Lei’s Real Talk reports that on Friday, nine of the highest-ranking generals of the Chinese military were expelled in a single day, due to “serious crimes”, their cases handed over to military prosecutors for indictment. This is absolutely unprecedented and it comes just before the CCP’s Fourth Plenum, which starts on Monday.
Lei reports that all nine generals removed are considered to be Xi Jinping loyalists, saying, “They’re not just his loyalists, they are the pillars of the Xi Faction. They are his handpicked, diehard loyalists.”
What’s interesting is how the Western media is reporting this. They’re saying that Xi Jinping is behind the purge, when that simply doesn’t make sense, because these expelled generals were his loyalists. They were key for Xi’s planned Taiwan operations and they were key to his nuclear missile program – but now, they’re waiting to be indicted.
The nine generals are:
• He Weidong, China’s No. 2 general, the Vice Chairman of the Central Military Comission, who was Xi Jinping’s Right-Hand Man in the military. Xi had fast-tracked him. He was skipped three ranks to Central Military Comission Vice Chairman. Three years later, He is the shortest-serving CMC Vice Chairman and Politburo member in the CCP’s 76-year history, which is absolutely humiliating, not just for him but for Xi Jinping.
• Miao Hua, who was like Xi’s Left Hand Man. He came from Xi Jinping’s old base, the old 31st Group Army in Fujian and he was Xi Jinping’s chief political commissar and personnel boss, responsible for promoting senior officers and ensuring ideological loyalty. Lei says that Xi’s original plan was to have He Weidong succeed anti-Xi factionalist, Zhang Youxia as first CMC Vice Chairman, in order to form a triangle of absolute control but now, Xi Jinping’s got both hands chopped off.
• He Hongjun, who was promoted to a full general last July and also appointed Executive Deputy Director of the Political Department to replace Miao Hua.
• Wang Xiubin, who also came from Xi Jinping’s old base, the 31st Group Army in Fujian.
• Lin Xiangyang, who replaced He Weidong as Commander of the Eastern Theater. Lei says Lin rose from Lieutenant General to Full General in just 14 months – the fastest promotion, ever – and that Xi counted on General Lin to lead the Eastern Theater Command, the main force for any Taiwan operations. But before any war has begun, Lin has now been purged.
• Qin Shutong, like Miao Hua and Wang Xiubin, had once been political chief of Fujian’s 31st Group Army. He was supposed to be Xi Jinping’s trusted political inspector in the army but when Miao went down, Qin followed.
• Yuan Huazhi, who is similarly going down, due to the fall of his mentor, Miao.
• Wang Houbin is the fourth Rocket Force commander to be purged since 2023. Lei calls the Rocket Force Xi Jinping’s Crown Jewel, responsible for China’s nuclear and missile arsenal, key to both Taiwan operation and US deterrence. Lei says, “This elite branch has now lost four consecutive commanders under Xi and they’re not just consecutive…It’s only been around for 10 years. So it only has had four commanders, but they’re all gone…So think about it. One mistake is forgivable. Two, understandable. Three, disastrous. But four? That’s catastrophic, right? So, four rocket force commanders have been eliminated.”
• Wang Chunning, the Armed Police Chief, commander of over 1 million soldiers. Lei says Xi Jinping had trusted this man very much. He had restructured the armed police out of fear of coup. Xi purged the previous generals from the Jiang Zemin-Hu Jintao era and installed Wang Chunning but now, he’s been purged.
Nine generals – all handpicked by Xi Jinping, all loyal – all toppled.
You would think this would be headline news, but it’s not. Lei says Xinhua published the story, but they buried it in a place you could hardly find on their website and it was downplayed and mixed with unrelated stories.
So the question, of course is: Did Xi Jinping take down these generals himself, or was it his opponent, Zhang Youxia? Lei thinks the answer is obvious.
For months, Lei’s Real Talk has reported that Xi has lost power and that China’s political and military establishment has become divided into a pro-Xi hardliner faction that insists on fighting the US and the more US-friendly anti-Xi faction headed by retired CCP elders, including Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao and the active duty General Zhang Youxia, that wants to ease tensions and to restore good relations.
Lei says:
“These loyalists, I believe, were taken down by Zhang Youxia. I don’t think Xi Jinping has the guts to take down this many of his own people. Even if he did, it would make him look very bad, and he has no reason to do it, unless they went against him.
“But there’s no way these nine generals would rebel against Xi Jinping alone, without the support of Zhang Youxia. It just doesn’t make sense. And the biggest evidence to me is the split between..the Defense Ministry and state media. Because if this were Xi Jinping’s move, state outlets like the People’s Daily, the CCTV, would be all over it, right? But they’re not. They muted the news and played it down.
