- Xi Jinping is at odds with the Chinese military and has purged senior commanders in an effort to reorganize the military.
- Analysts told Business Insider that he wants his generals to be ready and willing to go to war.
- One analyst said that if China invaded a place like Taiwan, it could drag the United States into World War III.
Xi Jinping is fighting China’s military and seeking to purge commanders he deems unwilling or unable to go to war, military analysts told Business Insider.
“I think Chinese leaders are trying to take control of the military and think they need officers who are actually prepared to fight,” said Gatestone Institute senior fellow and author of “China Moves On.” Gordon Chan says. To war. ”
“There’s a sense that a lot of Chinese generals don’t want to fight,” Zhang said. “And we actually have a force led by a corps of officers who are ambivalent about going to war.”
Since taking power in 2012, Mr. Xi has thoroughly reformed China’s military, including overhauling its personnel, improving military-civilian cooperation, and restructuring the military’s structure. .
His efforts culminated on December 29, 2023. When Xi Jinping dismissed nine senior executives at once.
since then, report and US intelligence agency have was suggested The decision was to root out corruption, a motive often cited when Chinese officials are suddenly removed from office.
But for Chan, this theory is beside the point.
“Because if that were the case, we would all be fired,” he said.
For him, Mr. Xi is likely purging military officers who are reluctant to go to war.
He quoted Chinese Air Force General Liu Yazhou. warned of invasion of Taiwan According to AsiaNews, he was given a suspended death sentence in February 2022.
BI also spoke to Joel Woonow, a senior fellow at the Center for Chinese Military Studies at the National Defense University in Washington, DC.
He asserted that eradicating corruption and China’s war preparations are aligned goals.
“This dismissal shows that Mr. Xi should be concerned about the quality of the human resources and equipment he has invested in over the past decade,” he said.
Nine senior commanders are involved in China’s Rocket Force, which will play an important role in any military operation, Usnow said.
“If that equipment breaks down or becomes unreliable, how confident can Mr. Xi and his colleagues be that the People’s Liberation Army will prevail?” Usnow asked.
Xi is drawing himself and China into conflict
China engages in low-level hostilities with many of its neighbors.
There is India in the disputed Himalayas, Japan in the East China Sea, Philippines in the South China Seaand Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory.
Chinese intrusion in Taiwan‘s air–defense Due to the influence of the zone in the past five years; us navy and Air Force official and army observer to Predict China will invade Taiwan within the next few years.
But for Chan, it is impossible to determine where a large explosion will come from.
“I don’t think you can say, ‘Oh, this is Taiwan or something,'” he said, even though the island has been at the center of Western concerns about China’s military intentions. Ta.
He pointed out that Mr. Xi has been increasing his belligerent rhetoric.
In his New Year’s address, President Xi said that China “will definitely be unified, and all Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should be bound by a common sense of purpose and share in the glory of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” It is said thatof official translation of his speech.
NBC News reported that Mr. Xi conveyed the message to his country during a recent face-to-face meeting with Mr. Biden. According to the network, Mr. Xi told Mr. Biden at the APEC summit in San Francisco in November 2023 that China intends to take control of Taiwan.
Continuing previous exchanges along these lines, in November 2021, Mr. Xi warned that the Biden administration was “playing with fire” and encouraged Biden, calling Taiwan’s independence “dangerous.” I urged him not to.
This is important, Zhang said, because it becomes a “beacon” for Xi’s political opponents. By making such statements, he said, he could “lure himself and China to war.”
But Mr. Wuthnow believes that Mr. Xi has become more cautious following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has destabilized President Vladimir Putin’s domestic position. I’m worried that it might happen to me too.
“Russia has paid a heavy price for its misfortune, and so will China. Moreover, a failed invasion would be politically worse for Mr. Xi than not trying at all.”
Chinese invasion could drag the US into World War III
All conditions for World War III are in place, Chan said. There are a wide range of conflicts, including war in Ukraine, insurgency in Africa, Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, and military operations in the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and Indian Ocean.
“Remember that in the 1930s there were separate wars that were merged into what is now called World War II,” he said.
“The same dynamics exist today and are very likely. Some might argue that they are likely to coalesce into a global conflict,” Chan said. Ta.
He predicted that China’s invasion of East Asia would drag the West into greater proportions.
“I think Xi Jinping has extracted two pages from Mao Zedong’s peasant revolution strategy.”
“One of them was to encircle the city from the countryside. And in this, I think Xi Jinping considers Ukraine, North Africa, and Israel to be the province, and the United States as the city.”