Zhang Youxia, long-serving vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission and a key Xi Jinping ally, was placed under investigation in late January 2026 for serious violations of discipline and law amid an ongoing PLA purge. Official statements and subsequent reporting framed the case in terms of disloyalty and undermining party control over the military rather than routine corruption charges. As of mid-August 2026, roughly seven months later, no public expulsion from the Communist Party, formal indictment, trial, or criminal sentencing has been announced. In China’s political system, senior military figures in such investigations are typically handled first through internal party discipline, removal from office, and loss of rank, with criminal prison sentences—when they occur—following lengthy, non-public processes or sometimes avoided entirely at the highest levels. These patterns, combined with the absence of any sentencing developments in the resolution window, underpin the market’s strong “No” pricing.