"Why Is Xi Still Purging His Generals?" - by CWP alum Joel Wuthnow
The removal of PLA senior generals Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli in January 2026 represented the peak, if not the end, of a massive purge of the military leadership that began in mid-2023. The absence of credible information from Beijing has allowed many theories about the causes of these dismissals to circulate, which often center on factional politics or power consolidation. An examination biographical records, however, yields more support for the view that most purges are intended to clean up corruption-prone parts of the PLA in support of Xi Jinping’s broad agenda of readying the military for combat by its 2027 centennial. The massive scale of the purges, however, has probably set that agenda back as key positions are vacant or filled by less experienced officers. The purges paradoxically also showcase Xi’s ability to remove powerful subordinates but also his inability to corral the bureaucracy, which failed to heed his earlier injunctions about professionalism. “Absolute leadership” of the party over the army remains elusive even for Xi at the height of his power.
Joel Wuthnow CLM Issue 87 March 2026 .pdf - https://digitalcommons.ndu.edu/cscma-articles/14/
Dr. Joel Wuthnow is a senior research fellow in the Institute for National Strategic Studies at NDU. His research areas include Chinese foreign and security policy, Chinese military affairs, U.S.-China relations, and strategic developments in East Asia. In addition to his duties in INSS, he also serves as an adjunct professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
His recent books and monographs include China’s Quest for Military Supremacy (Polity, 2025, with Phillip C. Saunders), Taming the Hegemon: Chinese Thinking on Countering U.S. Military Intervention in Asia (NDU Press, 2025), Sea Dragons: Special Operations and Chinese Military Strategy (Naval War College Press, 2025, with John Chen), Crossing the Strait: China’s Military Prepares for War with Taiwan (NDU Press, 2022, lead editor), and Gray Dragons: Assessing China's Senior Military Leadership (NDU Press, 2022). His research and commentary has also appeared in outlets such as Asia Policy, Asian Security, China Leadership Monitor, The China Quarterly, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Global Asia, Joint Force Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary China, Journal of Strategic Studies, Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, Naval War College Review, The New York Times, and in edited volumes.
Prior to joining NDU, Dr. Wuthnow was a China analyst at the Center for Naval Analyses, a postdoctoral fellow in the China and the World Program at Princeton University, and a pre-doctoral fellow at The Brookings Institution. His degrees are from Princeton University (A.B., summa cum laude, in Public and International Affairs), Oxford University (M.Phil. in Modern Chinese Studies), and Columbia University (Ph.D. in Political Science). He is proficient in Mandarin.
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