China said Monday that it removed two top generals over allegations of disloyalty and corruption, the latest in a long series of expulsions under leader Xi Jinping.
While Xi’s purge is centered around rooting out graft, the “unprecedented” charges of forming cliques and factions “sends a sharp message to both the elders and the military about challenging Xi,” a former CIA China analyst told Reuters; the expelled Zhang Youxia was seen as Xi’s closest military ally.
In a personalist system, leadership prizes loyalty, China expert Minxin Pei told The Beijing Brief podcast, with the consequence that strong figures — potential successors — tend to get weeded out. “We’re likely to have a period of weak leadership” after Xi, Pei predicted.