Anthony Swierkowski

The most important character at the heart of this drama that's playing out at the top echelons of power in China is China's most powerful, most important general, Zhang Youxia.

We've spoken to analysts and people who watch this ongoing purge that has kind of consumed the Chinese military basically since Xi Jinping took power in 2012.

And what they're telling us is that, number one, this is astonishing and it's really unprecedented.

It represents a really powerful

important shift in Chinese politics.

And this is because Zhang Yuxia is not just senior general who has some kind of small overlap here and there with Xi Jinping.

Zhang is a princeling, just like Xi Jinping himself, which means that their fathers fought together during the civil war.

And so there was this deep, personal, familial connection.

China's military is run by the Seven Men Central Military Commission.

And that commission, owing to all of these purges, right now has only two members left, the Supreme Commander, the Commander-in-Chief Xi Jinping, and his ally, Jiang Shemin.

So the secretive organization that the People's Liberation Army is and its leadership is even more opaque than before.