Yvette Tanand

Stephen McDonell,China correspondent

Chinese President Xi Jinping has made a rare public reference to a recent crackdown which saw the country's top military general removed.

General Zhang Youxia, who was widely seen as Xi's closest military ally, was removed from his post in January. He was accused of "serious violations of discipline and law" - typically a euphemism for corruption.

Speaking in a virtual address on Tuesday, Xi said the past year had been "unusual and extraordinary", adding that the army had "undergone revolutionary tempering in the fight against corruption".

Since coming to power, President Xi has launched waves of anti-corruption drives, which critics say have also been used as a tool to purge political rivals.

In his remarks on Tuesday, Xi also added that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) had effectively addressed "various risks and challenges", adding that many in the army had gone through "in-depth political rectification".

He also said that PLA troops had been "loyal to the Party... and proven themselves capable and dependable".

The latest remarks come as part of Xi's annual Chinese New Year greetings to the PLA. This is the first time since 2022 that he has made any reference to corruption in his annual greeting.

Zhang, 75, was vice-chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC) - a top military leadership group headed by Xi, when he was purged.

Another senior officer, General Liu Zhenli, was also removed from his post along with Zhang.

The most recent purge comes on the back of another crackdown which saw nine top generals - including some CMC members - removed from their posts in October 2025. Authorities at the time said the purges were part of an anti-corruption drive as well.

Records show that 14 full-rank generals have been sacked or investigated in the past three years.

The latest purges have decimated the seven-member CMC to just two - of which one is Xi himself.

The latest comments by Xi are highly unusual.

He never does press conferences or gives interviews - even to the tightly-controlled Chinese media.

But even he must occasionally reassure the population, and especially the Party cadres, that what he is doing makes some sort of sense.

Speaking about the crackdown is likely designed to convince them that there is a plan in place, especially given that the latest round of purges would have impacted the military's ability to fight and win a war in the immediate future.

Xi has made the fight against corruption a central pillar of his rule, calling it the "biggest threat" to the Communist Party and saying that the battle "remains grave and complex".

"The actual language surrounding the purges do not provide much detail about what exactly is going on internally, whether it really is corruption, political struggles, outright purges, or something else," said Professor Chong Ja Ian of the National University of Singapore.

"Publicity surrounding the purges are meant to be a signal, more likely domestic and internal to the CCP than anything else. The suggest the heavy consequences of either being corrupt or not following Xi's preferences closely enough, whatever they may be at a given moment."