China removes top generals Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli from military commission

On Friday, 28 August 2026, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress formally removed General Zhang Youxia and General Liu Zhenli from China's state Central Military Commission. The decision, announced by the state-run Xinhua news agency, follows investigations initiated by the Ministry of National Defense on 24 January 2026 for suspected serious violations of discipline and law. Zhang, 75, served as the senior vice chairman of the commission and the highest-ranking uniformed officer in China, while Liu, 62, headed the Joint Staff Department responsible for combat operations. Although the parliamentary decision applies to the state body, China operates parallel state and Communist Party commissions with identical functions. Neither officer has yet been publicly removed from the ruling party's Central Military Commission.

Deepening cleanup of the command structure

The dismissal leaves the Central Military Commission with only two active members out of its standard seven seats: Chinese leader Xi Jinping and General Zhang Shengmin, the military anti-corruption chief appointed as vice chairman in October 2025. The panel had already shrunk from seven to four members in October 2025, when nine senior officers fell in a single day, including former vice chairman He Weidong and political work department director Admiral Miao Hua. Official data indicates that 983,000 officials across civil and military bureaucracies faced disciplinary punishment during 2025 alone. Xi launched the overarching anti-graft drive across the armed forces in 2012 and called in July 2026 for further intensifying efforts to eliminate personal patronage networks and enforce absolute party control over the gun.

The fall of a revolutionary insider

Zhang Youxia's ouster is notable due to his decades of close political ties with Xi Jinping. Both men belong to the group known as the red aristocracy, sons of veterans who fought together during the Chinese communist revolution. Zhang, a combat veteran of the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War, was promoted to vice chairman of the commission in 2017 and retained his seat past customary retirement ages before gaining a seat on the 24-member Politburo in 2022. Commentary published by People's Liberation Army media accused Zhang and Liu of undermining the authority of the leadership and weakening the Communist Party's direct command over military forces.

Parliamentary expulsions and wider investigations

Alongside their removal from the military leadership, both generals lost their seats as deputies in the National People's Congress. A total of 12 individuals were removed from the national legislature, including Zhong Shaojun, the former head of the Central Military Commission General Office, and Ju Qiansheng, the former commander of the Strategic Support Force. China's top political advisory body also revoked the membership of Zhao Zongqi, the former commander of the Western Theater Command who oversaw frontier units during the 2020 border clashes with India. The parliamentary decisions clear the way for formal legal proceedings against the ousted officers.