Xi Jinping’s sworn brother accused of selling China’s nuclear secrets to the Americans

Only Xi remains

Former CIA analyst Christopher Johnson found the right words to describe what is happening: the total annihilation of the high command. This is no exaggeration. Following the downfall of Zhang Youxia, the Central Military Commission now has only two members out of the seven it normally has: Xi Jinping, who chairs it, and Zhang Shengmin, the head of the disciplinary commission. All the others have been purged, arrested, or expelled from the Party. Operational command of the Chinese armed forces is now de facto in the hands of a single man: Xi Jinping himself. This concentration of military power is unprecedented in the history of the People’s Republic of China.

The list of generals who have fallen is staggering. He Weidong, the Commission’s other vice-chairman, has been expelled. Miao Hua, the director of the Political Work Department, has been expelled. Lin Xiangyang, the commander of the Eastern Theater Command—the unit that would be responsible for an invasion of Taiwan—has been expelled. Li Shangfu, the former Minister of Defense, has been expelled. Wei Fenghe, his predecessor, has been expelled. Li Yuchao, the former commander of the Rocket Force, which manages the nuclear arsenal, has been expelled. Since 2023, more than 50 senior officers and executives in the defense industry have been removed from their posts or are under investigation. This is a purge on a scale not seen since the 1980s.

The Rocket Force Decimated

The PLA’s Rocket Force—the elite branch that controls China’s strategic missiles, both conventional and nuclear—has been particularly hard hit. Sun Jinming, a senior official in the force, was expelled from the Party and placed under investigation for corruption last July. At least two other high-ranking officers linked to the Rocket Force have also been dismissed for corruption. This is the most sensitive unit in the Chinese military—the one that manages the intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking the United States, the one that holds the capability for assured mutual destruction in its hands—and it is being decimated by the purges.

When the 20th Central Committee was announced in October 2022, 44 of the 205 full members were military officers. Following the recent expulsions, only 34 remain. Ten generals and admirals have been wiped off the political map in three years. And it may not be over yet. Every week brings its share of rumors about new arrests, new investigations, and new disappearances. The Chinese military—that war machine Xi Jinping wants ready to invade Taiwan by 2027—is looking more and more like a headless body.

Fifty generals. Fifty. In three years. I can’t even begin to grasp what that means for an army. It’s as if half of the American, French, and British generals combined were fired. At this point, we can no longer call it a fight against corruption. We’re talking about institutionalized paranoia. We’re talking about a man, Xi Jinping, who no longer trusts anyone in his own military apparatus. And the question that haunts me is this: Were all these generals really corrupt and traitors? Or is Xi simply eliminating everyone who might one day resist him?

An Army Ready by 2027?

U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Xi Jinping has ordered the People’s Liberation Army to be ready by 2027 to carry out a successful operation to forcibly reunify with Taiwan. This is the goal for the 100th anniversary of the PLA’s founding. It is the deadline Xi has set for himself to resolve the Taiwan issue, by force if necessary. But how can an army be ready for an operation as complex as an amphibious invasion when its high command is in a state of constant disintegration?

The Pentagon’s annual report on Chinese military capabilities, published in December 2025, offers a nuanced answer. On the one hand, the purges are creating short-term turbulence in the army’s command and control structure. On the other hand, China continues to make progress toward its military modernization goals. New equipment is arriving. Exercises are continuing. Capabilities are improving. But military experts note that the chain of command may not be as effective as it once was. That the PLA may not be fully prepared for an invasion of Taiwan, its primary strategic objective.

Blockade Exercises Are Increasing

From December 29 to 30, 2025, the PLA conducted large-scale military exercises simulating a blockade of Taiwan. The operation, dubbed Mission Justice 2025, was the second of its kind in 2025. Since the inauguration of Taiwanese President William Lai Ching-te in May 2024, China has been conducting blockade exercises around the island with increasing frequency. These maneuvers rehearse the operational elements of a campaign to isolate Taiwan, while using the repetition to intensify political and psychological pressure on the island and its allies.

The exercises emphasize the use of naval forces and the coast guard to impose a blockade around Taiwan and simulate counter-intervention operations against a potential U.S. response. The message is clear. Even in the midst of a purge, even with a decimated high command, the PLA continues to prepare for the military option against Taiwan. The question is whether these preparations are genuine or merely a charade to mask internal chaos.

More than 200,000 officials have been punished since 2012

Zhang Youxia’s downfall is part of a massive anti-corruption campaign launched by Xi Jinping upon taking office in 2012. Since then, more than 200,000 officials have been punished for corruption or disciplinary violations—including ministers, provincial governors, generals, and CEOs of state-owned enterprises. No one is immune. The campaign, presented as a fight against the endemic corruption that was eating away at the Communist Party, is also a tool for consolidating Xi’s personal power.

