On January 24, Zhang Youxia, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, was subjected to an investigation for serious violations of discipline and law, marking the ninth Vice Chairman purged since the establishment of the CCP in 1949. (Reuters)
According to Yu Maocun, director of the Hudson Institute’s China Center, the position of Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission is arguably one of the hardest seats to occupy in China. Since 1949, nine Vice Chairmen of the Central Military Commission have been purged, most of whom were accused of “colluding with the enemy.”
On the 31st, Yu published an article on his personal social media platform titled “The Inevitability of the Communist Army’s Purge,” analyzing why Zhang Youxia, a longtime ally of Xi, has suddenly been targeted. The original English version of Yu’s article was published in The Washington Post on January 30.
Yu was previously the chief policy advisor on China at the U.S. State Department and was the first Chinese student in the U.S. to enter the core circle of Washington’s China policy.
The article states that during Xi Jinping’s tenure, the recently retired (former Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission) Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou fell first. In 2023, an unprecedented purge occurred: commanders of the Rocket Force, the head of armament procurement, and theater command were all removed, ultimately reaching even those supported by Xi.
Yu points out that in 2025, He Weidong and Miao Hua were also purged. Now it has come to Zhang Youxia—Xi’s longtime ally and also a member of the princelings—which is even more intriguing. “Because when even loyalists begin to be purged, it indicates that Xi is no longer looking for bad people but for those who make him uneasy.”
He believes this illustrates the ultimate logic of Communist purges: the higher one climbs, the more likely they are to be branded as traitors. “In this system, survival does not depend on ability, morality, or merit, but on whether you can indefinitely evade the leader’s fear and not become a target.”
Yu notes that in the eyes of a dictator, the biggest threat has never been foreign but the military leaders who are closest to him and know how to wield firearms. Ultimately, the purging in the CCP’s military is not about ‘anti-corruption’, but an instinct for institutional self-preservation. “Dictators are not governing a country; they are managing fear; they are not building a powerful military; they ensure the guns never turn against them.”
The article concludes that under the political logic of the CCP, Zhang Youxia will not be the last one. “Because in Communist dictatorship, the greatest crime is not corruption or incompetence, but making the supreme leader lose sleep.”