Zhang Youxia swears an oath with members of the Central Military Commission at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 11, 2023. | Greg Baker/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

In recent years, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has been systematically purging his country’s senior military leaders, part of an overall campaign that has meted out punishment to some 200,000 officials since he took power. It’s officially an anti-corruption program but also, most believe, an effort to consolidate power over China’s ruling Communist Party. Hundreds of senior officers have been removed, including former defense ministers.

But even after all that, this week’s announcement that China’s top general, Zhang Youxia, had been placed under investigation for “serious disciplinary and legal violations” came as a shock to China watchers. It was a sign that we know even less than we thought about what’s happening at the top of the world’s largest military at a time of escalating fears over a catastrophic global war over Taiwan. The concern, among analysts, is that with a potentially world historical decision looming, Xi may be removing the last people with the power to tell him “no.”

As vice chair of the Central Military Commission, Zhang was second-in-command of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) after Xi. His removal, along with Liu Zhenli, another senior general, leaves only Xi and one other low ranking member on the commission.

Zhang was seen as both extremely loyal to the party and highly competent, as well as one of the few Chinese military officers with real combat experience, having served in the ill-fated invasion of Vietnam in 1979. He was often described as Xi’s most important military ally.

Like Xi, he is a “princeling,” the son of a senior Communist Party leader. The two men’s fathers even served together in Mao Zedong’s army in Northwest China during the Chinese civil war, and the sons have likely known each other since childhood, though it’s not clear how close they are personally.

In other words, if anyone looked untouchable, it was Zhang. “This is not just another corruption case,” said Jason Hsu, a former Taiwanese legislator who is now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. “This one is special.”

The exact reasons for Zhang’s ouster may never be known. Officially, according to an editorial published by the PLA Daily, he and Liu “fueled political and corruption problems that threaten the party’s absolute leadership over the armed forces and undermine the party’s governance foundation.” These problems adversely affected “the military’s political........

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