On October 27, 2025, during the 4th Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), a record-breaking 9 senior generals were simultaneously removed from their positions, marking the highest number of high-level military officials purged in a single day in the CCP’s 75-year history of governance. Behind the seemingly calm personnel announcement lies a gripping power struggle, as pointed out by former professor of the Central Party School, Cai Xia. This purge has exposed deep-seated cracks in power struggles within the CCP’s military.
The 4th Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP concluded on October 23. According to Xinhua News Agency, the meeting decided to appoint Zhang Shengmin as Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission and confirmed the expulsion of 9 senior generals including He Weidong and Miao Hua from the party.
What shocked observers the most was that all 9 generals removed from their positions were personally appointed by Xi Jinping. Since the 20th Party Congress in 2022, 14 generals appointed by Xi Jinping have been purged, an unprecedented high ratio where insiders have become the main targets of the purge.
Former professor of the Central Party School, Cai Xia, stated on the self-media program “Fang Fei Time” that this extensive purge was not solely orchestrated by Xi Jinping but initiated by Zhang Youxia as a preemptive political counterattack.
In July 2023, a large-scale corruption scandal erupted in the Rocket Force. Following this, the Discipline Inspection Commission issued a notice calling for reports on equipment procurement issues after October 2017. Cai Xia pointed out the sensitivity of this timeframe, coinciding with the period when Zhang Youxia rose from Minister of Equipment Development to Vice Chairman of the Military Commission.
“This is like a sword of Damocles hanging over Zhang Youxia’s head,” she said. Faced with the threat, Zhang Youxia did not sit idly by but took proactive measures: Li Shangfu was investigated, and 9 senior generals including He Weidong and Miao Hua were successively removed from their posts, possibly as Zhang Youxia’s retaliatory actions.
According to Cai Xia, “He Weidong and Miao Hua had conspired to establish a ‘private army’ in the Tianjin corridor area that did not belong to any theater, providing emergency military forces for Xi Jinping. However, the plan was discovered by Zhang Youxia, turning it into a handle for their purge.”
She mentioned that during the 3rd Plenary Session, Xi Jinping’s health condition was unstable, providing an opportunity for internal struggles within the Party. Zhang Youxia seized the moment to gain more leverage, ultimately forcing through the punishment of the 9 senior generals before the 4th Plenary Session, solidifying the situation as an “established fact.”
However, the results also reflect the delicate balance of power: Zhang Shengmin’s appointment as Vice Chairman of the Military Commission did not come with a position on the Political Bureau. Cai Xia believes this represents a form of “terror balance” where both sides are unable to completely defeat the other, resulting in a temporary coexistence.
She further pointed out that the current power structure is filled with uncertainty, and this personnel shake-up has severely weakened the military’s combat effectiveness and cohesion.
Chinese issues expert Zhang Tianliang shares the same view, analyzing from historical experiences of CCP power struggles that if Zhang Youxia truly intends to overthrow Xi Jinping, or if Xi Jinping aims to completely eradicate Zhang Youxia, this political game should be a rapid “decisive blow,” rather than a prolonged struggle.
The scale of this high-level military purge has shocked the outside world. The implicated senior officers involve vital departments such as the Rocket Force, the Armed Police, the Eastern Theater Command, spanning nearly all crucial nodes of the military power structure.
Additionally, there are 7 names of candidates for the Central Committee who have not been conventionally appointed, including key figures such as Wang Liyan, Deputy Commander of the Rocket Force, and Wang Kangping, Commander of the Joint Logistics Support Force. According to the implicit rules of CCP organizational personnel, this typically signifies trouble for these individuals.
Hsu Ming, a honorary professor of the Political Science Department at National Taiwan University, analyzing in the program “Frontline of Politics and Economics,” points out that the CCP military report used extremely severe language such as “disloyalty and dereliction of duty” and “serious violations of the Party’s command over guns principle and the Chairman of the Military Commission responsibility system,” far exceeding mere corruption allegations.
He analyzed that if it were just corruption issues, the CCP would not use such highly political terms. The accusation of “disloyalty and dereliction of duty” implies that these generals have encountered problems in their political stance, possibly involving disloyalty to the top leader, or even more severe political conspiracies.