China’s top general is suspected of passing secret information about the country’s nuclear weapons program to the US, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with a high-level briefing on the allegations.

Zhang Youxia, 75, is also accused of accepting bribes for official acts, including the promotion of an officer to the post of defense minister, the newspaper reported on Sunday. The briefing was held before China’s Defense Ministry announced on Saturday that it was investigating Zhang, WSJ said.

The general is alleged to have leaked core technical data on China’s nuclear weapons to the US and is being probed for allegedly forming political cliques and abusing his authority on military decisions, according to the report, which goes beyond China’s announcement that it was investigating Zhang, a Politburo member and one-time ally of President Xi Jinping.

Officials are scrutinizing Zhang’s oversight of a powerful agency responsible for the research, development and procurement of military hardware, the WSJ said, adding that he’s alleged to have accepted significant sums of money in exchange for official promotions in the procurement system.

Neither Zhang nor Gu could be reached for comment, the newspaper said. The Chinese Embassy in Washington also didn’t respond to its questions, nor did the defense ministry respond to a request for comment.

Liu Zhenli, a member of the Communist Party’s Central Military Commission, is also being investigated, according to Saturday’s brief statement that referred to “serious discipline and law violations.”

The probes sent shockwaves through the highest echelons of military power in China, expanding the country’s widest purge of generals since Mao Zedong’s chaotic rule ended in 1976. Zhang’s downfall also marks the first time Xi has probed a close ally. Both men’s fathers worked together in northwestern China during the civil war.

Zhang and Liu are also two rare Chinese generals with battlefield experience from brief border fights with Vietnam in the late 1970s and 1980s, the last time China fought in a conflict. Liu, 61, has been chief of the People Liberation Army’s Joint Staff Department, which oversees military operations, intelligence and training.

Xi began his latest campaign to root out corruption in the armed forces in mid-2023, months after securing a precedent-defying third term. Since then, two vice military chairs, three CMC members, a former defense minister, and at least a dozen senior generals who oversaw military commands have been ousted. (Bloomberg)