Xi's 'anti-graft' crackdown continues: Two senior generals expelled from CCP, Chinese military

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has expelled two senior officers from the party and the armed forces over "economic wrongdoing" and “serious violations of discipline and law," state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.Zhang Youxia, a vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the CCP’s top military command body, was second-in-command under President Xi Jinping and has long been regarded as one of his closest military allies. Liu Zhenli was also a CMC member and headed its Joint Staff Department.Investigations against Zhang and Liu were announced in January, and both were removed from the state Central Military Commission in late August.The CCP leadership accused the two officers of “disloyalty, corruption, dereliction of duty” and other serious disciplinary violations.Zhang and Liu “seriously violated political discipline and political rules, formed cliques and factions, and were disloyal and dishonest to the party”, Xinhua cited official documents as saying.The two “crossed red lines and basic limits”, the documents said, adding that their “political and economic wrongdoing were intertwined, and "corrupt self-enrichment" coexisted with dereliction of duty and abuse of office”.“The sums involved were exceptionally large; the nature (of their conduct) was extremely serious and the impact extremely egregious,” it said.Zhang was also a member of the ruling Communist Party’s elite Politburo and was among the few senior Chinese military officers with combat experience.Chinese military a major target of Xi's 'anti-corruption' crackdownThe Chinese military has been a major target of a broader anti-corruption campaign launched by Xi after he became president in 2013.In August, General Zhao Zongqi, who commanded the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Western Theatre Command during the 2017 Doklam standoff and the 2020 Galwan Valley clash with India, was sacked from Beijing’s top political advisory body. No reason was given for his removal, and no investigation against him was announced.In October 2025, nine senior generals were expelled from the CCP and military for “seriously violating party discipline” and showing a “total collapse of beliefs."In December last year, China’s parliament removed three senior military officials as part of a broader “anti-corruption crackdown."(With Reuters inputs)Catch the latest World News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.