A short video, allegedly from the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 2025, has recently leaked from Beijing.
The footage shows Xi Jinping and Zhang Youxia erupting into a conflict right at the venue, even engaging in a physical altercation. The video was swiftly cut off shortly after airing, sparking intense shock and widespread speculation among observers.
This video is a low-quality, blurry clip, likely copied from CCTV footage of the session being broadcast live.
Considering China’s strict media censorship, a mainstream Chinese media outlet has not confirmed the authenticity of the footage from the 2025 Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee.
The CCP plenary sessions are strictly controlled; no independent foreign media are allowed to enter and record the event, which is why people close to CCTV may have captured the image on a mobile phone and circulated it overseas, fearing prosecution.
Fact-checker Grok did not dismiss the footage as an AI-generated video; instead, it suggested it might have been captured from an actual computer screen while the CCP plenary sessions were broadcasting.
While there have been recent high-ranking military personnel, senior executives from the military industrial complex and scientists who were purged, and some were sentenced to death.
This is enough evidence to prove that Xi Jinping and his communist party allies are frustrated with Chinese military hardware failure in the Iran war, Venezuela and Pakistan.
Power consolidation
The removal of PLA senior generals Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli in January 2026 represented the peak, if not the end, of a massive purge of the military leadership that began in mid-2023. The absence of credible information from Beijing has allowed many theories about the causes of these dismissals to circulate, which often center on factional politics or power consolidation.
The reaction to these developments outside China has led to dramatic headlines. A BBC headline initially focused on a “military in crisis”, while the ABC called it an “astonishing” purge that leaves Chinese leader Xi Jinping almost alone at the top of the world’s biggest army.
Certainly, the moves were surprising. But so little is known about the internal workings of the CCP’s leadership, including Xi’s relations with his colleagues in the Politburo, that interpreting these developments is difficult, if not impossible.
For historical and political reasons, the PLA is an organisation of the CCP. Both fall under the direct purview of Xi, who is chair of the CMC, general secretary of the CCP and president of the country.
Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli were sacked
China’s defence ministry announced that the country’s two most senior generals — Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli — would be removed from office and placed under investigation for serious disciplinary violations.
Zhang had been the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) most senior general since October 2022. He was the highest-ranking military member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China (CCP), the party-state’s 24-member executive policy-making body.
Zhang was also the senior vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), which controls the armed forces.
Liu was the former commander of the PLA’s Ground Force and had most recently served as head of the CMC’s Joint Staff Department.
The removal of Zhang and Liu, at least temporarily, leaves military leadership under just Xi and General Zhang Shengmin. Three other members of the CMC have lost their positions since 2024 and haven’t been replaced.
Though the Chinese leadership is notoriously opaque, it is clear that there have been disciplinary problems within the military in the last few years, particularly related to corruption and procurement in the PLA’s more technically advanced departments. Some two dozen senior military figures have been dismissed or investigated since 2022.
Zhang and Liu were fairly recent appointments to even more senior positions. Both were also seen as personal supporters of Xi. The fathers of Xi and Zhang had a close relationship dating back to the early days of the CCP, in the 1930s, before the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
Moreover, the removals of Zhang and Liu happened more quickly than other senior military dismissals of recent years — and there were fewer warning signs. Both men had appeared in public as recently as a month ago.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Zhang is accused of providing the United States with information about China’s nuclear weapons program, alongside allegations of accepting bribes and forming “political cliques”.
A good example is the mysterious death of Lin Biao in 1971, another former PLA commander who, at the time, was Mao Zedong’s designated successor.
Given the broader context at play here with the management of the military and the development of government programs in recent years, as well as the claims Zhang and Liu violated “discipline and the law”, there are two possible explanations for their dismissals.
Both may have been directly involved in corruption, taking bribes to appoint officials or to secure contracts for suppliers. It is equally likely they are being held responsible for corruption that has undoubtedly occurred in military procurement under their watch.
Xi has repeatedly stressed the importance of the fight against corruption since he became general secretary of the CCP in 2012.
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