With repeated purges, Xi Jinping increasingly resembles Joseph Stalin in controlling the regime that he leads.
The Chinese Communist Party general secretary and national president shows widespread distrust of lieutenants. Their loyalty to him earlier in their careers seems to count for nothing. Their capacity to do their jobs also seems unimportant to him.
This particularly raises questions about the evolving competence of the armed forces.
With the removal this month of Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, two of four remaining members of the Central Military Commission (one of the other two being the president himself), Xi has even been willing to leave the highest body of the armed forces without adequate expertise.
The first signs of the latest move appeared on 20 January. On that day the CCP convened a provincial- and ministerial-level leadership seminar, a routine but politically significant event often used to signal elite alignment and policy priorities. According to official media coverage, four Politburo members did not attend the opening session: Central Military Commission (CMC) Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia, Organization Department Director Shi Taifeng, former Xinjiang Party Secretary Ma Xingrui and Vice Premier He Lifeng. Only the absence of He Lifeng, who was attending the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, was explained.
Footage from state broadcaster CCTV further showed that CMC member Liu Zhenli was also absent. While Shi Taifeng later appeared before the conclusion of the seminar, Ma Xingrui had previously missed multiple key meetings, reinforcing speculation about his political standing. Newly appointed CMC Vice Chairman Zhang Shengmin and Defence Minister Dong Jun attended the opening ceremony on 20 January, but only Dong Jun appeared at the closing ceremony on 23 January; Zhang Shengmin was notably absent. Liu Zhenli missed both sessions. Within the tightly choreographed environment of CCP elite politics, such attendance patterns rarely escape notice.
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