Why Xi Jinping Keeps Purging Generals

After the fall of two top generals, Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, in late January, China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) was left with only Chairman Xi Jinping and one vice chairman, Zhang Shengmin. Over the past two years, many senior officers in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been investigated. By an incomplete count, more than a dozen active-duty full generals have gone down. Xi has moved against his generals with greater severity than against civilian officials. That vigor is especially evident in the systematic cleanup of the CMC, the PLA’s highest command body. In officialdom, it is rare to…