[People News] During the years Xi Jinping has carried out large-scale purges within the military, the arrests of Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli have been the most sensational events. Zhang Youxia is Xi’s childhood friend and was also a supporter of Xi’s rise to power. Xi chose to act just before Zhang’s retirement, a move whose ruthlessness and severity shocked outside observers.

A Fate Similar to Liu Shaoqi?

There have been many rumors about where Zhang Youxia is being detained. Initially, some said he was held in Changping, Beijing, completely isolated from the outside world. Later, there were claims that Zhang had been transferred to a hotel somewhere in Guangdong. The truth of these rumors is difficult to determine.

On January 30, Hu Liren, a former Shanghai entrepreneur and host of Real China, revealed on his program that Zhang Youxia is being held in Gu’an, Langfang, Hebei Province, at a large Central Guard Bureau training base. According to Hu, Cai Qi is in charge of the interrogation and has allegedly used torture on Zhang.

Hu Liren stated that Zhang Youxia is a 75-year-old man, yet Cai Qi has shown no mercy and subjected him to severe abuse. Hu further said Zhang is now preparing written materials, but likely cannot make a comeback. Zhang’s fate, he suggested, could be as tragic as that of former CCP state chairman Liu Shaoqi, unless the Communist Party or what he called the “Xi family dynasty” collapses.

Hu said that inside the Communist Party there exists life-and-death struggle, where even the entire military could be purged as in the persecution of the so-called AB Regiment in the past. Those who fall from power may be subjected to various forms of torture—methods historically used by the Party against its own members. Senior officials such as Liu Shaoqi and He Long were persecuted and tortured, reportedly wasting away to skeletal forms before death. This, Hu argued, demonstrates the Party’s cruelty.

According to Yan Jiaqi’s book Ten Years of the Cultural Revolution, during Liu Shaoqi’s imprisonment, “no one helped him change clothes, no one assisted him to the toilet, so he defecated and urinated in his clothing. Long-term bed confinement caused muscle atrophy in both legs; he became emaciated, and his body was covered with bedsores… Bandages tightly bound his legs to the bed, not allowing movement.”

Before Liu Shaoqi died in Kaifeng, Henan on November 12, 1969, after prolonged persecution and neglect, he was in an extremely miserable condition. Some accounts say his white hair had grown long and disheveled, over a foot in length, and there were bruises on his jaw. His appearance was very different from before.

The CCP has a well-known propaganda song, My Motherland, with lyrics: “When friends come, there is good wine; when jackals come, there are hunting guns.” Within the CCP system, it is “either friend or enemy.” Once someone is overthrown, they are labeled an “enemy,” and all kinds of inhumane methods can be used against them. Those who carry out the abuse can demonstrate their political loyalty and thus protect their own safety. The Party, critics argue, turns people into inhuman ghosts; such stories are numerous.

The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party states: “The CCP often praises itself by saying ‘The old society turned people into ghosts, the new society turns ghosts into people,’ yet these repeated feasts of human flesh reveal that the CCP can turn people into wolves and demons, because it itself is more vicious than wolves and demons.”

Arresting Generals Reveals a Severe Political Crisis

Veteran media figure Cai Shenkun told Radio Free Asia that in the military, anyone who shows dissatisfaction with Xi is seen as a threat and will be purged. Xi’s suspicion and distrust have reached an almost pathological level. Arresting Zhang Youxia, Cai argues, signals Xi’s intention to pursue lifelong rule.

Hu Ping, former editor-in-chief of Beijing Spring, said that wave after wave of political purges reflects Xi Jinping’s own serious political crisis. Since taking power in 2012, more than 300 military generals have been removed. Yet while Xi strengthens his personal dictatorship, this also proves the incompetence of his governance.

According to a BBC report, before Xi came to power, only one full general in CCP history—Huang Yongsheng—had been purged, due to his involvement in the 1971 Lin Biao incident. During the eras of Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and Hu Jintao, no full generals were purged. Since Xi took power, 25 full generals have been expelled from the Party and stripped of military rank. Aside from eight such as Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong, who had already become generals before Xi’s tenure, the rest were promoted under Xi and later investigated under him.

A user on X commented: “Authoritarian regimes launch purges not because of confidence, but because of fear and insecurity. When rulers rely on fear rather than institutions to maintain control, so-called ‘stability’ is only an illusion. This is what systemic collapse looks like.”

(First published by People News) △