Alice Han

The move signals extreme insecurity at the top and raises real questions about cohesion, readiness, and Xi's grip on power.

James, there's so much to discuss, I want to throw it straight to you.

What were your takeaways from this incident over the weekend?

Extremely delicate.

I definitely agree with you on that front, James.

And it's funny, I highlighted the same section because I think the wording of it is so precise and so idiosyncratic.

The wording of trampling on the responsibility system of the chairman of the CMC.

That is wording that I haven't seen in previous investigations of other generals that have been purged.

We've had a total of 17 generals purged.

in the PLA since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012.

That is the largest purging at the general level since Chairman Mao.

And that is a significant indication of his not just anti-corruption drive through the military, but his unhappiness potentially with the loyalty

and unity of his generals.

Now, I suspect, as you do, James, that this is a personal matter, and we haven't dove into it, but what is interesting to me is that Zhang Youxia, he is a brother, not in the literal sense, but a brother in the sense of coming from the same hometown, Shanxi, to Xi Jinping.

Their fathers were comrades who fought in the civil war in the 1940s in China.

and were also Sanxing natives.

This is a guy, General Zhang, who has been a long-time childhood friend and close ally to Xi Jinping.

Xi Jinping kept him around after 2022, even though General Zhang had already reached the retirement age.

He was 72 at the time because he believed he needed a close, confident ally in the military.

And so Zhang was effectively the second-in-command