{"id":313346,"date":"2026-01-28T18:00:50","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T18:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/why-has-xi-jinping-targeted-his-closest-ally-in-purge\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T18:00:50","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T18:00:50","slug":"why-has-xi-jinping-targeted-his-closest-ally-in-purge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/why-has-xi-jinping-targeted-his-closest-ally-in-purge\/","title":{"rendered":"Why has Xi Jinping targeted his closest ally in purge?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.ytimg.com\/vi\/AWAk532BVFs\/hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Why has Xi Jinping targeted his closest ally in purge?\"><br \/> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AWAk532BVFs\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo one is safe in Beijing because Xi puts the party above any individual,\u201d says Neil Thomas, a fellow on Chinese politics at the Asia Society think tank, referring to the biggest military purge since the rule of Chairman Mao, led by Xi Jinping.<br \/>\nSubscribe \u25ba https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/guardianwires?sub_confirmation=1<\/p>\n<p>China\u2019s defence ministry announced on Saturday that Zhang Youxia, China\u2019s highest-ranking general, and Liu Zhenli, another member of the Central Military Commission, were under investigation for \u201csuspected serious violations of discipline and law\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>A recent editorial published in the official army newspaper said that Zhang and Liu \u201cfostered political and corruption problems that undermined the party\u2019s absolute leadership over the military and threatened the party\u2019s ruling foundation\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>But experts suggest Xi Jinping is asserting his authority by sidelining officers who have significantly betrayed his trust. \u201cThe purge isn\u2019t about corruption (&#8230;), it is about a general that became too powerful,\u201d says Dennis Wilder, a senior fellow at Georgetown University and a former senior CIA analyst.<\/p>\n<p>Zhang is descended from Communist party elites and was seen as a close ally of the president. \u201cHe was also highly trusted to handle the most important military matters,\u201d our senior China correspondent Amy Hawkins reports.<\/p>\n<p>Watch this video as Amy explains why the scalping of a figure as senior as Zhang in Xi\u2019s anti-graft campaign raises questions about the stability of China\u2019s military leadership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cNo one is safe in Beijing because Xi puts the party above any individual,\u201d says Neil Thomas, a fellow on Chinese politics at the Asia Society think tank, referring to the biggest military purge since the rule of Chairman Mao, led by Xi Jinping. Subscribe \u25ba https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/guardianwires?sub_confirmation=1 China\u2019s defence ministry announced on Saturday that Zhang [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":313347,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[128995],"tags":[136568,133220,131207],"actors":[],"class_list":["post-313346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guardian-news","tag-no","tag-beijing","tag-safe"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why has Xi Jinping targeted his closest ally in purge? | News ISC Videos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Watch Why has Xi Jinping targeted his closest ally in purge? for free, here on News ISC. 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