James Kynge

The really fascinating line or phrase was that he had, quote, "...severely trampled on and damaged the chairman responsibility system."

Now, I will explain the chairman responsibility system in a minute, but effectively what that meant is that he had gone against Xi Jinping politically in some way.

It could have been anything from disobedience to treason to plotting or something else.

We just don't know exactly what that means.

The chairman responsibility system, though, is absolutely clear.

That is that the chairman of the Central Military Commission, which, as we've just been talking about, is the top military body, commands all of the Navy, the Army, and the Air Force.

And this person has exclusive and supreme authority over the whole of the People's Liberation Army.

In other words...

Whatever Xi Jinping says goes in the Chinese military.

He has the final say.

And it was this that General Jiang trampled on and damaged.

Just as a little follow-up, there was another senior military official called General Liu Zhenli, who was also put under investigation.

And he was also a member of the Central Military Commission, which previously had seven members and now only has two.

Xi Jinping and another man called Zheng Shengming.

But Zheng Shengming is merely an anti-corruption officer.

He really has no say over military matters.

So this means, as you said, Alice, that really we have Xi Jinping in charge, in sole charge, of the world's largest military.

Let me just give a few metrics on the People's Liberation Army because it really is huge.

The PLA

has over 2 million soldiers and 4 million if you include paramilitary and reserves.