ExclusiveHigh-Profile Purge: China Investigates Top General

Welcome to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story. The highest profile purge to date in China's military. A top general under investigation. He is the second in command after Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping. All of them say that this is unprecedented. At the same time, it really doesn't change a lot of the choices the U.S. government has to make. Beijing is accusing a top general of corruption and undermining the military governing body. We break down what this means. Meanwhile, reports say many Chinese military officials are already looking for a way out. Taiwan's defense minister says shakeups in China's military leadership is being closely watched. Warning Beijing has never ruled out the use of force against the island. Taiwanese experts say the uncertainty over Taiwan is rising. And Canada says it has no plans for a free trade agreement with China. It comes after President Trump threatened 100% tariffs on Canadian goods. China's top general and the Communist Party leader Xi Jinping's second in command is under investigation. That's according to the Ministry of National Defense over the weekend. It's the highest profile purge to date of senior military leaders. The move comes as Beijing modernizes its forces and seeks to project its might, especially around Taiwan and in the South China Sea. China's most senior general is under investigation, its defense ministry said on Saturday, in what is Beijing's highest profile purge of the top brass to date. Zhang Youxia is being probed over suspected serious violation of discipline and law, the ministry said. The veteran modernizer was widely seen as President Xi Jinping's closest military ally. Zhang Youxia was Xi's second in command as vice chairperson of the Foreign diplomats and security analysts are watching developments closely, given Zhang's closeness to Xi. His removal may also impact the commission's work in terms of command, as well as the People's Liberation Army's ongoing military modernization and posture. The military was one of the main targets of a broad corruption crackdown ordered by Xi in 2012. Eight top generals were expelled from the ruling Communist Party on graft charges in 2025. The ministry on Saturday said Liu Zhenli, chief of staff of the commission's Joint Staff Department, was also under investigation. Beijing is accusing Zhang and another general with two major allegations, corruption and challenging the governing structure of China's military. In Xi's China, these allegations usually refer to people he deems as threats to his rule. Meanwhile, insider sources suggest many personnel within China's military are now fearful about their future. NTD's Flora Hua has more on the story. China's military paper on Monday says no one can be exempted in the anti-corruption movement regardless of who they are and their contribution. That means even a top general like Besides Zhang, most Chinese generals have never fought in a war. Zhang fought in a war against Vietnam and has built a strong reputation within China's military over a decades-long career. Beyond corruption, another allegation, potentially more severe in Xi's China, is disloyalty. China's military says Zhang and the other general severely undermined the chairman-led system of the Central Military Commission. It oversees the entire Chinese military and is led by Xi Jinping. The latest purge left the group with only one member, other than Xi. What's more, a retired Chinese military official described the situation as chaotic, adding that some mid-level officials have submitted resignation letters. Zooming in on who Zhang Youxia is, Zhang used to share close ties with Xi Jinping. The two were childhood friends, but their relationship worsened over the past few years. In 2023, Xi purged Zhang's close ally, former defense minister Li Shangfu. It's a move that could put Zhang at risk. Since then, reports that Zhang Youxia has sided with opposition forces against Xi have re-increased. Among the opposition forces is the so-called Elderly Faction. It's a group that's made up of veteran Chinese state leaders, including former Premier Wen Jiabao. We will keep a close eye on future developments. Flora Hua, NTD News. Taiwan's Minister of National Defense Wellington Khoo said on Monday that the government is closely watching recent shakeups within China's military leadership. Khoo said Taiwan will continue to monitor unusual developments within the Chinese Communist Party, the government and the military. The country will also carry out a full assessment of the situation. He added that Taiwan's military planning is based on a long-standing reality. China has never ruled out the use of force against Taiwan. On Saturday, Chinese authorities announced investigations into two senior military officials. One is Zhang Youxia, the second-in-command to China's Central Military Commission. He's the most powerful military figure under the chairman Xi Jinping. The other is Liu Zhenli, chief of the Joint Staff Department, a position roughly equivalent to the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. The following day, China's official military newspaper, the PLA Daily, published an editorial accusing the two of severely undermining the military leadership system. The piece also said they were weakening the Communist Party's grip on power. Taiwanese