In 1757, a firing squad executed Adm. John Byng on the deck of a Royal Navy warship for “failing to do his utmost” in pursuing the enemy during a battle in the Seven Years’ War. As Voltaire put it, they shot one admiral “to encourage the others.”
By that standard, military officers across China should be highly encouraged following Saturday’s announcement that the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party had opened an investigation of two senior military officials. As waves of purges took down one senior figure after another in the People’s Liberation Army, Gen. Zhang Youxia had seemed untouchable. Handpicked by Xi Jinping, Gen. Zhang was a member of the Politburo and as vice chairman of the Central Military Commission was second only to Mr. Xi in the military hierarchy. At a Saturday briefing for high ranking military officers first reported by the Journal, Gen. Zhang was accused of everything from conniving at corruption with family members to spilling nuclear secrets to the U.S.