The purge China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has inflicted on the military elite was plain to see at a recent legislative meeting. A year earlier, state television footage showed around 40 generals in the room. This time, there were only a handful.

中国领导人习近平对军队高层实施的清洗在最近一次的人大会议上一目了然。在一年前的人大会议上，官方电视台的画面显示，会场里坐着约40名将领。而这一次，仅寥寥数人。

Yet Mr. Xi indicated that an upheaval that rivaled those of the Mao era was not over. Stony-faced, he warned the remaining officers to beware of disloyalty.

然而，习近平表示，这场堪比毛泽东时代的动荡尚未结束。他面色铁青，警告剩下的军官要警惕不忠之心。

“The military,” he said, “must never have anyone who harbors a divided heart toward the party.”

他说，“军中绝不能有对党怀有二心之人。”

It was a rare public reference by Mr. Xi to one of the worst political crises of his 13 years in power: He had lost faith in the military leadership that he had spent a decade remolding.

这是习近平罕见地公开提及掌权13年来最严重的政治危机之一：他已对自己花费十年重塑的军队领导层失去了信任。

“When Xi uses the words ‘divided heart,’ they are heavy with meaning,” said Chien-wen Kou, a professor at National Chengchi University in Taiwan. The phrase is found in ancient Chinese treatises that counsel rulers against treacherous generals, including a volume Mr. Xi has kept on his bookshelf.

“习近平使用‘二心’这个词，其分量不言而喻，”台湾国立政治大学教授寇健文说。它典出中国古代劝诫帝王防范奸将之道的论著，其中一本据说放在习近平的书架上。

“Even his most trusted and important confidants have fallen,” Professor Kou said. “Who else can gain his trust?”

“即便是他最信任、最倚重的心腹也相继落马，”寇健文说。“还能信任谁呢？”

The crisis threatens one of Mr. Xi’s great feats: the transformation of the Chinese military into a formidable force with new aircraft carriers, hypersonic missiles and an expanding nuclear arsenal. And it comes as China’s rivalry with the United States has intensified, and as the Trump administration has put American firepower, and its limits, on vivid display in Venezuela and Iran.

这场危机威胁到习近平的一大历史性成就：将中国军队打造成一支装备新型航母、高超音速导弹和不断扩充核武库的强大力量。与此同时，中美战略竞争持续加剧，特朗普政府已通过委内瑞拉和伊朗两场军事行动将美国的军事实力——及其局限——展露无遗。

China’s war readiness may be disrupted for years by the very cleanup that Mr. Xi has said is necessary to purify and strengthen the ranks. What once looked like a limited crackdown on corruption became a sweeping dismissal of dozens of top officers, and culminated in the downfall early this year of Zhang Youxia, China’s top uniformed commander, who had appeared to be a confidant of Mr. Xi’s.

习近平所称的这场为了净化和强军的必要清洗可能在未来数年损害中国的战备能力。最初看似针对腐败的有限整治最终演变为对数十名高级军官的大规模撤换，并在今年初以张又侠的落马达到高潮——这位中国最高军职将领曾被视为习近平的心腹。

The final break between them came, by some accounts, when Mr. Xi sought to promote the general leading the cleanup to a position rivaling General Zhang’s. General Zhang objected. Months later, he was out.

据传，二人彻底决裂的导火索是习近平想把主导清洗行动的将领提拔至跟张又侠平起平坐的位置，遭到张的反对。数月后，张又侠出局。

2023年在北京举行的全国人民代表大会上，中央军委成员宣誓就职，习近平在主席台上居中就座。如今这些将军多数已被调查或免职。

The gravity of the campaign was on stark display again this past week, when a military court sentenced two former defense ministers to death, suspended for two years, for bribery. They will probably spend the rest of their lives in prison.

这场反腐运动的严肃性在过去一周再次得到充分体现：一家军事法院以受贿罪判处两名前国防部长死刑，缓期两年执行。他们极有可能在狱中度过余生。

“This is Xi Jinping’s military,” said Daniel Mattingly, an associate professor at Yale University who studies China’s politics and military. “Why does he break the thing that he built?

