For subscribers
What Xi Jinping’s purge of China’s most senior general reveals
The President has swept away military leaders on a scale unseen since Mao – raising doubts about China’s readiness.
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
General Zhang Youxia, vice-chairman of China's Central Military Commission, has been placed under investigation.
PHOTO: EPA
The Economist
Among China’s generals, one had long seemed immune to the sweeping purges of the high command in the past two years. General Zhang Youxia, its most senior uniformed officer, was not just a personal friend of President Xi Jinping, China’s leader. He was one of the few military commanders with combat experience, having fought with distinction in a war with Vietnam in 1979. That bolstered his authority as the senior of the two vice-chairmen of the Central Military Commission (CMC), which commands the armed forces (and is headed by President Xi).
Some analysts viewed Gen Zhang as the mastermind of some of the recent purges. Now even he has been toppled
