Chinese President Xi Jinping launched the largest military purge in years

With all the drama in the United States and Japan at the moment, some massive moves in China are flying under the radar.President Xi Jinping undertook a massive purge of the military. Gen. Zhang Youxia was accused of leaking nuclear-weapons data to the US and accepting bribes for promotions, including of a defense minister, according to the WSJ.The general was once considered one of Xi’s most-loyal allies and is the highest-ranking uniformed officer in the Chinese military. He is also a member of the 24-person Politburo, the party’s center of power.Officials also placed Liu Zhenli, chief of its Joint Staff arm, under investigation. Officially, Zhang and Liu were “suspected of serious violations of discipline and
law”, the defence ministry said in a short announcement on Saturday.In October, Xi also purged He Weidong, who was the vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and seven other top generalsThere have also been rumors of an attempted coup, so it’s altogether unclear what’s happening here but this is a major move from Xi and perhaps the largest military shakeup in decades. It’s not clear how this might impact the timeline for a potential Taiwan invasion but would seemingly push it back, as Xi will need time to consolidate power and restore ranks.In 2023, defense minister Li Shangfu disappeared from public view and was removed and the WSJ report indicates that Saturday’s moves may have been related. It’s not clear if Li is currently imprisoned.Xi and Zhang are both ‘princelings’ in the CPC as their fathers fought side by side during the Chinese civil war that led to Mao’s Communist forces seizing power in 1949.In terms of markets, I don’t see any obvious implications here aside from a smaller chance of Chinese military action but it bears watching closely on what could happen next.
This article was written by Adam Button at investinglive.com.

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