“这是习近平的军队，”耶鲁大学政治学者丹尼尔·马丁利说，“他为什么要打破自己亲手建立的东西？”

“It’s not what people would have expected of Xi, even five years ago. Something profound changed,” he said.

“即便五年前，人们也不会料到习近平会走到这一步。某些深层的东西已经发生了变化，”他说。

The corruption Mr. Xi has been hunting is real. But earlier internal speeches by Mr. Xi, not previously reported in detail, reveal another factor: a leader who saw in any sign of disobedience the seed of a political threat to his rule. He became convinced, analysts say, that the commanders he had chosen to modernize the military could no longer be trusted, their loyalty and effectiveness eroded by graft and cronyism.

习近平所追查的腐败问题确实存在。然而，此前未详细披露的习近平内部讲话显示，还有另一层因素：这位领导人将任何不服从的苗头都视为对其统治的政治威胁。分析人士认为，他逐渐相信，他亲自挑选来推进军队现代化的指挥官已不再可靠，他们的忠诚与战斗力被贪腐和裙带关系所侵蚀。

Analysts say the upheaval has also exposed the tensions between Mr. Xi’s two imperatives — preparing for combat and enforcing loyalty. Ultimately, Mr. Xi ousted a battle-experienced general who helped remake his military and replaced him with an inquisitor, who is now, alongside Mr. Xi, the sole other remaining member of China’s top military council.

分析人士称，这场动荡也暴露了习近平两个目标——备战能力与政治忠诚之间的紧张关系。最终，习近平罢免了一位具有实战经验、帮助重塑军队的将领，并用一名负责整肃的人取而代之，而此人现在跟习近平一道，是中央军委仅存的两名成员之一。

“Xi Jinping’s rule is slowly entering its late stage,” Professor Kou said. “His political calculations change in this stage, his anxieties become increasingly about members of his own inner circle.”

“习近平的统治时期已经慢慢走入后半段了，”寇健文说。“他的政治算计就有变化了，他会更加担忧他自己圈子的亲信。”

Seizing Control of the Gun

抓住枪杆子

Early on, Mr. Xi appeared determined to avoid the fate of his predecessor, Hu Jintao, who was widely seen to have failed to establish his authority over China’s military commanders.

早期，习近平似乎下定决心避免重蹈前任胡锦涛的覆辙——后者被普遍认为未能真正确立对军队的权威。

Mr. Hu’s weakness was exposed in 2011 during a visit to Beijing by Robert Gates, then the U.S. secretary of defense. Mr. Gates asked Mr. Hu about the test flight of a Chinese stealth fighter jet, news of which had emerged that morning on Chinese websites.

2011年，时任美国国防部长罗伯特·盖茨访问北京时，胡锦涛的弱势暴露无遗。盖茨问及当天早些时候中国网络上流出的中国隐形战机试飞的消息，

Mr. Hu seemed to have no knowledge of it. “The civilian leadership seemed surprised by the test,” Mr. Gates told reporters later.

胡锦涛对此似乎毫不知情。盖茨后来对记者说：“文职领导层似乎对这次试飞感到意外。”

Mr. Hu’s directives to army commanders were “more like suggestions they would consider,” said John Culver, a former C.I.A. analyst now at the Brookings Institution. “Basically you had a system that was no longer responsive to the party.”

胡锦涛对军队指挥官发出的指令“更像是供他们参考的建议，”前中情局分析员、现供职于布鲁金斯学会的约翰·卡尔弗说。“军队基本上已不再听命于党。”

2011年，当时的美国国防部长罗伯特·盖茨与时任中国国家主席胡锦涛在北京人民大会堂会面。

After coming to power in 2012, Mr. Xi launched investigations against commanders who had grown wealthy, and overweening, under Mr. Hu, including some previously deemed untouchable because of their status.

