With Xi Jinping’s Purge of China’s Most Senior Uniformed Official, War in Taiwan May Be a Step Closer

Today, Xi Jinping tightens his iron grip on China’s military with the shocking purge of its most senior uniformed official, Zhang Youxia. This unprecedented upheaval has swept not only Zhang, the formidable first-ranked vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), but also General Liu Zhenli, head of the military’s Joint Staff Department, into an investigation for “grave violations of discipline and law.” Reportedly, China’s Ministry of National Defense has accused Zhang for leaking to the United States information about the Chinese nuclear program.

With these removals, the once seven-member Central Military Commission — China’s supreme military decision-making body — is now effectively reduced to just two individuals: Xi Jinping himself and Zhang Shengmin, the head of the anti-graft watchdog. This move by Xi marks a seismic shift in Beijing’s power structure, consolidating unparalleled military authority in Xi’s hands at precisely the moment when he has defined “unification” with Taiwan as the greatest unfinished task of national rejuvenation.