China's 7-men senior military leadership in 2022 now just Xi & 1 other general after purge

China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) has been reduced to just two members, President Xi Jinping and recently appointed CMC vice chairman Zhang Shengmin.

On Jan. 24, it was reported that two members of the CMC, China’s supreme military leadership body, were under investigation for suspected “serious violations of discipline and law”.

The two men, CMC vice chairman Zhang Youxia and CMC member Liu Zhenli, were both removed, marking a new phase of a remarkable purge of senior military leaders.

CPC's military arm

The CMC consists of the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) most senior military leaders, in charge of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

It should be noted that the PLA is technically not the armed forces of China, but specifically the CPC’s military arm.

In 2022, after China’s 20th Party Congress, the CMC comprised seven members:

Xi Jinping was simultaneously the chairman of the CMC, Secretary General of the CPC, and China’s president.

Under that were two vice chairmen: Zhang Youxia and He Weidong.

Below that were four members: Li Shangfu, Liu Zhenli, Miao Hua, and Zhang Shengmin.

Expulsion

Li Shangfu would become the Minister of National Defence, the state-based military organisation. He would eventually be removed from his positions in the ministry, the PLA, and the CPC in 2023.

His predecessor, Wei Fenghe, was later also expelled from the party.

In 2025, both Miao Hua and vice chairman He Weidong were removed, with He being accused of “succumbing to ideological collapse and disloyalty”.

Now, Zhang and Liu appear to have been removed, with the term “serious violations of discipline and law” usually given to be an innuendo for corruption.

This means that of the technocratic members of the CMC, only Zhang remains.

Zhang Shengmin was appointed a vice chairman within the CMC in October 2025, now has no one alongside or below him, and that is unlikely to change until the 21st Party Congress scheduled for 2027.

Zhang Shengmin comes from the PLA Rocket Force, making him a survivor of a previous high-profile purge.

When appointed in 2022, he had the title of Head of Discipline and Inspection of the CMC.

Lonely leader

This purge leaves the PLA’s most senior leadership extremely thin, with Zhang Youxia being one of the last remaining senior leaders with direct combat experience.

Lianhe Zaobao reports that Zhang Youxia fought on the frontlines of the 1979 border war with Vietnam, where he was quickly promoted.

He would fight the Vietnamese again in 1984.

Zhang Youxia is also notably a compatriot of Xi, both having prominent fathers who participated in the Chinese Civil War, and the families are reportedly close.

Experts Lianhe Zaobao spoke to characterised Xi as being a “lonely leader”, and that he “no longer has anyone he can trust”.

Top image via China MFA & Ginseng/X