‘No absolute relationships’: What makes China’s probe of top general Zhang Youxia ‘unusual’ and ‘remarkable’?

The investigation into China’s highest-ranking general Zhang Youxia marks one of the most extraordinary turns in the country’s long-running military shake-up, given his background, rank and proximity to President Xi Jinping, say analysts. “Very unusual to see someone like Zhang Youxia, with such a long record of service and deep personal ties to Xi, being taken down,” Yang Zi, a research fellow at RSIS, told CNA. Dylan Loh, an associate professor in the Public Policy and Global Affairs programme at Singapore’s NTU, described the move as one of the most consequential at the top of the PLA in decades. Zhang Youxia’s investigation, he said, could represent “the highest-ranking serving military figure to be targeted since the late 1980s,” when senior officers were purged or sidelined in the aftermath of political turmoil surrounding the 1989 Tiananmen incident.

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