Xi continues the purge of his senior Military and Foreign Affairs leaders
Nine Generals and Admirals down, it’s becoming a bloodbath.
A dark comedy on Soviet leadership palace intrigue was “The Death of Stalin”. The Chinese Communist Party tries to be more cerebral and sophisticated, but likely the same chaos is going on right now.
Xi is obsessed with internal attempts against his control over the CCP and thus is focused on ensuring absolute allegiance.
I don’t think this bodes well for Chinese military readiness or an imminent attack on Taiwan. They are having much more success in using their proxies of Russia, Iran, Hamas, Houthis, Somalis, and Venezuela. But anything could happen as “The Death of Stalin” showed. Xi may force a wreckless campaign in the Western Pacific despite a decimated military leadership.
Current nine removed include: Nine PLA generals removed from the legislature hailed from several military divisions; three were former commanders or vice commanders of the PLA Rocket Force; one a former Air Force chief and one a Navy commander responsible for the South China Sea. Four officers were responsible for equipment.
Previous to this, other replacements include:
Li Shangfu (Joint Chief’s Chairman equivalent): Missing, likely dead
Wei Fenghe, Li’s predeceser: Missing, likely dead
Wang Shaojun (Central Guard Unit Commander, no real American equivalent): Dead
Qin Gang (Secretary of State Equivalent): Missing, possibly executed
Top commander of the rocket force, Li Yuchao, also disappeared alongside his deputy Liu Guangbin and former deputy Zhang Zhenzhong.
Our military leaders are more concerned that personnel learn to use the correct pro-nouns than learning how to fight a war.
This article lacks context. Nine commanders or vice commanders out of how many? Are there a total of 20 commanders and vice commanders, or are there a total of 500 commanders and vice commanders? What percentage of the total have been purged?