Purge unlike any other: Nine top Chinese generals expelled — Why Xi Jinping is cleaning house again

China’s President Xi Jinping has launched yet another sweeping purge of the military, expelling nine top generals including the country’s second-highest-ranking officer in what can be called as one of the largest public crackdowns on the armed forces in decades. The nine senior officials were accused of “seriously violating party discipline” and showing a “total collapse of beliefs,” according to a scathing editorial in the PLA Daily, the military’s official newspaper. The piece said their actions had “dealt a serious blow” to the army’s unity, the Communist Party’s authority over the armed forces, and “the image of senior military cadres.” The announcement, made days before the Communist Party’s Fourth Plenum in Beijing, marks a dramatic escalation in Xi’s decade-long campai