Every arrest sends a message. Loyalty to Xi Jinping is the only guarantee of political survival. Any personal ambition, any alternative power network, any criticism—even whispered—can turn into an accusation of corruption or treason. The system creates a culture of terror that paralyzes any potential opposition, but also stifles any ability to speak truth to power. The generals who might have warned Xi about the risks of an invasion of Taiwan are no longer there to do so. Those who remain know that speaking frankly could cost them their careers, their freedom, perhaps even their lives.

Much has been said about the information bubbles that surround dictators—those circles of courtiers who report only what the leader wants to hear. Xi Jinping is in the process of creating the ultimate bubble. He has eliminated virtually the entire high command of his military. The only ones left are those who owe him everything and who will never dare to contradict him. This is every autocrat’s dream. It is also every strategist’s nightmare. Because a leader who hears only echoes of his own thoughts always ends up making catastrophic mistakes. And when that leader commands the world’s third-largest nuclear power, those mistakes can become existential.

The Syndrome of Constant Conspiracy

Some analysts put forward a troubling hypothesis. What if the purges were not motivated by actual corruption, but by the fear of a military coup? By concentrating all power in his own hands, eliminating term limits, and having himself appointed president for life, Xi Jinping has created the conditions for an inevitable confrontation with the military establishment. Chinese generals, like their counterparts around the world, have their own interests, their own networks, and their own vision of power. A leader who strips them of all autonomy becomes a leader they might want to replace.

Preemptive purges then become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Xi eliminates the generals because he fears a coup. The remaining generals, watching their comrades fall one by one, might indeed begin to consider radical options. And the cycle of suspicion and repression intensifies. This is the paranoid logic that has destroyed so many authoritarian regimes from within. Stalin decapitated the Red Army before World War II, with the disastrous consequences we know. Is Xi Jinping repeating the same mistake?

Have the leaks altered the strategic balance?

If the allegations against Zhang Youxia are true, the implications for the global nuclear balance are staggering. For years, perhaps even decades, the United States may have had access to the most sensitive secrets of China’s nuclear program: the actual capabilities of its arsenal, The vulnerabilities of its delivery systems. The weaknesses in its command-and-control chain. This kind of information is worth billions of dollars in intelligence investments. It can mean the difference between deterrence and victory in the event of a nuclear conflict.

China possesses approximately 500 nuclear warheads, according to Western estimates—a figure that is growing rapidly. It is developing new hypersonic missiles, ballistic missile submarines, and underground silos. This entire modernization program could be compromised if the Americans know its innermost details. Countermeasures could be developed. Vulnerabilities could be exploited. China’s deterrent—which is supposed to ensure that the United States would not intervene in the event of an invasion of Taiwan—could be neutralized.

Washington’s Silence

On the American side, there is total silence. Neither the White House, nor the Pentagon, nor the CIA has commented on the Chinese accusations. This silence could mean many things. Perhaps Washington does not want to confirm that it had such a valuable source at the very top of the Chinese military apparatus. Perhaps the Chinese accusations are exaggerated or fabricated, and Washington does not want to legitimize a political purge by commenting on them. Perhaps the Americans are just as surprised as everyone else by this revelation.

What is certain is that if Zhang Youxia was indeed an American agent, his loss is catastrophic for U.S. intelligence agencies. A source at the level of vice chairman of the Central Military Commission is the Holy Grail of intelligence. You can’t replace that. You can’t find another one like it. Decades of patient work to recruit and protect such a source are wiped out in an instant. But perhaps the information already passed on was worth the sacrifice.

I wonder what’s happening right now in the offices at Langley. If Zhang Youxia was truly their man, CIA analysts must be reevaluating everything they thought they knew about China’s nuclear arsenal. Was the information reliable? Or did Zhang manipulate them, feeding them what Beijing wanted them to believe? The spy game at this level is so convoluted that you never really know who’s manipulating whom. One thing is certain: this story will keep intelligence agencies around the world busy for years to come.

A system that devours its own children

The French Revolution had that terrible saying: “The revolution devours its own children.” The system that Xi Jinping has built seems to be following the same path. The men who brought him to power, who fought alongside him, who shared his most intimate secrets, are falling one by one. Zhang Youxia was not just anyone. He was his brother. His childhood friend. A lifelong companion. And even he was not safe. The message sent to the rest of the Chinese elite is chilling. No one is untouchable. No one is safe.

This system can function as long as Xi Jinping remains in full control of his faculties. But the Chinese president is 72 years old. He has no designated successor. He has systematically eliminated everyone who might have been a contender for his succession. What will happen when he is no longer there to hold the reins? The void he has created around himself will become an abyss. The factions he has suppressed will resurface. The military, which he has decapitated, will seek to regain its autonomy. Post-Xi China could face unprecedented instability.

