While the world waits to see what Trump will do about China’s close ally, Iran, it is important to note that Chairman Xi continues to purge his military. Last week, he purged the country’s most senior general, who is accused of leaking information about the country’s nuclear-weapons program to the U.S. and accepting bribes for the promotion of a junior officer to defense minister.
China’s Ministry of National Defense made the bombshell announcement of an investigation into Gen. Zhang Youxia, once considered Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s most-trusted military ally. That statement gave few details beyond a probe of severe violations of party discipline and state law.
As the Wall Street Journal’s Leiling Wei puts it, “By decapitating the command structure, Xi is signaling rampant corruption, entrenched patronage networks, and the compromise of state secrets are existential threats to his goal of gaining control over Taiwan, the democratically self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its territory.”
And while it is true, a tyrannical dictator such as Xi may be most dangerous when he feels threatened, the turmoil inside China’s command structure makes it less likely that he will take the occasion to attack Taiwan if Trump goes to war with Iran. Freedom fighters inside Iran and around the world are made safer while Xi continues to purge his corrupt military.
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