In recent months, Lei of Lei’s Real Talk and others have been reporting some facts and many rumors indicating that General Zhang Youxia and Dictator-in-Chief Xi Jinping have been locked in a struggle for power that, after last year’s Plenum meetings, seemed to have been resolved by stalemate.
Arrests of Xi cronies in the People’s Liberation Army or Chinese Communist Party have been attributed by some to Xi Jinping himself—just engaging in more power consolidation in the guise of “fighting corruption”—by others to Zhang, working from his own base in the military to undermine Xi.
Arrest of Zhang
Now what were at first only rumors that Xi had arrested his arch enemy, Zhang (shown above), who had been in control of the PLA, have been confirmed. (Then came rumors that Zhang, though arrested, has been rescued from custody.)
Several days ago, Intelligence Oline reported that a series of 17 recent arrests “coordinated by China’s Ministry of Public Security heralds a profound restructuring of the Central Military Commission as Xi Jinping further consolidates his grip on the People’s Liberation Army” (January 22, 2026).
The recent turmoil at the top of China’s Central Military Commission is only intensifying the profound restructuring of the country’s military hierarchy. The key figures in this upheaval are Zhang Youxia, Liu Zhenli and Zhong Shaojun. Zhang Shengmin, in charge of the anti-corruption campaign within the military, is now the only operational member of the CMC apart from President Xi Jinping, and has become an omnipresent figure at ceremonies and public meetings, symbolising the new untainted and loyal image of the People’s Liberation Army.
According to two sources, one close to the standing committee of the Chinese Communist Party Politburo and the other to the PLA, Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli were arrested earlier this week. As for Zhong Shaojun, already under investigation, his arrest was confirmed during the same operation, for a very subtle reason related to a delicate power game within the CCP….
Zhang Youxia’s wife was notably also arrested. This rare move is aimed at putting pressure on the general to talk, to expose other cases of corruption among senior PLA officers and to quickly eliminate the anti-Xi revolt within the military….
According to our sources in Beijing, the belated announcement of his purge illustrates a harsh reality: personal proximity does not exempt individuals from corruption charges, and disciplinary proceedings are now catching up with former allies. All of this serves to reinforce Xi’s strength and political balance at a time of intense power struggles within the Party.
The issue of “corruption” is irrelevant here, except as something that Xi and others talk about to explain why they’re getting rid of rivals. The whole rotten CCP is corrupt in every conceivable respect. If you’re a CCP official and take bribes, big deal, unless you get on somebody’s bad side or end up accidentally destroying a weapons system.
Xi’s “strength and political balance” may not be shakier than Intelligence Online suggests. Missing from its report is the fact or rumor that Xi’s action against Zhang was retaliation for a Zhang-led coup attempt against Xi Jinping.
Lei’s Real Talk
Time to quote Lei. The following comments are from her YouTube video of January 24, “Zhang Youxia’s Fall and the Shattering of CCP Elite Unity.” Since in Lei’s view, there had been no such unity for at least the past several months, the title might more accurately refer to a shattering of façade of unity.
Lei says that Xi’s arrests of the most powerful PLA figure, Zhang Youxia, and the chief of the Joint Staff Department, Liu Zhengli, represent
the most severe leadership shock at the top of the CCP since the 1989 pro-democracy movement, and the most serious military leadership crisis since 1972, when Mao’s vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, General Lin Biao, died while attempting to flee to the Soviet Union….
In past cases, Beijing always moved slowly…. But this time, it took just four days. That tell us one thing very clearly. It’s not a routine corruption case. It’s not a standard power play in the political struggles. This is a counter-coup measure, something so urgent and destabilizing that the leadership felt compelled to announce it immediately and lock in the official narrative….
[A] follow-up editorial left no room for ambiguity. Eight hours after the announcement, the Defense Ministry’s announcement, the PLA’s official newspaper published an extraordinarily harsh editorial on its website, directly naming and condemning both men.
The editorial repeatedly stressed that the entire military must maintain absolute alignment with Xi Jinping at its core and must obey Chairman Xi’s command. But what really stood out was the language. The article accused Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhengli of seriously betraying the trust placed in them by the Party and the Central Military Commission….
And it also accused the two of severely undermining the CMC chairman’s responsibility system, which is just CCP jargon to mean Xi Jinping’s command power, and also accused them of gravely damaging the party’s absolute control over the military and posing a direct threat to regime’s ruling foundation. And it went on to accuse them of political wrongdoing and corruption, of shattering unity within the armed forces, and of causing severe damage to the PLA’s political system…and combat readiness, with extremely serious consequences….
And also accused them of gravely damaging the party’s absolute control over the military and posing a direct threat to regime’s ruling foundation. And it went on to accuse them of political wrongdoing and corruption, of shattering unity within the armed forces, and of causing severe damage to the PLA’s political system, internal ecology, and combat readiness with extremely serious consequences.
So this is not standard anti-corruption language. Taking it together, it directly confirms multiple rumors that Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhengli were involved in a joint failed coup attempt against Xi Jinping.
Lei then reports what her sources have been telling her about Zhang’s alleged coup attempt on January 18, which Xi managed to foil.
Mobile phones
What is the situation now?
The original general staff command system in the PLA has been suspended. Command authority has been shifted to direct Central Military Commission control, issued through encrypted telegrams.
All previous communication channels have been suspended. They now use an encrypted telegrams to send out orders. The entire PLA has been placed on level-one combat readiness. All troop movements have been frozen. All officers and soldiers have been ordered to surrender their mobile phones. They’re going to go through everyone’s phone.
And units have been sent into collective political study. So the PLA as a whole is now doing political study. So it doesn’t look like a normal disciplinary response. This is wartime internal control.
I don’t see how “collective political study” is consistent with “level-one combat readiness.” Anyhow, there are also rumors or news of outages and armored vehicles:
Local residents have reported power outages in the capital city [of Beijing]. It’s not citywide. It could be targeted region or regions. And people also have spotted armored vehicles appearing on city streets.
And even small details stand out. The spokesman from the defense ministry who delivered the announcement was a new face, not the usual spokesman. So that’s another sign of internal disruption. So there’s no doubt about this anymore, that elite CCP power struggles have entered an extremely dangerous new face, and it’s out in the open….
From Xi Jinping’s perspective…there’s no turning back once he chooses to move against Zhang Youxia. There’s no middle ground left for him. Actually, there’s no middle ground left for either side. So Xi Jinping can only keep going all the way to the end. He’s going to be ruthless. And in doing so, he can effectively bring down the regime on his own.
As Lei sees it, the life-and-death struggle for power must continue because, even with Zhang in custody, his own base is still out there. And they probably can’t be forced to spend their time studying Xi Jinping Thought indefinitely. (If we assume that they’ve all actually been doing that.)
But Zhang may not be in custody.
On January 25, in a video posted a day later, Lei reported rumors that “the general has been rescued and is now, is actually not in Xi Jinping’s custody. And even more striking, these rumors are coming from the same source that accurately predicted the general’s downfall in the first place…. [It may be that] Zhang escaped [with the help of Liu Zhengli] and is currently located” in an unknown PLA command center.
Troops loyal to Zhang may be “moving toward Beijing.” And Xi seems to have imposed a kind of “semi martial law.”
If all this is true, we’re back to a tense standoff between the forces of Xi and the forces of Zhang, but not the one that prevailed before several days ago. Tenser.
