Corruption in the People’s Liberation Army

Air University

The Chinese Communist Party’s late January 2026 anti-corruption investigation of Central Military Commission first Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli has severely disrupted the nation's top military decision-making body. This high-level purge isolates Chairman Xi Jinping from critical military advisement while removing the last senior officers possessing combat experience from the Sino-Vietnamese conflict.

Structurally, these removals reduce the core leadership of the commission from seven members in 2023 to just two by 2026, leaving only the chairman and career Political Commissar Zhang Shengmin. This sweeping campaign has led to the suspected disappearance or removal of over 100 two- and three-star flag officers since 2022, including up to 47 three-star generals. Such unprecedented turnover across nearly every theater command and service branch threatens to undermine immediate operational readiness and long-term modernization goals. The full extent of these ongoing purges is detailed in the full report.

Comment

The systematic purging of the Central Military Commission Joint Staff Department hollows out the critical node responsible for operationalising joint campaigns. By reducing this supreme decision-making body to just two active voices, Beijing has effectively subordinated professional military expertise to political compliance. This concentration of authority under the Discipline Inspection Commission disrupts the traditional dual-command structure. Consequently, the loss of veteran officers from the Sino-Vietnamese conflict removes the last remaining operational memory of large-scale combat from the highest echelon of Chinese military planning.

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