"Xi Can’t Trust His Own Military" - by CWP alum Joel Wuthnow

Many of Xi Jinping's senior generals are missing in action, the victims of repeated purges. Most recent is Gen. He Weidong, CMC Vice Chairman responsible for meeting the PLA's 2027 cross-Strait readiness targets. Such incidents underscore the trust deficit endemic in Chinese party-army relations, and drive the CCP to try to achieve "absolute" control through investigations, monitoring, indoctrination, and a convoluted, Leninist-centric command system. This baggage complicates the PLA's readiness for war with Taiwan this decade and creates opportunities for the US to improve deterrence. Phillip S. and Joel Wuthnow explain in a new essay in The New York Times, based on their recent book. https://lnkd.in/erQZUjdm - https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/opinion/china-taiwan-xi-jinping.html

Dr. Joel Wuthnow is a senior research fellow in the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs within 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, all from NDU Press, include Gray Dragons: Assessing China's Senior Military Leadership (2022), Crossing the Strait: China's Military Prepares for War with Taiwan (2022, lead editor), The PLA Beyond Borders: Chinese Military Operations in Regional and Global Context (2021, lead editor), System Overload: Can China's Military Be Distracted in a War over Taiwan? (2020), and Chairman Xi Remakes the PLA: Assessing Chinese Military Reforms (2019, co-editor). 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, Joint Force Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary China, Journal of Strategic Studies, Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, Naval War College Review, and in edited volumes. 

Prior to joining NDU, Dr. Wuthnow was a China analyst at CNA, 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. 

Photo Credit: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Xi_Jinping_%28November_2024%29_02.jpg