Why Xi Jinping Has Purged His Top Military Leaders

China’s armed forces are in the midst of one of the most sweeping shakeups of the Xi Jinping era, with a steady stream of senior generals vanishing from public view or being formally purged. A corruption crackdown that started in mid-2023 has spiraled into a campaign that has taken down defense ministers, commanders and multiple members of the Central Military Commission, which oversees the armed forces, effectively hollowing out the leadership Xi put in place only a few years ago.

Events took a dramatic turn in January when the Defense Ministry announced that two of China’s most senior generals — Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia, long seen as Xi’s most trusted military ally, and fellow CMC member Liu Zhenli — were under investigation, leaving the military’s top decision-making body effectively reduced to just two figures, including Xi himself.