“In an uncertain world, China embodies the greatest security,” an official Chinese spokesman boasted in December. Less than four weeks later, a thirty-second statement by the spokesman for the Ministry of Defense to the cameras destroyed this illusion of stability: Zhang Youxia, the highest-ranking general and vice chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission, and Liu Zhenli, chief of the general staff and also vice chairman of the high command, were removed for “serious violations of the law and discipline.” In the central organ Renmin Ribao it said the next day that the two generals had “trampled and undermined the responsibility system of the chairman of the military commission.” By statute, this chairman is Xi Jinping, the 72-year-old party and state leader who has ruled the country with an iron hand since 2012.
