The Grim Fates of China’s 8 Ex-Military Chiefs
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Beijing made a startling announcement on Jan. 24: Zhang Youxia, a Politburo member and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), had been removed from his posts. The move sent shockwaves through Chinese politics, marking one of the year’s most dramatic developments.
History casts a long shadow over this event—seven previous CMC vice chairmen met grim fates as casualties of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) ruthless internal power struggles.
Peng Dehuai
Peng Dehuai was one of the CCP’s most talented battlefield commanders, playing a key role in the Party’s rise to power.He had fought for the CCP since its earliest years. In November 1931, he was named vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Chinese Soviet Republic. Between 1950 and 1952, he commanded Chinese forces in the Korean War, intervening after U.S.-led United Nations forces advanced northward.
By 1954, Peng had risen to minister of defense, vice premier, and de facto vice chairman of the newly established Central Military Commission.
Mao Zedong, then the CCP’s top leader, called him “Old Commander Peng” or “Old General Peng” in recognition of his leadership and battlefield prowess.
But everything changed in 1959. At a key CCP conference in Lushan, Jiangxi Province, Peng sent Mao a candid letter criticizing the Great Leap Forward, the Party’s radical campaign of industrialization and collectivization. Mao was furious, accusing Peng of leading an “anti-Party clique” and stripping him of all his posts.
During the Cultural Revolution, which Mao launched to purge his opponents and perceived state enemies, Peng became a target. He was accused of opposing the CCP and Mao Zedong Thought (communist and socialist ideology), plotting to seize Party and military power, and even colluding with foreign enemies.
Peng faced brutal persecution, with Red Guards beating him so harshly that his ribs were fractured. He spent eight years in prison and underwent more than 100 “struggle sessions,” public spectacles of humiliation and torture. Victims were made to wear signs or dunce caps, admit to fabricated crimes, and suffer verbal and physical abuse, even from those they knew well.
He Long
He Long was a prominent figure in the history of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). As one of the PLA’s founders, he established the Hunan-Western Hubei Revolutionary Base in the late 1920s.After Peng’s fall in 1959, Mao appointed Lin Biao and He as the first and second vice chairmen of the CMC, respectively. With Lin often ill, He effectively ran daily military affairs. In 1955, He was conferred the rank of marshal, along with nine others who held the same post.
But Mao always feared that marshals would turn against him. In 1966, as the Cultural Revolution began, Mao targeted He Long. In early 1967, He was linked to the “February Adverse Current,” a term used by radical Maoist factions to condemn senior officials who tried to curb Cultural Revolution excesses.
In 1967, Mao personally ordered He’s detention. A 2018 analysis claims that He’s fall was the result of military infighting.
He Long and his wife were detained in a guarded military compound in Western Beijing. He had diabetes at the time and was denied proper medical treatment. His health deteriorated in May 1969, and he was admitted to a military hospital in Beijing on June 9, 1969. Only five hours later, he died in the hospital.
Lin Biao
During the Chinese Civil War from 1947 to 1949, Lin Biao commanded the CCP’s Fourth Field Army, leading campaigns against the Nationalist Army—the army of the Republic of China under the Kuomintang government—in Manchuria and advancing into central and southern China. Lin’s army was the most successful single unit in the PLA in terms of the territory it covered.Lin held some of the highest positions in the regime, including vice premier of the State Council, minister of national defense, member of the Politburo Standing Committee, vice chairman of the CCP, and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission. He was also formally designated as Mao’s successor.
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Mao and Lin eventually had a falling-out over a power struggle, particularly during the Cultural Revolution. Their disagreement became public at the Second Plenum of the CCP’s Ninth Central Committee in Lushan, Jiangxi, in 1970, an event known as the “Lushan Incident.” A Chinese historian described it as “a showdown over supreme power.”
Zhao Ziyang
In 1987, Zhao Ziyang became the CCP’s general secretary and first vice chairman of the Central Military Commission.In 1989, he clashed with Deng Xiaoping, the party’s de facto leader at the time, over how to handle a nationwide student-led pro-democracy movement, later known as the “June Fourth Incident” or the Tiananmen Square protests.
Zhao opposed military suppression and advocated resolving the crisis through democratic means and the rule of law, but Deng deployed 200,000 troops into Beijing, resulting in the violent clampdown on protesters.
At the Fourth Plenum of the 13th CCP Central Committee on June 24, 1989, Zhao was formally accused of “mistakes during the anti-Party, anti-socialist turmoil” and removed from his positions as general secretary and first vice chairman of the CMC, though he retained his CCP membership.
Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou Brought Down by Corruption
Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou were appointed vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission in 2002 and 2004, respectively. Guo was appointed by then-CCP leader Jiang Zemin. However, Jiang no longer formally held the CMC chair at the time of Xu’s appointment—which occurred during the Jiang-to-Hu Jintao transition—though he remained politically influential.Jiang had no battlefield experience or military credentials, making it difficult for him to command respect as CMC chairman. To secure the loyalty of senior generals, Jiang encouraged rampant corruption within the CCP’s officialdom and military.
After assuming power, the current CCP leader, Xi Jinping, launched massive anti-graft campaigns to eradicate Jiang’s faction within the military.
On March 15, 2014, Xu was investigated for serious corruption charges. Chinese media reported that a search of his residence allegedly uncovered more than 2,200 pounds of cash, along with vast quantities of jewelry, jade, antiques, and artworks from the Tang, Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties—so much that it took more than a dozen military trucks to haul them away.
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On April 9, 2015, Guo was also investigated for corruption. On July 25, 2016, a military court sentenced Guo to life imprisonment for bribery.
According to the South China Morning Post, citing a source close to senior military officials, Guo was “charged with taking bribes totalling 80 million yuan,” which was merely “a small fraction of the amount Guo actually received.”
He Weidong
He Weidong was regarded by some China observers as Xi Jinping’s loyalist in the military and that Xi believed that He could help him carry out a military takeover of Taiwan. In 2022, Xi fast-tracked He’s promotion to Politburo member and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission.On Oct. 17, 2025, Defense Ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang said at a press conference that He, alongside eight other generals, had been expelled from the Party and the military for “serious violations of discipline and the law” and were under criminal prosecution.
The PLA’s official media said that He’s offenses involved “a loss of loyalty,” “serious damage to the principle that the Party commands the gun and to the CMC chairman responsibility system,” and corruption involving “an especially large amount of money.”
Zhang Youxia Placed Under Investigation
In 2017, Zhang Youxia joined the Politburo and was appointed vice chairman of the CMC. By 2022, despite being 72—well beyond the CCP’s informal 70-year age limit for top leadership positions—he still held both posts.However, on Jan. 24, the CCP suddenly announced that Zhang had been removed for “seriously undermining the CMC Chairman Responsibility System” and “seriously encouraging political and corruption problems that severely undermined the Party’s absolute leadership over the military.”
Why Have 8 CMC Vice Chairmen Met Such Grim Fates?
The answer lies in the CCP’s longstanding belief that “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun,” a slogan first articulated by Mao Zedong in 1927. Within this framework, true authority is believed to reside with whoever commands the military.
In practice, the vice chairman of the CMC is typically the officer closest to the chairman—precisely the person most capable of challenging him. For the chairman, the greatest threat is a potential coup by this subordinate. History shows that in such a system, it is often considered safer to act preemptively rather than wait to be undermined, helping explain why multiple CMC vice chairmen have met tragic ends.
As long as military power is not grounded in the legitimate will of the people, the CMC chairman and his deputies will remain perpetually insecure.
