How Xi's military purges could hamper China's ability to fight

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s purges of senior military officials, including the recent ouster of his top two generals, run far deeper than previously thought, researchers say, potentially undermining the effectiveness of his People’s Liberation Army.

HONG KONG — Chinese President Xi Jinping’s purges of senior military officials run far deeper than previously thought, researchers say, threatening the effectiveness of his People’s Liberation Army.

The crackdown, documented in two new studies released Tuesday, includes the recent ouster of Xi's top two generals.

Purges have been a regular occurrence under Xi, but observers were still shocked last month when it was announced that Gen. Zhang Youxia, the military’s No. 2 official after Xi himself, was under investigation for serious “violations of discipline and law.”

Some 101 generals and lieutenant generals have been purged or potentially purged since 2022, representing 52% of the PLA’s top leadership positions, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank based in Washington, said in a report released Tuesday.

“This figure is striking and extraordinary, demonstrating the depth of Xi’s campaign and the unprecedented churn in the PLA leadership,” wrote M. Taylor Fravel, director of the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one of the nine authors of the report.