The Chinese military’s most senior general under investigation for corruption leaked nuclear secrets to the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The investigations into Gen. Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Military Commission, and another senior general and CMC member, Gen. Liu Zhenli, were announced Saturday.
Gen. Zhang was one of two CMC vice chairmen, and his ouster is the latest stunning disclosure of high-level shifts in military leadership in China.
Analysts say the closed nature of the communist system in China makes it difficult to tell if the ongoing purge of officers — hundreds of leaders have been sacked since 2022 — are sincere anti-corruption moves or political action to remove rivals to Chinese President Xi Jinping, who remains CMC chairman.
Gen. Zhang is accused of supplying “core technical data” to the U.S. on the People’s Liberation Army’s large-scale buildup of nuclear forces, the newspaper reported Monday.
The accusations leveled against the most senior PLA general are questioned by some analysts who said information in China is so tightly controlled that such details would not leak unless authorized. Some speculate that the information about the nuclear leaks is part of a campaign to discredit Gen. Zhang by Mr. Xi or his supporters.
The Chinese military has rival factions, and U.S. officials say corruption, including bribes, the sale of military promotions and the siphoning of funds from weapons procurement, is widespread.
The investigation of Gen. Zhang followed a recent CIA social media posting in Chinese that provided details on how people in China could securely contact the agency and supply information.
Few details of the alleged crimes of Gen. Zhang and Gen. Lui were disclosed in Beijing’s official Defense Ministry statement on the investigation.
Such investigations in China are normally the first step in the complete removal from power and later military prosecution.
The briefing on Gen. Zhang took place in China on Saturday morning and was held shortly before the announcement of the probe into the two generals. Gen. Zhang’s involvement is surprising because he was considered a close confidant and trusted ally of Mr. Xi. Both of their fathers were Mao-era revolutionaries with communist pedigrees.
The CMC — essentially the armed wing of the ruling communist party — adheres to Mao’s dictum that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
According to the Journal, investigators are also investigating Gen. Zhang for his role in overseeing the institution in charge of research, development and procurement of military hardware.
In addition to leaking nuclear data, the general is accused of receiving large sums of money in exchange for military promotions within the defense procurement system.
Evidence against Gen. Zhang reportedly was supplied by Gu Jun, former general manager of the China National Nuclear Corporation, the state-owned enterprise in charge of all military and civilian nuclear programs.
Gen. Zhang has also reportedly been linked to a security breach related to the nuclear complex.
China’s official military newspaper, PLA Daily, said in a report that the two ousted generals “seriously betrayed the trust and expectations of the Party Central Committee and the Central Military Commission, severely trampled on and undermined the chairman of the Central Military Commission’s responsibility system, seriously fostered political and corruption problems that undermined the Party’s absolute leadership over the military and threatened the Party’s ruling foundation, seriously damaged the image and prestige of the Central Military Commission.
“They caused immense damage to the military’s political building, political ecology, and combat effectiveness, and had an extremely negative impact on the Party, the country, and the military,” the military newspaper said.
Miles Yu, a former State Department policymaker on China, said there is no hard evidence to support the leak narrative.
The disclosures were more likely deliberately put out by Mr. Xi to justify the purge of Gen. Zhang, “the same way most CCP major purges have been masqueraded,” Mr. Yu said.
Similar purges of communist military leaders were carried out in the past against Marshal Peng Dehuai in 1959 and Marshal Lin Bao in 1971 for colluding with the Soviet Union against Mao and his policies.
Also, senior CCP leader Liu Shaoqi was purged in 1966 after he was accused of being a “traitor, insider spy and scab,” and CCP member Zhou Yongkang was ousted in 2014 for “illegally seeking leaking state secrets,” Mr. Yu said.
“If Zhang were a real leaker, he would have been disappeared quietly, died of a ‘normal death’ to cover up the embarrassment,” he said.
“The bottom line is we don’t have any reliable sources for this, and we should be skeptical lest aiding a false CCP narrative.”
• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.
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