China Military Purge Targets Group Who Undermined Xi’s Authority

After President Xi Jinping ousted a group of top generals whose careers overlapped for decades, state media accused them of “severely undermining” the Communist Party’s highest echelons of authority.

China sacked nine senior military officials from the ruling party on Oct. 17 in a high-profile purge that removed several commanders and a member of the 24-man Politburo. The disgraced generals had challenged “the system where the CMC chairman bears ultimate responsibility,” the People’s Liberation Army Daily wrote in a front-page editorial, referring to Xi.