The announcement that “China removes two top generals from supreme military command body” is like a telegram delivered by snail.
The two top generals being referred to, Zhang Youxia (shown above) and Liu Zhenli, had been removed from power and put “under investigation” in January of this year. But the removals are only now being formalized, perhaps a sign that Xi Jinping is on surer footing than he was right after ousting Zhang, an action that shocked many in China. Or let’s say half-formalized. The two men have not been formally stripped of all of their top posts (Reuters, August 28, 2026).
The removal of Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli leaves just two active members on the formerly seven-member commission, including President Xi Jinping himself. [As has been true de facto since January 2026.]
Zhang was second-in-command under Xi as vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) and a member of China’s elite Politburo. Liu was a CMC member and chief of staff of the CMC’s Joint Staff Department.
China has parallel Communist Party and state CMC structures but they function as a single institution. Friday’s announcement by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress concerns Zhang and Liu’s positions in the state CMC.
They have not been formally or publicly stripped of their posts in the Central Military Commission of the ruling Communist Party.
The South China Morning Post recalls that “a commentary by the PLA Daily in January said Zhang and Liu had betrayed the trust of the Communist Party and undermined the party’s absolute control of the military as well as the reputation of the armed forces.”
Also in January, The Wall Street Journal reported or misreported that in addition to allegations that Zhang had violated party discipline and formed cliques—the Chinese military’s top general had friends in the military—the CCP was lobbing accusations that Zhang had been “leaking information about the country’s nuclear-weapons program to the U.S.” The Journal was relaying what “people familiar with a high-level briefing on the allegations” were relaying.
This particular accusation against Zhang seems to have faded away. But at the time it was supposedly supported by an investigation into a certain 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.” That’s what the Journal said that the people familiar with the briefing said, anyway.
