China expels two top generals from party and military, alleging disloyalty and corruption

BEIJING, Sept 21 (Reuters) – China has expelled two top military leaders, Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, from the Communist Party and the military, an official announcement showed on Monday, citing alleged disloyalty, corruption and other serious disciplinary breaches.

Zhang was second-in-command under President Xi Jinping as vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission – the supreme command body – and has long been seen as Xi’s closest military ally. Liu was a CMC member and the chief of staff of its Joint Staff Department.

Probes into Zhang and Liu were announced in January, with the pair removed from the state Central Military Commission in late August. 

Since coming to ​power in 2012, Xi has unleashed one of the most sweeping corruption and discipline crackdowns in modern Chinese history. Millions within China’s vast bureaucracy have been investigated to varying degrees, with scores of senior party, government and military officials ensnared and purged.

The military has increasingly been one of the main targets of this broader campaign in recent years. A string of investigations and expulsions have left just two active figures on the formerly seven-member CMC, including Xi himself, who serves as chair.

‘DISLOYAL’, CLIQUES AND FACTIONS

The Chinese leadership accused the two former military leaders of being disloyal to the party, forsaking the party’s principles, failing to enforce strict party discipline or to supervise staff and family members.

Zhang and Liu “seriously violated political discipline and political rules, formed cliques and factions, and were disloyal and dishonest to the party,” state-run Xinhua news agency cited official documents as saying.

The pair “crossed red lines and basic limits,” it said, adding that their “political and economic wrongdoings 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.

While corruption allegations are not unusual against senior PLA officers, “what is unprecedented is the charges of disloyalty that include forming cliques and factions”, said Dennis Wilder, a former CIA China analyst and a senior fellow at Georgetown University.

The disloyalty allegations “harkens back to the days of Mao”, and, if substantiated, could suggest Xi saw the situation as a serious challenge to his authority and political position, Wilder said.

“It sends a sharp message to both the elders and the military about challenging Xi,” he added.

COMBAT VETERAN

Zhang had also been a member of the elite Politburo of the ruling Communist Party and was one of just a few leading officers with combat experience.

“What’s most remarkable about this particular moment is that in the 1980s Zhang Youxia was presented by the party and military propaganda apparatus as proof that yet another generation of young Chinese would prove loyal to the revolution,” said Joseph Torigian, an expert in ‌Chinese politics ⁠at American University.

“And now, Zhang is facing accusations of corruption and materialism that have brought down so many others of his cohort.”

The expulsions of Zhang and Liu were formally approved during a Politburo meeting chaired by Xi on Monday, state media reported. Their suspected criminal cases would next be handed over to military prosecutors for examination and prosecution, in accordance with the law, Xinhua said. 

The announcement came days before Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to travel to the US for talks with President Donald Trump, and weeks before a key October party conclave on internal party governance and discipline.

(Reporting by Beijing Newsroom, Editing by Louise Heavens and Alex Richardson)