2012年执掌大权后，习近平随即对在胡锦涛时代揽聚财富和权力的将领展开调查，其中不乏因地位显赫而曾被视为动不得的人物。

In 2014, Mr. Xi summoned hundreds of senior officers to Gutian, a town in eastern China where, according to party histories, Mao Zedong in 1929 established the fundamental principle that defines the Chinese state today: The party commands the gun.

2014年，习近平召集数百名高级军官赴福建省东部的古田开会。根据党史记载，1929年毛泽东正是在古田确立了一条定义了今日中国国家形态的根本原则：党指挥枪。

Mr. Xi used that historical backdrop to warn that the Communist Party’s control of the armed forces had eroded to a dangerous degree.

借助这段历史，习近平警告说，共产党对军队的控制已弱化到危险的程度。

At Gutian, Mr. Xi laid out the problems he had inherited. Faith in the party’s values had decayed. Corruption, cronyism and insubordination was brazen. He cited training exercises so fake that soldiers used shovels and sticks instead of guns.

在古田，习近平历数他所接手的种种积弊：对党的价值观的信仰日益式微，腐败、裙带关系和公然抗令横行。他举例说，有的训练演习弄虚作假，士兵拿铁锹和木棍代替枪械。

The Rot

腐化糜烂

To Mr. Xi, the rot was exemplified by Gen. Xu Caihou, who was a retired vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, a position that had put him near the top of the People’s Liberation Army. General Xu had been placed under investigation, accused of taking huge bribes, including for arranging promotions for officers.

在习近平看来，这种腐化糜烂的典型代表是徐才厚上将。徐退休前曾任中央军委副主席，这一职位使他一度位居解放军权力顶端。徐才厚后来受到调查，被指控收受巨额贿赂，包括通过为军官安排晋升换取好处。

“Xu Caihou always solemnly professed undying loyalty and love toward the party,” Mr. Xi said, according to a previously unreported version of a speech he made in Gutian that circulated inside the military. “But really, deep in his soul he had long ago fallen away from the party and into corruption and depravity.”

根据一份此前未被报道、曾在军内流传的古田讲话版本，习近平说：“徐才厚口头上总是信誓旦旦表白‘永远忠于党热爱党’，但实际上灵魂深处早已同党离心离德、腐化糜烂了，”

2004年，徐才厚在长春。他被指控收受巨额贿赂，以换取为他人安排晋升。

Mr. Xi was also alarmed by events abroad. He cited cautionary stories of leaders in the Middle East and the Soviet Union who were toppled after their militaries abandoned them in the face of insurrections.

习近平也对国外发生的事情感到警惕。他指出中东和苏联领导人的前车之鉴——当民众揭竿而起时，军队倒戈，领导人随之被推翻。

Mr. Xi came to the job with a reverence for the People’s Liberation Army. His father was a revolutionary leader who had fought under Mao. In his early career, Mr. Xi worked as a secretary to the minister of defense. Mr. Xi believed that to instill loyalty in the military to the Communist Party and to him, he had to revive “political work” — the indoctrination, vetting and monitoring that made officers and troops trustworthy.

习近平掌权之初，对人民解放军怀有崇敬之情。他的父亲是一位曾在毛泽东麾下战斗过的革命领导人。他早年曾担任国防部长秘书。习近平相信，要让军队忠于共产党以及他本人，就必须重新重视“政治工作”——即通过思想灌输、资格审查和监控，确保军官和士兵的可靠性。

To drive home the new spirit of discipline that he demanded in Gutian, Mr. Xi was shown eating coarse rice and pumpkin soup, the humble, storied meal of the early Red Army.

为了强调他在古田所要求的纪律新风，习近平在镜头前吃粗粮、南瓜汤——这是早期红军朴素而富有象征意义的食物。

“Absolute loyalty to the party rests on the word ‘absolute’,” Mr. Xi said. “It is a loyalty that is singular, total, unconditional and free from any impurities or fakery.”

