Moscow.

Also that month, Zhang had promised in an article to combat “false loyalty” and “two-faced people” and called on the military to eliminate “poisonous influences and lingering problems.”

Both Xi and Zhang are from Shaanxi, a province in northwest China, and are the children of former senior officials who fought together in the 1940s civil war.

The Pentagon considered Zhang “a close and experienced ally” of Xi

Born in Beijing, Zhang joined the army in 1968, rising through the ranks and joining the military commission in late 2012 as the People's Liberation Army's modernization drive gained momentum.

The Pentagon estimated in a late 2023 profile that Zhang was expected to retire in 2022 at age 72, given normal military practices.

“Nevertheless, keeping Zhang in the CMC for a third term likely reflects Xi's desire to retain a close and experienced ally as his top military adviser,” the profile included in the Pentagon's annual report on China's military read.

Zhang fought in a short but bloody border war in 1979 that China launched to punish Vietnam for invading Cambodia.

Zhang was 26 when he was sent to the front line to fight the Vietnamese and was quickly promoted, according to state media.

In 1984 he fought in another border conflict with Vietnam.