News Analysis - 'Nobody is safe': China's Xi targets his close ally in purge


General Zhang Youxia was expected to retire in 2022, but President Xi Jinping kept him in the Chinese military’s top leadership body for a third term. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters): China’s investigation into its top general is taking President Xi Jinping’s years-long corruption purge into his innermost circle, underlining that even close personal ties do not offer protection when it comes to loyalty to the party leadership.

China experts said Xi’s move against his long-term ally and Politburo member Gen. Zhang Youxia also concentrates even more power in the president's hands, makes the already secretive command of China’s military more opaque, and suggests that a near-term attack on Taiwan is less likely.

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