“对党绝对忠诚要害在‘绝对’两个字，”习近平说。“就是唯一的、彻底的、无条件的、不掺任何杂质的、没有任何水分的忠诚。”

The Chairman Is in Charge

主席说了算

From his first years in power, Mr. Xi also began entrenching a “chairman responsibility system,” an overhaul that tightened his control over the military by giving him intelligence and control deep into its ranks. He declared his confidence in his own ability to spot the right commanders for promotion.

从执政最初几年开始，习近平还着手巩固“军委主席负责制”——这一改革通过让他深入掌握军队内部的情报与控制权，加强了他对军队的掌控。他宣称有信心亲自甄别提拔合适的指挥官。

“The key to building a strong military lies in picking the right people,” he said in an internal speech in 2016, describing how he vetted and spoke to prospects for promotion. “Senior and mid-ranking officers are the backbone for building and running the military, and as chairman of the Central Military Commission, I should personally handle this.”

“强军之道，要在得人，”他在2016年的一次内部讲话中描述自己亲自审核晋升候选人的过程时说。“高中级干部是建军治军骨干，我作为军委主席，应该亲力亲为抓。”

He also replaced decades-old military regions with new theater commands and he dissolved central People’s Liberation Army departments that he saw as barriers to effective control. His goal was to give China the ability to combine land, air and sea forces to project power abroad, while ensuring that this modernized force stayed unflinchingly loyal.

他还以新的战区指挥系统取代了沿用数十年的军区体制，并撤销了他认为阻碍有效指挥的解放军若干中央部门。他的目标是在实现中国陆海空联合作战、对外投送力量的能力同时，确保军队绝对忠诚。

Gen. Zhang Youxia was among the commanders entrusted with executing Mr. Xi’s vision. General Zhang was a gruff, charismatic officer who had distinguished himself on the frontline of China’s yearslong border war with Vietnam from 1979. He was the son of a revolutionary general who had fought alongside Mr. Xi’s father.

张又侠上将是被委以执行习近平愿景重任的指挥官之一。他是一名性格粗犷、富有魅力的军官，在1979年起中国和越南持续数年的边境战争前线表现突出，因而声名显赫。他是革命将领之子，其父曾与习近平的父亲并肩作战。

Mr. Xi had earlier promoted him to the Central Military Commission and made him head of the military’s general armaments department. The department was in charge of acquiring new weapons, which are vital to Mr. Xi’s modernization plans, but had also become a mire of corruption, fed by its control over funds and contracts.

习近平此前已将他提拔至中央军委，并任命他为军队总装备部负责人。该部门负责新武器采购，这些武器对习近平的军队现代化计划至关重要，但同时也因掌控大量资金和合同而成为腐败的温床。

中国官方媒体提供的一张照片显示去年北京阅兵式上的无人机及其他武器装备。习近平曾赋予张又侠上将执行其军队现代化构想的重任。

“He came from a privileged Communist Party background, and it showed,” said Drew Thompson, who was working at the Pentagon and met General Zhang in 2012 when he took part in a Chinese military delegation on a visit to the United States. “I think that combination of his background, his combat experience, his self-confidence, his comfort with weapon systems and his openness to change made him attractive to Xi.”

“他出身中共特权家庭，这一点显而易见，”曾在五角大楼任职、2012年中国军事代表团访美时见过张又侠的唐安竹(Drew Thompson)说。“我认为，他的出身背景、实战经验、自信气质、对武器系统的熟稔以及对变革的开放态度，让他受到习近平的青睐。”

By 2018, Mr. Xi appeared satisfied that his overhaul was paying off. While he acknowledged to the Central Military Commission that problems remained, he said the changes were a “historic transformation” that had “saved the military.”

一直到2018年，习近平对他的改革成效似乎都是满意的。尽管他在中央军委承认问题仍然存在，但他表示这是一场“历史性变革”，并且“挽救了军队”。

When Mr. Xi won a third term as leader in 2022, he unexpectedly retained General Zhang in the military commission. At 72, the commander had been expected to step down. Mr. Xi instead made him China’s top general, tasked with pursuing Mr. Xi’s goal of a breakthrough in military capabilities by 2027.

