China fires top general in shocking purge of senior military command
China’s highest-ranking military official below Xi Jinping has been placed under investigation for corruption, a stunning upheaval that brings down the most senior figure yet in a widening purge of Beijing’s armed forces and signifies an unprecedented consolidation of military power under the country’s leader.
China’s Ministry of National Defense said Saturday that Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) — the Communist Party body that controls China’s armed forces — is suspected of “grave violations of discipline and law,” an accusation typically associated with graft but one that is also commonly used when political opponents are taken down.
A spokesperson for the defense ministry leveled the same accusations against Gen. Liu Zhenli, who until recently served on the CMC as the head of the military’s Joint Staff Department, in a short statement Saturday.
The removal of Zhang, the 75-year-old son of a famous revolutionary general who has known Xi since childhood, elevates the purge into one of the biggest reshuffles imposed on the Chinese military since the Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989.
Control over the military is widely considered the key determinant of Chinese leaders’ power and their political survival. Historical power struggles within the Chinese Communist Party were often won by whoever commanded authority over the armed forces. [Continue reading…]