Western voices tend to focus on the role of ideology within the PLA, and are quick to detect signs of internal fragmentation, but the downfall of these officers needs to be examined from the perspective of “Chinese characteristics.”
General Zhang Youxia, first vice chairman of the CCP CMC, and General Liu Zhenli, chief of staff of the Joint Staff Department of the CMC, were arrested in late January, and accused of “grave violations of discipline and law,” i.e. corruption. Both were prominent representatives of the PLA in the National People’s Congress, and Zhang Youxia had been close to Xi Jinping since their childhood as “princelings”.