Assessing the Scope and Impacts of Xi’s Military Purges

In January 2026, Chinese leader Xi Jinping ousted his top general within the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), Zhang Youxia, as well as Liu Zhenli, Chief of the PLA Joint Staff. These purges have left China’s Central Military Commission, which controls China’s armed forces, with only a single remaining general. These latest moves marked the crescendo of ongoing, widespread purges of China’s military, which have already ensnared dozens of senior officers in recent years.  

Join the CSIS China Power Project on February 24th from 3:00–4:30 pm ET for a virtual event to discuss what these purges mean for the PLA. The conversation will examine the scope and intensity of these purges, why they are occurring, and what they reveal about China’s priorities, dynamics within the PLA, and China’s overall military readiness.

To unpack these questions, we are joined by five leading experts: Dr. Sheena Chestnut Greitens (Associate Professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin), Mr. John Culver (Nonresident Senior Fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center at Brookings), Mr. Jon Czin (Michael H. Armacost Chair in Foreign Policy Studies and Fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center at Brookings), Dr. Taylor Fravel (Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science and Director of the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and Dr. Bonny Lin (Director, China Power Project and Senior Adviser at CSIS). Mr. Brian Hart (Deputy Director and Fellow of the China Power Project at CSIS) will moderate the discussion. 

Access our dataset and full report here and read our compilation of expert commentaries on our dataset here.

This event is made possible through general support to CSIS.