“Remember, I said that Xi Jinping still controls 95% of the propaganda machine, even though he only controls 10% of the military. So that’s proof that this was not Xi Jinping’s action. It was Zhang Youxia’s doing.”
On Saturday, another bombshell dropped from political commentator Cai Shenkun, who has been accurate in the past and who is highly-respected and considered to be objective. He revealed to the Epoch Times that the military purge is far from over and that, following the expulsion of the first nine generals reported publicly, an additional 28 generals on top of the original nine had been dismissed, including Xu Xueqiang, Xu Xisheng, Xiao Tianliang, Zhong Shaojun and Cai added, “I’ve been told there are still hundreds of generals waiting in line to be investigated.”
Cai said that according to credible sources, of the original nine generals purged on Friday, He Weidong is said to have died of a sudden heart attack in detention and He Hongjun had committed suicide.
Imagine if this were happening in the US military?
Lei says there is speculation that this is anti-Xi factionalist Zhang Youxia‘s last-ditch effort to prevent Xi Jinping from staging a comeback and to stop a civil war from breaking out inside the PLA or inside the CCP.
Lei says:
“It’s said that the battle between Xi Jinping and then the anti-Xi faction…has become so intense that Zhang Youxia hasn’t been going home at night, due to safety concerns. He works in the PLA Bayi Building during the day and goes to the Xishan Command Center to rest at night. But that was weeks ago. Now, he probably stays somewhere for the whole 24 hours.”
In Lei’s opinion, the CCP is openly divided and already at war. Xi Jinping doesn’t want to step down but Zhang Youxia is forcing him to do so and the 3-day, closed-door Fourth Plenary Session to map out China’s five-year plan to 2030 starts on Monday.
TRANSCRIPT
Hello, everyone. Hi, welcome to Lei’s Real Talk. Happy weekend.
It’s the weekend edition of Lei’s Real Talk. Okay, wow, what a world we’re in. There’s never a dull moment in CCP politics, for sure.
And the leadership has never been so openly divided that some people believe that there’s a war about to erupt. So let’s talk about what’s going on. We’re in the final hours leading up to the CCP’s fourth plenum.
Zhang Yuxia has openly challenged Xi Jinping, a major drama unfolded in Beijing in the last 24 hours. Yesterday, a Friday, a defense ministry spokesman held a presser and announced that nine senior military officials, including vice chairman of the CMC, He Weidong, has been expelled from both the Party and the military for serious job-related crimes. Their cases have been handed over to military prosecutors for indictment.
Now, this announcement confirmed some of the names from a long list of missing PLA generals. I mentioned them to you, I believe, Thursday. So the nine that were named yesterday were all Xi Jinping’s diehard loyalists.
So the nine names are He Weidong, CMC Vice Chairman and Politburo member, Miao Hua. But anyways, I’m not going to run down the list, because I will talk about each one of them later. We’ll save the names for later because it’s a mouthful to say.
Now, of the nine generals, except for one, the other eight are all members of the Central Committee. So this announcement is extremely unsettling for five reasons. Actually, six reasons.
The first one is the massive scale. It wasn’t just one or two generals. Nine full generals being removed in a single day due to serious crimes is unprecedented in the history of the PLA.
And the announcement didn’t specify the crimes, but the wording was damning and severe. It said something like, “Seriously violated party discipline,” and “Are suspected of major duty-related crimes involving exceptionally large sums of an extremely serious nature and with extremely vile impact.”
OK, pretty bad, OK? Second unusual quality of this event is the timing. Now, people usually expect this kind of announcement being made after the Fourth Plenum as the result of the meeting, but it was announced on the last working day before the Plenum.
And the Defense Minister was basically saying that the decision to remove the nine generals from the military and from the Party had already been approved by the leadership and the Central Military Commission and would be endorsed at the Plenum, making it look like a preemptive political move and a stick warning to the allies of the nine generals, right?
So the timing is extremely strange. It’s before the meeting instead of after. And then third is the messenger: It was announced by the Defense Ministry, which is part of the State Council, a government apparatus, not a party organ. However, the purge involves some of the highest-ranking military leaders and He Weidong, who was a Politburo member.
Usually announcements like this come from the party’s Discipline Inspection Commission or the General Office of the Party’s Central Commission, definitely not the Defense Ministry, because in CCP’s organization, the Defense Ministry is unimportant.
So for example, in the removal of the former Defense Minister, Li Shangfu, who was a CMC member, not a Vice Chairman, it was said in the announcement that the decision was made by the Politburo. But in this case, there was no mentioning of Politburo, whatsoever.
Number four, the precedent. