After Zhang Youxia’s Arrest, PLA’s Most Advanced Training Base Reportedly Suspends Operations for 30 Days

(Image: PLA’s Zhurihe Training Base in Inner Mongolia – online photo)

[People News] Around the time of the arrest and official announcement of the downfall of Zhang Youxia, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Military Commission (CMC), the Zhurihe Training Base in Inner Mongolia was reportedly suspended from conducting exercises for about one month. The base is known as the most advanced training facility of the Chinese military. During his tenure as Deputy Commander of the Beijing Military Region, Zhang Youxia oversaw the Zhurihe base.

Zhurihe Base Reportedly Halts Training

Mr. Wang, a scholar who has long followed military developments, recently told The Dajiyuan that rumors about investigations into Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli had been circulating within the military for nearly two months. He said: “Friends in Inner Mongolia told me that the Zhurihe Training Base once stopped exercises for about a month, for unknown reasons. Military drills must be filed with the CMC General Office and approved by higher authorities.” Wang noted that changes in the tempo of exercises are difficult to separate entirely from personnel changes at the top levels.

After Zhang Youxia and CMC member Liu Zhenli were absent from the January 20, 2026 opening ceremony of a provincial and ministerial-level officials’ seminar, rumors of their detention and investigation spread. On January 24, their downfall was officially announced.

Wang explained that major drills at Zhurihe typically involve coordination among multiple branches of the armed forces and require high-level approval. “Major exercises are not decided by grassroots units. They must be filed with the CMC General Office, and some require approval from even higher levels,” he said. If there are changes at the CMC level, lower units often slow their pace, preferring to do less rather than risk mistakes.

On October 1, 2025, Japan’s Sankei Shimbun reported that satellite images released by a Japanese think tank showed that in addition to previously constructed mock-ups of Taiwan’s Presidential Office and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zhurihe Base now included a simulated Judicial Yuan building, connected to the presidential office model via underground tunnels. This systematic simulation was interpreted as indicating that the CCP’s threats toward Taiwan had escalated from military intimidation to practicing “decapitation strikes” aimed at paralyzing Taiwan’s decision-making center.

CCTV reported in early October 2025 that a brigade of the PLA’s 82nd Group Army conducted live-force confrontation drills at the Zhurihe Joint Training Base.

In early November 2025, CCTV’s military channel reported that the “White Tiger Company” of a brigade under the 78th Group Army conducted live-force confrontation exercises at Zhurihe’s field training site.

However, from December 2025 to the present, there have been no reports of live-force confrontation drills at Zhurihe.

Zhang Youxia Previously Oversaw Zhurihe Base

From December 2005 to September 2007, Zhang Youxia served nearly two years as Deputy Commander of the Beijing Military Region.

On December 2, 2025, Zhang Jixiang, former Deputy Commander of the Zhurihe Base under the Beijing Military Region, published an article titled “Dreaming Back to Zhurihe: Zhang Youxia Takes Command, ‘Multi-Dimensional Reconnaissance Platform’ Lights Up the Exercise Field!” on the WeChat public account “Huashan Sky Sword.”

In the article, Zhang Jixiang recalled that then–Deputy Commander Zhang Youxia had “long been rooted in the Zhurihe base, personally overseeing frontline training and mastering every detail of exercises.” Zhang was said to have first proposed the integration of exercise data at Zhurihe and to have led the development and application of the “multi-dimensional reconnaissance platform” and other data systems for live-force confrontation exercises. He also served as chief director of the acceptance combat exercise for the platform.

According to public reports, in early 1998 Zhang Jixiang, then head of the Command Automation Division of the Beijing Military Region’s Communications Department, was appointed Deputy Commander of Zhurihe Training Base, responsible for informatization construction. He also served as a senior engineer at the base, head of the military-wide training base construction expert group, and adjunct professor at eight military and civilian institutions. In November 2013, while Zhang Youxia was serving as a CMC member and Minister of the General Armaments Department, Zhang Jixiang was awarded a First-Class Merit by the CMC.

Background of Zhurihe Training Base

“Zhurihe” is a transliteration from Mongolian, meaning “heart.” The PLA Army’s Zhurihe Combined Tactical Training Base is named after Zhurihe Town, located between Zhurihe Town in Sunite Right Banner of Xilingol League, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and Baiyinchagan Town in Siziwang Banner of Ulanqab.

As early as August 2014, CCP state media reported that the Zhurihe Tactical Combined Training Base under the Beijing Military Region was the largest and most advanced training base in Asia. Its facilities and equipment were described as top-tier within the PLA, and it was the only base capable of conducting group army–scale joint land-air live-force campaign exercises.

Public information shows that in July 1997, the Central Military Commission decided to expand the Beijing Military Region’s original armored training ground into the largest combined tactical training base in the entire PLA. In the first half of 2011, the CMC decided to build Zhurihe into the PLA’s only Army joint operations experimental field. During military reforms in 2016, Zhurihe was transferred from the Beijing Military Region to the Army.

In 2011, Zhurihe established a professional “Blue Force” unit—specialized troops that play the role of a simulated enemy during military exercises. By late September 2015, the Zhurihe Blue Force Brigade had conducted 33 live-force confrontation exercises against combined divisions (brigades) of the seven major military regions and naval marine brigades, achieving 31 wins and 2 losses, earning it the title “China’s No. 1 Blue Force Brigade.”

(Comprehensive report by The Dajiyuan reporter Dongfang Hao)
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