Who is Zhang Youxia? China's top general, Xi's closest military ally accused of leaking nuclear secrets to US

China recently overhauled its military, drawing special focus to its top general, Zhang Youxia, the highest-ranking military officer after President Xi Jinping.

On Saturday, authorities placed Zhang under investigation for “suspected serious violations of discipline and law," according to the major announcement made by China's state broadcaster CCTV.

China's defence ministry confirmed that investigators were probing both Zhang and General Liu Zhenli, a lower-ranking member of the commission who headed the military’s Joint Staff Department, the Associated Press reported.

“Xi Jinping has completed one of the biggest purges of China’s military leadership in the history of the People’s Republic,” Neil Thomas, a fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis, told AP.

The move shakes up virtually the entire commission, chaired by Xi, leaving only one of its six members intact.

Why is Zhang Youxia under investigation?

On Saturday, the defence ministry gave no details on the alleged wrongdoing. But a day later, on Sunday, the People's Liberation Army Daily published an editorial saying that the action was taken over "suspected serious violations of discipline and law,” and showed China's commitment to punishing corruption.

The editorial alleged that Zhang and Liu “seriously betrayed the trust and expectations” of the Communist Party and the Central Military Commission (CMC), and “fostered political and corruption problems that undermined the party’s absolute leadership over the military and threatened the party’s ruling foundation”.

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal cited sources claiming that Zhang leaked information about China's nuclear weapons programme to the United States. The WSJ report also alleged he accepted bribes for official acts, including the promotion of an officer to the defence minister.

LiveMint was unable to verify the authenticity of the report.

Meanwhile, analysts told Reuters that such purges are designed to reform the military and ensure loyalty to Xi. They form part of a broader anti-corruption drive that has punished more than 200,000 officials since the Chinese leader came to power in 2012.

The military has been a key target of a broad corruption crackdown ordered by Xi in 2012. That drive reached the upper echelons of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in 2023 when the elite Rocket Force was targeted.

Who is Zhang Youxia?

Zhang was the most senior general, second only to Xi in the military command structure, and long regarded as Xi's closest military ally.

Reports in The Guardian and Reuters say that Zhang served as the joint vice-chairperson of the powerful CMC, the ruling body of China’s PLA. He was also a member of the elite Politburo of the ruling Communist Party and was one of just a few senior officers with combat experience.

His removal marks only the second time a sitting general on the CMC has been ousted since the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.

Zhang's life and career

Born in Beijing, Zhang joined the army in 1968, rising through the ranks and joining the military commission in late 2012 as the PLA's modernisation drive gathered pace, Reuters reported.

Both Xi and Zhang are reported to be from the northwestern province of Shaanxi and are the children of former senior officials who fought together in the 1940s civil war.

A Pentagon profile of Zhang in late 2023 said that Zhang had been expected to retire in 2022, aged 72, given usual military practice. "However, Zhang's retention on the Central Military Commission (CMC) for a third term probably reflects Xi's desire to keep a close and experienced ally as his top military adviser," the profile said, contained within the Pentagon's annual report on China's military that year.

Zhang fought in a brief but bloody border war in 1979 that China launched in punishment for Vietnam's invading Cambodia the previous year and ousting the Beijing-backed Khmer Rouge.

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

Zhang also fought in another border clash with Vietnam in 1984 as the conflict rumbled on.

"During the battle, whether attacking or defending, Zhang Youxia performed excellently," the official China Youth Daily wrote in a 2017 piece entitled, "These Chinese generals have killed the enemy on the battlefield".

Some China scholars reportedly noted that Zhang emerged from the conflict an avowed moderniser in terms of military tactics, weapons and the need for a force.

(With inputs from agencies)