political commentator Wang Hao said the wording of the editorial sends a clear message. Zhang Youxia is being portrayed as a threat to the current system. It gives Beijing a justification to remove him in the name of maintaining order. Wang said that for Xi Jinping, anything he cannot fully control is unacceptable. He believes he would rather remove the wrong person than allow potential threats to remain. Because of this, Wang warned that uncertainty over Taiwan's security is increasing, not decreasing. Civil defense expert Lin Pingyu said that if no one in the Chinese Communist Party can say no to Xi Jinping, it could be the moment the Chinese military acts against Taiwan. Lin said technical or operational challenges have never been Xi's main concern. If a military action strengthens his power, that alone may be enough. Lin added that while it would be very difficult for China to fully take over Taiwan, it would be much easier to cause serious damage. He warned against assuming a dictator will act according to normal cost-benefit logic, saying Taiwan's existence as a democracy is in itself the greatest challenge to authoritarian China. To discuss the two Chinese top military leaders purge of the weekend, we spoke with Steve Yates. He's a senior research fellow for China and national security policy at the Heritage Foundation. Take a look. Steve, as always, thank you so much for joining us. Now diving straight in, how are you reading these latest investigations into two of the country's most senior military figures? What does that tell you about the state of the party? Well, I have a number of friends who've served for many, many years watching this very, very closely, and all of them say that this is unprecedented. At the same time, it really doesn't change a lot of the choices the U.S. government has to make about what they're going to have to respond to or necessarily tell us what China will do. Ultimately, we look at China being run by Xi Jinping, and this purge of the military under normal circumstances would be dramatic. You'd think it would take a contingency in the Taiwan Straits off the table, but you just can't take anything off the table with Xi Jinping. So unfortunately, it gives us a lot to watch, a lot to try to analyze and unpack, and I would bet that the NTD audience has as good information as anybody about this, but unfortunately, we still have a powerful government that could be irresponsible at any time, and they have these trials and tribulations in the military leadership that are going to continue. As you noted in the intro, this is not the first. We're barely left with anybody at the top of the Central Military Commission at this point, so we have to see where they go politically. I want to dig into that Taiwan aspect, because these two were the last generals with real war experience. What could that mean in terms of a Taiwan contingency? Well, you could read it different ways, so I'll just play the scenario out a little bit. One could read it as they might think, looking at what the United States has done with its armada vis-a-vis Venezuela, looking at what the U.S. was able to do with Iran at hitting sensitive facilities before Chinese tech was able to detect the entry or exit of American forces at that time. These generals could have said, well, you know, we have a lot of investment and a lot of manufacturing deployed, but we don't have a lot of kinetic experience, and certainly not up against the likes of the United States. They could have been urging caution or more time when Xi wants to go sooner. At the same time, there are lots of things that could be explaining what's going on with this. The military has been wedded into webs that could be called corrupt at any time. That's the nature of the institution and the way it's financed itself over recent decades, and there could just be political intrigue that goes into why someone's time is up and the mafia boss has decided it's your time to go through a trial or exile or worse. Now, to your point, if Xi Jinping is surrounded by those he sees as loyalists or who are not going to raise caution for a Taiwan plan, could that actually move up that potential Taiwan invasion? Well, I'm one that doesn't really believe there will be a Taiwan invasion in the near term, and part of that is perhaps my hope. Maybe I'm wrong about this, but I hope that some measure of real leadership there would recognize that it is militarily very, very difficult. Technologically, that has only gotten more difficult. And if they look at where Russia went, are they that much better in terms of their surety of where their military machine would go in that kind of a contingency? And we have Japan and other powers making clear that this is not something that they would consider incidental or irrelevant to their national interests. So I think those scenarios have gotten more complicated in the last year or two. And so I hope that there's rationality that says that this isn't going to go sooner, but you can never say never. And that's why I think we will always have these questions. We'll always do our best to try to answer them, but we just don't get to know. That's where former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld was right. We have to be careful what we know we know and what the things are that we just can't know. And that's life and that's military planning. And given these latest purges, some