2022年习近平获得第三个任期时，他出人意料地把张又侠留在了军委。这位72岁的将领原本预计会卸任，但习近平反而让他成为了中国的最高军事指挥官，负责推进习近平提出的2027年前实现军事能力重大突破的目标。

China faced an increasingly perilous world, Mr. Xi said two weeks later during a visit to the Joint Operations Command Center. “Direct all our energies to combat readiness,” he said.

两周后，习近平在视察军委联合作战指挥中心时表示，中国面临日益严峻的世界形势。他说：“全部精力向打仗聚焦。”

Last Man Standing

最后的幸存者

But just over half a year later, in 2023, the veneer of stability cracked. Mr. Xi abruptly replaced the Rocket Force’s top commander and his deputy — an extraordinary move in the arm of the military that controls nuclear and conventional missiles. The purge was never publicly explained. Then China’s defense minister was dismissed without explanation.

但仅仅过了半年多，在2023年，表面的稳定就被打破。习近平突然撤换了火箭军司令及其副手——对于这个掌管核武器与常规导弹的军种，这样的行动极为罕见，始终未获官方解释。随后，国防部长亦在没有任何说明的情况下遭到免职。

Suddenly, Mr. Xi’s transformation of the People’s Liberation Army looked plagued by the same problems of corruption and disobedience that he claimed to have excised.

突然之间，习近平对中国人民解放军的改造似乎也饱受腐败和不服从问题的困扰——而这些问题他本声称已经根除。

This time, Mr. Xi brought his commanders to Yan’an, the hallowed base of Mao’s revolution, where Mr. Xi called for a deepening campaign of “political rectification.” In the two years that followed, dozens of high-ranking officers were removed or disappeared from public view.

这一次，习近平把他的军官们带到了延安——毛泽东革命的圣地，并在此呼吁持续深化“政治整训”。在接下来的两年里，数十名高级军官被撤职或从公众视野中消失。

As the campaign widened, so did the power of Gen. Zhang Shengmin, the commander steering the investigations. He had risen through the ranks despite having little experience in military operations. In the Rocket Force, he was a political commissar, enforcing party loyalty. He was known for his love of Chinese brush calligraphy.

随着这场运动不断推进，主导调查的张升民将军的权力也日益扩大。他虽然缺乏实际军事作战经验，却一路晋升。他曾在火箭军担任政治委员，负责贯彻对党的忠诚。他以喜爱中国书法著称。

He was later promoted to a newly created agency that investigates graft and disloyalty in the military. His ascent reflected the importance Mr. Xi gave to ideological control and political loyalty, even as he also called for battlefield readiness.

他后来被提拔到一个新设立的机构，专门调查军队中的贪腐与不忠行为。他的升迁反映出习近平对意识形态控制与政治忠诚的重视，即便他同时也强调战场战备能力。

“In Xi’s analysis, failures of readiness stemming from corruption are merely an outgrowth of ideological impurity,” said Joel Wuthnow, a senior fellow at the National Defense University in Washington who studies China’s military. “The rot was perhaps deeper than Xi imagined in 2023, and so he needed to take more drastic steps.”

“在习近平看来，因腐败导致的战备松懈，不过是意识形态不纯的一个外在表现，”华盛顿国防大学研究中国军事的高级研究员吴志远(Joel Wuthnow)说。“腐烂的程度或许比习近平2023年所预想的还要深重，因此他不得不采取更为激烈的措施。”

Gen. Zhang Shengmin’s powers were most likely enhanced by pervasive surveillance technologies that gave investigators more tools to spy into the lives, and financial flows, of officers and their families, said Mr. Culver, the researcher at Brookings.

布鲁金斯学会研究员卡尔弗表示，张升民权力的扩大很可能得益于无处不在的监控技术，使调查人员拥有了更多手段，深入地监视军官及其家属的日常生活和资金往来。

By late 2025, the purges were reshaping not just the ranks but the balance of power among remaining commanders. Analysts suggested that as the investigations deepened, there was growing turbulence inside the military elite, including between commanders focused on warfighting goals and officers tasked with enforcing political loyalty.

