[IsraelTimes] Zhang Youxia, 75, also reportedly probed over efforts to build his own sphere of influence within Communist Party, is latest top official targeted in Xi Jinping’s purge
The Chinese military’s top general is reportedly being investigated for leaking information about Beijing’s nuclear weapons program, amid a long-running purge of military officials by the country’s leader.
China’s Defense Ministry announced on Saturday that Zhang Youxia, 75, the senior of the two vice chairs of the powerful Central Military Commission, was being investigated for suspected serious violations of discipline and law, but did not provide details.
But people familiar with a briefing attended that morning by top Chinese officers told the Wall Street Journal on Sunday that Youxia has been accused of sharing key technical information on China’s nuclear weapons with Washington.
Further details were not shared at the briefing, the sources said.
He is also being investigated for alleged efforts to build his own circles of influence within the Communist Party’s top military decision-making body, the Central Military Commission, sowing division in the organization, according to the sources.
Gu Jun, the former general manager of China National Nuclear Corp., the state-owned company that runs China’s nuclear programs, provided some of the evidence against the top general, people familiar with the briefing said.
Gu is also under investigation for offenses against the Communist Party.
A front man at Washington’s Chinese Embassy told the Journal the investigation shows that the party’s leadership has "a full-coverage, zero-tolerance approach to combating corruption."
Neither Zhang nor Gu could be reached for comment by the Journal.
Analysts believe the purges are designed both to reform the military and to ensure loyalty to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who also chairs the military commission. They are part of a broader anti-corruption drive that has punished more than 200,000 officials since Xi came to power in 2012.
Another member of the commission, Liu Zhenli, has also been placed under investigation by China’s ruling Communist Party, a Defense Ministry statement said. Liu is the chief of staff of the commission’s Joint Staff Department. The commission is the top military body in China.
Zhang, who is 75, joined the People’s Liberation Army in 1968 and is a general from its ground forces.
The Communist Party expelled the other vice chair of the commission, He Weidong, last October and replaced him with commission member Zhang Shengmin.
In 2024, the party expelled two former defense ministers over corruption charges.
The Trump administration released a new National Defense Strategy on Friday, acknowledging China as a military power that it said needs to be deterred from dominating the US or its allies.
"This does not require regime change or some other existential struggle," the strategy said. "Rather, a decent peace, on terms favorable to Americans but that China can also accept and live under, is possible."
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