The unanswered question

Did Zhang Youxia truly betray his country and his childhood friend for the United States? Or is he the victim of a political plot, sacrificed on the altar of Xi Jinping’s paranoia? We may never know. Trials in China are not exercises in truth, but rituals to affirm power. Zhang will confess whatever he is asked to confess. He will be sentenced to whatever punishment has been decided in advance. And the system will carry on.

But beyond the fate of one man, the destiny of an empire is at stake. Xi Jinping’s China wants to become the world’s leading power. It wants to reunify Taiwan. It wants to rewrite the rules of the international order. Can it achieve this with an army in a state of constant purges? With a decimated high command? With a leader who trusts no one? History suggests not. Empires that devour themselves from within always end up collapsing from the outside.

A New Chapter Begins

The downfall of Zhang Youxia marks the end of an era. These second-generation “red scions”—the crown princes of the revolution who grew up together in the grand courtyards of Beijing, who shared in the hardships of the Cultural Revolution and the triumphs of China’s rise—are disappearing one by one. Some die of old age. Others are purged. Only Xi Jinping remains, alone at the top, surrounded by technocrats with no past and courtiers with no future.

China is entering a new phase in its history. A phase in which absolute power is concentrated in the hands of a single aging man. In which the world’s largest army is led by a civilian who has never served. In which nuclear secrets may have been sold to the enemy by the president’s best friend. It is a strange and dangerous world. A world where yesterday’s certainties are crumbling. Where the strongest alliances are proving fragile. Where nothing is what it seems.

I end this article with more questions than answers. Is Zhang Youxia a traitor or a victim? Is Xi Jinping a visionary strategist or a dangerous paranoid? Is China a rising power or a colossus with feet of clay? What I do know is that the coming years will be decisive. For Taiwan. For the global balance of power. For all of us. Because when the second-in-command of a nuclear power is accused of treason, it’s not just a Chinese affair. It’s a global affair. And we’d do well to stay vigilant.

The Silence After the Storm

In Beijing, life goes on. The streets are crowded. The stores are open. People go about their business. No one speaks of Zhang Youxia in public. His name has been erased from the official media. His photos have vanished from government websites. It’s as if he never existed. The machine of oblivion operates with terrifying efficiency.

But somewhere, in an unremarkable building in the capital, a man awaits his fate. A man who once commanded millions of soldiers. A man who held the secrets of a nuclear apocalypse in his hands. A man who was the childhood friend of the world’s most powerful leader. And now, he is nothing. Just a number in a file. Just a name on a list of traitors. Just one more statistic in Xi Jinping’s great purge.

Editorial Stance

I am not a journalist, but a columnist and analyst. My expertise lies in observing and analyzing the geopolitical, military, and strategic dynamics that shape our world. My work consists of dissecting political purges, understanding the mechanisms of authoritarian power, contextualizing the decisions of international actors, and offering analytical perspectives on the transformations that are redefining the global balance of power.

I do not claim to possess the cold objectivity of traditional journalism, which is limited to factual reporting. I strive for analytical clarity, rigorous interpretation, and a deep understanding of the complex issues that affect us all. My role is to make sense of the facts, place them within their historical and strategic context, and offer a critical analysis of events.

Methodology and Sources

This text respects the fundamental distinction between verified facts and interpretive analysis. The factual information presented comes exclusively from verifiable primary and secondary sources.

Primary sources: official Chinese government statements, public statements by Chinese Communist Party officials, Pentagon reports on Chinese military capabilities, and dispatches from recognized international news agencies (Reuters, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Bloomberg News).

Secondary sources: specialized publications, internationally recognized news media, and analyses from established research institutions (The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, CNN, Financial Times, South China Morning Post, Foreign Affairs).

Data on Chinese military purges and the allegations against General Zhang Youxia come from verified reports by multiple international media outlets and official reports from the U.S. Department of Defense.

Nature of the Analysis

The analyses, interpretations, and perspectives presented in the analytical sections of this article constitute a critical and contextual synthesis based on available information, observed trends, and expert commentary cited in the sources consulted.

My role is to interpret these facts, contextualize them within the framework of contemporary geopolitical and military dynamics, and give them coherent meaning within the broader narrative of the transformations shaping the world order. These analyses reflect expertise developed through continuous observation of international affairs and an understanding of the strategic mechanisms that drive the major powers.

Any subsequent developments in the situation could, of course, alter the perspectives presented here. This article will be updated if major new official information is released, thereby ensuring the relevance and timeliness of the analysis provided.