China's highest-ranking general accused of giving nuclear secrets to US: WSJ

China's Central Military Commission (CMC) vice-chairman Zhang Youxia came under investigation for suspected "serious violations of discipline and law", a spokesman for China's Ministry of Defence said on Saturday afternoon, Jan. 24.

A Saturday editorial by the military's flagship newspaper accused Zhang of severely trampling on and undermining the institutional basis of the CMC chairman's authority.

The CMC chairman is Xi Jinping.

More information has been uncovered by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

Citing people familiar with a high-level briefing on Zhang's allegations, WSJ on Saturday reported that Zhang was accused of leaking information about the country's nuclear-weapons programme to the U.S. and accepting bribes to promote an officer to defence minister, among other accusations.

According to WSJ, some of the evidence came from a former general manager of the China National Nuclear Corporation, who himself became the subject of an investigation last Monday.

While WSJ could not reach either of the two for comment, the Chinese Embassy in Washington told them that the decision to investigate Zhang shows that the leadership maintains "a full-coverage, zero-tolerance approach to combating corruption".

Another heavy allegation lobbied at Zhang is that he took bribes to help elevate Li Shangfu, who eventually became defence minister.

Li was one of the seven men who made up the top seven military leaders in 2022.

He was removed in 2023.

According to WSJ, people familiar with the briefing said Xi had commissioned a task force to conduct an investigation into Zhang's tenure as commander of the Shenyang Military Region from 2007 to 2012.

Authorities have reportedly seized mobile devices from officers who rose through the ranks with Zhang and Liu Zhenli, the other general, who was reported to be under investigation on Saturday

Image from Chinese media and Reuters