China is witnessing its biggest military shakeup in at least 35 years, possibly signalling a quiet but sharp power tussle between President Xi Jinping and sections of the People’s Liberation Army. Last week, Beijing sacked Zhang Youxia, vice-chair of the country’s powerful Central Military Commission, as well as Liu Zhenli, who headed the CMC’s joint staff department, from the body which is headed by Mr Xi itself. The official reason for their ouster is corruption. But there are unofficial whispers: Mr Zhang, rumours suggest, is accused of having leaked nuclear secrets to the United States of America. Yet, regardless of the specific rationale cited by the Chinese authorities to remove Mr Zhang and Mr Liu from office, their ouster is part of a much broader purge within the CMC that Mr Xi has orchestrated over the past two years. Since 2024,
Mr Xi has ousted five out of the seven members of the CMC, including Mr Zhang and Mr Liu. Only Mr Xi himself and another commander remain. That is a major weakening of the CMC, a body that is such a symbol of hard power in China that in the 1980s, the then leader, Deng Xiaoping, held no other major official position except that of the chairman of the military commission.
This churn is significant for several reasons. Within China, it suggests tensions between Mr Xi and his political allies on the one hand and a large section of the military leadership — that he had himself appointed — on the other. Moreover, eight years after an amendment to the Constitution enabled Mr Xi to be president for life, if the highest levels of the military are infected with corruption, it reflects failings in his leadership. At a time when China is adopting an increasingly expansionist mindset, in the South China Sea and in its occasional provocations towards India, a military leadership worried about political purges will limit Mr Xi’s ambitions. And at a time when China is trying to present itself as a stable world leader in contrast to the global chaos unleashed by the US and its president, Donald Trump, these purges in the military should give other countries pause. The consolidation of power behind one individual can hide internal divisions and frictions that might be more visible when the leadership is more diverse. But a storm can also build up and eventually disrupt the apparent calm, even in Mr Xi’s China.