到2025年底，清洗不仅重塑了军队的等级结构，也改变了现存将领之间的权力格局。分析人士认为，随着调查深入，军队高层内部出现了越来越激烈的震荡，包括专注作战能力的将领与负责政治忠诚的官员之间的冲突。

“Xi is trapped in a red versus expert contradiction,” said Mr. Thompson, the former Pentagon official, referring to “red” as loyalty to the party.

“习近平陷入了‘红’与‘专’之间的矛盾，”前五角大楼官员唐安竹说，这里的“红”指的是对党的忠诚。

2025年3月在北京人民大会堂，张升民上将向习近平敬礼。

With China’s next leadership transition due at a Communist Party congress late next year, in this reading, Mr. Xi appeared more sensitive to perceived threats to his authority. His top commander, Gen. Zhang Youxia, seemed more dominant, with many potential rivals toppled. But he was not untouched: The investigations had also brought down other generals linked to him, potentially implicating him.

随着中共下次领导层换届的党代会将于明年底举行，按照这种解读，习近平对所有被视为威胁其权威的动向越来越敏感。他的最高将领张又侠的地位看似更加稳固了，众多潜在竞争者相继倒台。然而他未能全身而退：调查同样拉下了一批与他有关联的将领，可能使他受到牵连。

And the chief investigator, Gen. Zhang Shengmin, was rising.

而负责调查的上将张升民则在步步高升。

The final straw came when Mr. Xi moved to promote Gen. Zhang Shengmin to vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, said Christopher K. Johnson, a former U.S. government intelligence officer who is now president of China Strategies Group, a consultancy firm.

据咨询公司中国战略集团总裁、前美国政府情报官员张克斯(Christopher K. Johnson)称，最后的导火索是习近平欲提拔张升民出任中央军委副主席。

Gen. Zhang Youxia, backed by his second-in-command, Gen. Liu Zhenli, objected to that proposal because placing an investigator in such a powerful position risked painting the People’s Liberation Army as an unserious combat force, Mr. Johnson said.

张又侠在其副手刘振立上将的支持下，对这一提议表示反对。张克斯表示，张又侠认为，将一名纪委负责人置于如此要职，有损解放军作为一支严肃的作战力量的形象。

Modern Chinese history offers examples of commanders who overestimated how far they could push their leaders. General Zhang appears to have done the same. “Zhang Youxia thought, ‘I’ve got the credentials to say this,’ and it turns out he didn’t,” Mr. Johnson said.

中国现代史上不乏将领高估自己与领导人博弈空间的案例，张又侠似乎有了同样的误判。“张又侠以为凭自己的资历可以说这话，结果证明并非如此，”张克斯说。

When he and his deputy were removed early this year, the official military newspaper accused them of having “gravely trampled on” the chairman responsibility system, which Mr. Xi had built up to cement his control over the military.

今年初，张又侠与其副手遭到撤职，军报随即指控他们“严重破坏践踏”了习近平为巩固对军队控制权而建立的主席负责制。

Mr. Xi is not stopping there. In April, he launched a program of “ideological rectification” and “revolutionary forging” within the military — an indoctrination drive, in other words. Mr. Xi addressed the assembled senior officers, described as the first batch of attendees in Beijing, suggesting that the campaign to instill loyalty would roll on.

习近平并未止步于此。今年4月，他在军内举办培训班，发起“思想整风”，加强“革命性锻造”。习近平亲自出席并向被称为“首批学员”的全军高级干部发表讲话，暗示这场灌输忠诚的运动将持续推进。

Television footage of the meeting showed rows of officers diligently taking notes as Mr. Xi spoke. Sitting next to him was Gen. Zhang Shengmin, the enforcer.

电视画面显示，在习近平讲话时，一排排军官认真地做着笔记。坐在他身旁的，正是那位执行者——张升民上将。