The aftershocks caused by the downfall of Zhang Youxia are changing the structure of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). In addition to the phenomenon of “amateur leaders leading professionals” violating military rules at the top level, internal sources have reported that the cleaning operation has affected hundreds of mid-to-high-level officials and soldiers, severely weakening the professional combat capabilities of the forces. As combat-oriented generals are systematically purged, replaced by political loyalty screenings, it reflects a significant shift in the PLA’s military construction: operational professionalism is being forced to give way to political control logic.
On January 24th, it was officially announced that PLA Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia and committee member Liu Zhenli were being investigated. Prior to this, another Vice Chairman, He Weidong, had been missing for a long time. The core of the Military Commission has been nearly “vacant” in a short period, sparking strong doubts from the outside world about the PLA’s chain of command being broken and the system undergoing transformation.
Over two months have passed since the incident, the political purge within the Chinese military shows no signs of stopping, instead presenting a “blanket search and kill” frenzy.
According to an informant within the military, Chen Yongqi (pseudonym), since the downfall of Zhang Youxia, a ruthless purge targeting “political disloyalty” has reached a near paranoid state. “The investigation orders are extremely harsh, requiring a backward search to 12 years starting from the end of January!” Chen Yongqi pointed out that this means the review will go all the way back to 2013, aiming to eradicate the promotion trajectories during Zhang Youxia’s tenure, direct and indirect relationship networks, and even “subordinates’ subordinates”.
Chen Yongqi added: “First, they check the promotion years, then compare the degree of association with Zhang and his inner circle. Starting from the battalion level and above, a large number of confidants are being brought out in heaps. Now, no matter how strong your professional skills are, once labeled with Zhang’s mark, you will not be spared.”
This “guilt by association” review logic indicates that anyone who has come within the radius of influence of Zhang Youxia has been reduced to sacrificial lambs.
Another informant close to the military, Yang Kai (pseudonym), mentioned that this “harvesting” operation, led by a special task force of the Military Discipline Commission, is efficiently advancing through the use of big data algorithms. He stated, “Within just two months, hundreds of battalion-level and regiment-level mid-level military officers have disappeared in the five major war zones and various military branches.” Yang Kai revealed that the current clean-up no longer relies on traditional investigations but uses precise algorithmic screening through the big data system. Triggering a red line in the relationship network will automatically lock the system, creating unprecedented panic in the grassroots command system of the forces.
Chinese military scholar Song Pengchun (pseudonym) pointed out that this frantic reshuffling by the CCP signifies a complete shift in military governance logic from an “ability to fight” orientation to a “compliance-oriented loyalty.”
Song Pengchun said, “Those being purged are mostly experts in the military technology field. This ‘de-professionalization, de-technologization’ political operation is rapidly hollowing out the core combat capabilities of the PLA. When the forces are left with only political opportunists who know how to flatter, the army will completely lose its tactical competence and become a group of lackluster individuals without combat effectiveness.”
Beijing policy researcher Wang Qiang analyzed this deadlock from the perspective of the power structure. He believes that after the military reform, the power structure has been extremely centralized towards the power center, and now, under the guise of political scrutiny, removing those professional officers with independent judgment ability is essentially implementing a “brain-damaged” management in the command system, signaling the complete end of the era of professional military construction.
Wang Qiang said, “The current command system is in an unprecedented state of silence and rigidity. When ‘obedience’ becomes the only survival rule, any professional tactical considerations will bow to the political wind. This singular and abnormal power structure is causing the entire army to lose its flexibility in dealing with modern warfare, ultimately turning it into a political private army to maintain personal power.”
Given the atmosphere of internal purges within the CCP, since November 2025, Xi Jinping has not left Beijing for a long time, and has even broken the tradition of visiting troops during the Spring Festival. Beijing observers believe that the Chinese military is undergoing a profound structural regression: it is gradually transitioning from a modern combat system emphasizing professional specialization to a political obedience organization centered around individual loyalty, leading to an irreversible decline in its combat capabilities.