analysts are wondering about the stability of the party apparatus inside Beijing, because this also follows recent CIA recruitment videos in Chinese seeking those in the country to come forward with information. In your view, how stable is the party right now, or is there a sense of distrust maybe among the party elite? Yeah, I don't think that the party is that stable. Unfortunately, though, I also have a dim view that unstable and ineffective parties in these authoritarian regimes can linger way too long. The searing experience of my lifetime was the North Korean regime in the 1990s, pronounced dead by nearly every intelligence service and diplomatic service in the world. And it's still very much around today. And so I think we have to be cautious about how close it is. And we have a recent experience with Iran, where there's widespread demonstrations and the regime looks to be on the ropes. It could still be on the ropes. In fact, I hope it is because it's a terrible regime that I hope ends for the sake of the Iranian people. We have a similar situation with China, where if the economy is shrinking, they're an export dependent economy. And if they're playing dangerous games in the United States, playing political games with countries like Canada, and their economic drivers for low energy like Iran and Venezuela are getting affected. And if Russia is not a driving engine of growth or opportunity, where do they turn to have confidence? So I think that their options have actually gotten worse. But unfortunately, when you have bloody regimes, they don't have to have only good options before they're willing to take risks. And that is just where we are. In terms of the party leadership that is left, could we see some of them trying to preserve their own status and power and perhaps revolt against Xi Jinping? What's the likelihood of something like that? Yeah, I would just put the likelihood as lower, just because Xi has spent his entire time in government, killing, trying, purging people who might be in a position to do that. And at this point, they have the world's most advanced surveillance state, and they probably surveil each other more than they surveil anybody else. And so that's where I would think that the odds are a little bit difficult. At the same time, I'm just someone who believes that in the evolution of mankind, get to these points where these regimes get brittle, they make mistakes, and the people have had enough. I wish I had a better crystal ball to tell me when we are close or at those kind of a tipping point. And I think that the people of China certainly deserve better, and they would have much, much better options under a more humane and accountable government. But I just don't see Xi Jinping going easily or willingly. And so I think that we are in for probably political struggle and more purges like this in institutions beyond just the military. And to your earlier point, with all that's happening inside China, how should the U.S. be evaluating and handling all of this? For instance, are there lessons from the fall of the Soviet Union that could potentially be applied here? Well, there are some lessons, but I think that we're in just such a different place in the world. I think at this point, unambiguously, the United States is a very, very strong economy. It is getting to be stronger militarily. Its alliances, despite some of the political show and tell going on around the world, are actually pretty capable and strong when they matter to China. And so I think that the main thing that the United States really ought to be doing is, if they have this much unreliable lack of transparency, unaccountability in the military, then we really need to make sure that our supply chains are insulated, if not completely decoupled by from this kind of a risky regime. I think the U.S. administration and some around the world have not moved as fast as they might. I know it can't be a one day and done quick on and off switch. But especially Europe, Canada and some others, they've been toying with the idea of deepening strategic partnership. This should be a signal that says absolutely not the time to do that with this kind of regime. Because if there is a change, my bet is the people of China will remember those that tried to give a lifeline to a dying tyrannical regime. Well, Steve Yates, as always, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much. Coming up, Canada says it has no plans for a free trade agreement with China after President Trump threatened 100% tariffs on Canadian goods. The British prime minister is delaying a controversial bill on the Chagos Islands following sharp criticism from President Trump. What is China's role in all this? And Japan's prime minister is signaling she's open to meet with China's Xi Jinping. At the same time, Chinese airlines are grounding all flights to Japan next month. More on that after the break here on China In Focus. Welcome back to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday that he has no plans to pursue a free trade deal with China. That comes after President Trump warned Canada it could face 100% tariffs on all its goods if it makes a deal with China. We have commitments under Kuzma that not to pursue free trade agreements with non-market economies without prior notification. We have no intention of doing that with China or any other non-market economy. Kuzma, also known as the USMCA, is a free trade deal between the US, Canada, and Mexico. The deal has protected most Canadian exports from Trump's tariff hikes and will be reviewed this summer. However, Carney's recent EV deal with China has been sparking controversy. Canada used to have a 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles. It was part of a joint effort with the US to protect North American auto markets. But under the new deal, Canada will allow 49,000 Chinese EVs to enter under a 6% tariff in exchange for China lowering tariffs on Canadian canola oil. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson addressed the issue over the weekend on ABC. We can't let Canada become an opening that the Chinese pour their cheap goods into the U.S. In a Truth Social post, Trump noted that Carney is mistaken if he's going to make Canada a drop-off port for China to send goods and products into the U.S. Adding that, quote, China will eat Canada alive. Tensions between the U.S. and Canada have escalated after Carney took a swipe at the U.S. Great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons. Tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited. Middle powers must act together because if we're not at the table, we're on the menu. Canada gets a lot of freebies from us, by the way. They should be grateful also, but they're not. Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements. About 4% of Canada's exports go to China, while about 76% go to the United States, nearly 20 times more. One of the world's largest gold gold in a roughly $4 billion all-cash deal. The companies announced the agreement Monday as Chinese miners continue expanding globally amid record-high gold prices. The deal comes as Canada and China work to ease trade tensions. Zijin will pay about $32 per share. The companies expect the transaction to close by late April this year. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is delaying a controversial bill on the Chagos Islands after backlash at home and sharp criticism from President Trump. The British territory in the Indian Ocean is home to a key U.S.-UK military base, and China is also playing a role in the situation. Britain's government has polled a planned parliamentary debate on a bill Saturday that would formalize its agreement to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. The deal would keep the strategic Diego Garcia military base in U.S. and British hands, but the U.K. would lease the site from Mauritius for about $135 million a year for 99 years. The move has sparked political backlash at home and abroad. In a Truth Social post last week, Trump blasted Britain's plan to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. He added that the move would signal total weakness to China and Russia. Lawmakers pushed for a pause, citing geopolitical tensions and concerns the deal could undermine security arrangements with the U.S. The government says it remains committed to the agreement, calling the Diego Garcia base vital to national security and regional stability. Trump's comments have added to the pressure, rattling the British government and fueling debate over whether the handover should be reconsidered. For now, the bill is on hold and will come back up in Parliament later, leaving the future of the Chagos deal and its geopolitical fallout uncertain. So what's the relationship between China and Mauritius, the country the Chagos Islands would be handed over to? To start off, they're very friendly. In 2021, Mauritius became the first African country to sign a free trade agreement with China. And shortly afterwards, the two countries elevated their ties to a strategic partnership. Mauritius plays a major role as a gateway for Chinese investment into Africa. Japan and China are sending different signals to each other. One's diplomatic, the other disruptive for travelers. Japan's prime minister says she's open to direct talks with Chinese regime leader Xi Jinping. Meanwhile, major Chinese airlines are canceling all flights to Japan next month, right ahead of the Lunar New Year travel rush. On Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said she's willing to meet with Xi. It signals potential talks between the two leaders after months of tension over Taiwan and security policy. Speaking at a debate with other political leaders, Takaichi said she's positive about meeting Xi to make sure Japan's position is understood. At the same time, China's adding more pressure on Japan. Flight data shows all scheduled flights between China and Japan have been canceled for February. Major Chinese airlines cited travel advisories that discourage Chinese tourists from visiting Japan. The timing is significant since February aligns with the Lunar New Year holiday. It's typically one of the busiest travel periods of the year for Chinese travelers. The cancellations follow tensions from last November when Takaichi said a Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger Japan's military to respond. Since then, Chinese airlines have been scaling back on flights to Japan. That's all for today's China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. If you have any feedback on the show or have something you'd like to see us cover, send us an email at chinainfocusatntd.com. We'd love to hear from you. For around the clock original news coverage, visit us at ntd.com or download our NTD app. Thanks for watching. See you tomorrow.