Military Coup Attempt Thwarted against Xi Jinping in Beijing

Senior Chinese military officials reportedly planned to arrest President Xi Jinping on the night of January 18, but the move failed after Xi was alerted in advance and took countermeasures.

According to the reports, the alleged organisers were Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, and Liu Zhenli, chief of the People’s Liberation Army’s general staff. The accounts claim Xi left a government hotel before an advance team of the plotters arrived and that his personal security detail later opened fire when the group reached the location.

Chinese state media reported that Zhang is a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC). Liu is a member of the CMC and chief of staff of the CMC Joint Staff Department.

The reports further claim that Xi subsequently ordered the detention of Zhang, Liu, and their family members. Beijing has not commented publicly on the allegations.

Separately, China’s defense ministryannounced on Saturday that Zhang and Liu are under investigation for “serious discipline violations and violations of the law,” language commonly used by the Communist Party to signal corruption probes or political purges.

An editorial published on Sunday in the military’s official newspaper, PLA Daily, accused the two generals of having “severely trampled on and damaged the chairman responsibility system,” which places the armed forces under the authority of the Communist Party leader, who chairs the Central Military Commission.

“The military is the only organisation in China that has a history of defying party leaders,” Dennis Wilder, a former head of China analysis at the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency was quoted as saying by the Financial Times.

Wilder added that Xi may have viewed Zhang as a potential internal threat, saying that after earlier factional struggles within the military, “Xi probably feared that […] Zhang was all powerful in the military.”

Other analysts urged caution over claims of a direct plot against Xi. James Char of Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies said, “I very much doubt that Zhang Youxia or anyone else in the regime would have had the temerity to engage in open confrontation against Xi Jinping,” pointing instead to long-running factional rivalries.

Ja Ian Chong of the National University of Singapore said there was no corroborated evidence that Xi faced an imminent threat, adding that “Xi continues to have significant reach and remains unopposed or at least impossible to oppose within the system.”

The investigation has hollowed out China’s top military body, leaving Xi as the only fully active member of the Central Military Commission alongside a political commissar overseeing discipline cases. Analysts say the developments highlight the leadership’s focus on preventing any challenge to party control over the armed forces, as Xi is widely expected to seek a fourth term at the Communist Party congress in 2027.