Xi Loyalists Ousted in Escalating PLA Purges: Is Xi Losing Grip on Power?
Host: Yin Khvat The funeral of Chinese General Xu Qiliang not only laid to rest a vice chairman of the country’s Central Military Command (CMC) who helped consolidate Xi Jinping’s power over the military, it also signaled that another CMC vice chairman had been purged. Among the Politburo member wreaths on display at the ceremony, He Weidong’s was conspicuously absent, nor did He attend in person. He Weidong oversaw China’s military operations around Taiwan as head of the People Liberation Army’s (PLA’s) Eastern Command, and orchestrated the large-scale drills following former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit. He has not been seen in public since the National People’s Congress on March 11. While he is one of more than 70 PLA generals purged since Xi took power, his position as vice chairman marks the most senior purging of a CMC member since China’s Cultural Revolution. Is Xi Jinping simply strengthening the military’s combat readiness, or are there other motives at play? Could the latest purges of those closest to and fast-tracked by Xi suggest the erosion of his power in a factional war, as some CCP scholars say? Our guests: Chen Fang-yu - Soochow University Political Science Assistant Professor John Eastwood - Eiger Law Senior Partner
