The Chinese regime accused the country’s highest-ranking general, Zhang Youxia, of leaking nuclear secrets to the US, putting the Asian giant’s military operations at risk, according to the American newspaper. The Wall Street Journalfollowing the investigation announced this weekend against “number 2” in the Asian country’s military chain of command.
He is also being investigated for accepting bribes in exchange for official acts, including promoting an official to the position of defense minister, people familiar with the matter said.
The publication cites anonymous sources who would have knowledge of the details of a high-level briefing, in which some of the highest-ranking officers of the Chinese Armed Forces would have participated.
According to the report, the accusation of leaking “fundamental technical data about China’s nuclear weapons” to the US would be related to the investigation also opened last week against Gu Jun, former director general of the state-owned CNNC, responsible for the country’s nuclear programs, both civil and military.
No further details were offered about the alleged security failures linked to Zhang, senior vice-president of the Central Military Commission (CMC, the highest governing body of the Chinese Army), which places him second in the country’s military hierarchy, behind only the Chinese dictator, Xi Jinping, who heads the body.
Zhang is also one of 24 members of the Politburo, the Chinese Communist Party’s second echelon of command.
Other accusations against the general would be that of “forming political factions” – that is, networks of influence that harm the unity of the Party -; “abusing his authority” within the CMC; and “accepting large bribes” in exchange for facilitating promotions, such as that of Li Shangfu, who became Minister of Defense in 2023 before falling into disgrace, a case that would be fundamental in Zhang’s own downfall.
According to the JournalChinese authorities reportedly confiscated devices from several officials who rose alongside Zhang and also from General Liu Zhenli, head of the CMC’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Department, against whom investigations were also announced.
“Thousands of officers with ties to both became potential targets” of the investigations, says the report.
Zhang’s role as supervisor of an agency in charge of research and development and military material contracts was also being investigated. Xi would have ordered an “in-depth” investigation into the period in which Zhang was in Shenyang (north), between 2007 and 2012.
A key figure
This Sunday (25), an editorial published in the Army’s official newspaper accused Zhang and Liu of “weakening” Xi’s authority within the CMC, of exacerbating corruption problems in the Armed Forces and of “harming” preparation for real combat before the centenary, in 2027, of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
This year, according to the Pentagon, Beijing seeks to have the capabilities to launch an invasion of Taiwan and fulfill Xi’s stated objective of achieving China’s “reunification” with the island.
Zhang was considered a key figure in Xi’s plans to modernize the military and also the dictator’s closest military ally, in part because their fathers, General Zhang Zongxun and Vice Premier (1959-1965) Xi Zhongxun, fought together in the civil war that resulted in the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
Since coming to power in 2012, Xi has carried out successive purges in the command of the Armed Forces, moves aimed both at combating corruption within the ranks and at reinforcing military chiefs’ loyalty to the Communist Party and its leadership.
Among the military leaders targeted for purge are the Army’s “number 3”, He Weidong; Miao Hua, an admiral considered close to Xi; Defense Ministers Wei Fenghe (2018-2023) and Li Shangfu (March-October 2023); and Rocket Force commanders Li Yuchao and Wang Houbin.
In a statement to WSJLiu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said the party’s decision to investigate Zhang reinforces the leadership’s stance of “a full-coverage and zero-tolerance approach to fighting corruption.”
