A senior figure at the very top of China’s military has been abruptly removed amid allegations he passed highly sensitive nuclear information to the United States.
Zhang Youxia, long regarded as the operational leader of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), was dismissed on Saturday for a “serious violation of discipline.”
According to The Wall Street Journal, the 75-year-old general is accused of sharing classified details relating to China’s nuclear weapons programme with Washington.
The allegations were reportedly laid out during a closed-door briefing attended by senior PLA officers.
The meeting took place only hours before Beijing publicly confirmed that Zhang was under formal investigation.
BREAKING: China’s Top General Accused of Giving Nuclear Secrets to U.S.
Gen. Zhang Youxia, once considered Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s most-trusted military ally, allegedly leaked core technical data on China’s nuclear weapons to the U.S. and built influence networks to… pic.twitter.com/3J9XHvFYNJ
— Ryan Saavedra (@RyanSaavedra) January 25, 2026
Officials at the briefing are said to have accused Zhang not only of leaking state secrets, but also of accepting bribes in exchange for promoting a senior officer to the defence minister.
He was further alleged to have formed “political cliques” within the military, a charge that often signals concerns over loyalty rather than corruption alone.
Evidence presented at the meeting was reportedly supplied by Gu Jun, a former executive at China National Nuclear Corporation, which oversees both civilian and military nuclear programmes.
Gu himself is under investigation as part of a sweeping corruption probe targeting China’s defence and nuclear sectors.
Officials told the briefing that the inquiry into Gu had uncovered a major security breach inside the nuclear establishment, to which Zhang was allegedly connected.
Zhang’s downfall is particularly striking given his status within the PLA.
Exclusive: China’s senior-most general is accused of leaking information about the country’s nuclear-weapons program to the U.S. and accepting bribes for official acts https://t.co/axd3s19APs
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) January 25, 2026
He was one of the few remaining senior commanders with direct combat experience, having fought in China’s brief but bloody war with Vietnam in 1979.
He had also survived multiple previous military purges that hollowed out the PLA’s upper ranks over recent years.
Widely seen as “untouchable,” Zhang was a childhood acquaintance of Xi Jinping and had long been viewed as politically secure.
Since taking power, Xi has more than doubled China’s defence budget as part of his ambition to build a “world-class” fighting force by 2049.
U.S. intelligence assessments suggest he has also ordered the military to be ready for a potential invasion of Taiwan by next year.
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However, repeated removals of senior commanders have raised questions about both their unity and readiness.
In October, nine generals were dismissed, including former Central Military Commission vice-chairman He Weidong.
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