An interesting development in Beijing is the ousting of China’s senior general Zhang Youxia. Notably, he was a close ally of Xi Jinping and could signal a preemptive strike to suppress a potential coup within his own government following an assassination attempt. This puts China’s military structure vulnerable.
On January 24, 2026, China’s defense ministry announced General Zhang was under investigation for serious violations of discipline and law. The ministry usually takes 6-9 months to announce a purge of a senior official, but this time it was a week.
Several sources were all over this. The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and respected online sources such as Dr. Steve Turley will attract international interest in how this develops. Zhang had been accused of leaking core technical data to the CIA.
Are we seeing a fissure within the Central Committee Party due to internal discord?
In Foreign Affairs’ latest article about this, Christopher Johnson states:
Much of the analysis of the current purge cycle interprets it as an indicator of Xi’s loose grip on power or distrust of his generals. Others claim it is a struggle among rival factions within the PLA, with Xi as a passive observer. His evisceration of the entire CMC offers solid prima facie evidence that these frameworks lack explanatory power. But they also deny Xi his greatest asset—a knack for long-term, patient planning punctuated by political blitzkriegs. Xi is not clairvoyant, and he has adapted to unexpected developments as his antigraft war has unfolded. Still, claims that he was ignorant of the depth of PLA corruption or that his commanders push him around overlook a clear storyline of Xi’s steady orchestration and control of the process. As such, the persistence of these narratives means that a fundamental reboot of outsiders’ thinking about Chinese party-army relations and internal PLA politics is urgently needed.
With instability in China, does this create concern for the volatility of what happens to Taiwan, Russia, or any of the world’s relations?