No. of Recommendations: 4
China has problems, as in, massive ones. Its birth rate has fallen to less than 1 birth per woman, which is catastrophic for their total population. Their banking system has always been a mess and their financing systems are dodgy at best.
But now they might have governmental unrest on their hands: Was Xi's purge of generals his stopping a coup attempt?
https://spectator.com/article/has-xi-jinping-fough...Has Xi Jinping fought off another coup?
Throughout China, military movements have been banned and troops and officers have been confined to barracks
According to unconfirmed reports, General Zhang Youxia, China’s vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), sent a company of troops (over a hundred or more) to the government’s Yingxi Hotel in western Beijing on January 18. Their mission was to arrest Xi Jinping. A few hours before, the Chinese president – alerted by an informant – set in motion countermeasures. Troops under the command of Cao Qi, head of Xi’s Central Guards Bureau, ambushed Zhang’s soldiers. In the ensuing gunfight at Yangxi Hotel, nine guards were reportedly killed along with dozens of Zhang Youxia’s soldiers.
Throughout China, military movements have been banned and troops and officers have been confined to barracks. This is the bloodiest of a blizzard of rumors that have swept the internet over the weekend. If true, this is the most dramatic military scandal since the death of Mao Zedong’s army chief Lin Biao in 1972.
Without explicitly mentioning a coup attempt, it was reported by state media that Zhang and another member of the CMC, Liu Zhenli, had been arrested for “serious violations of discipline and law.” The accuracy of the internet rumors would seem to be supported by the exceptional speed and severity of the announcement in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) official newspaper, which confirmed Zhang’s arrest for “seriously betraying the trust placed in them by the party and the Central Military Commission.” The national defense department confirmed the purported crimes they were being investigated for. Conspiracy was not mentioned but corruption was; not a difficult charge to substantiate, as all senior Chinese military officers and politicians can be assumed to have their snouts in the trough – Xi and his family included
No. of Recommendations: 0
That is an interesting take. iirc, it was the Beeb last night, talking about that General. Reportedly a very sharp guy, probably the most able General in the PLA. The presumed new top commander is a political commissar, not a line officer.
One danger of this is Xi may not get advice as grounded in reality as Zhang has provided, according to the Beeb.
The upside is, with mutiny in the ranks, Taiwan can probably breath, for a bit, maybe, I think.
Steve
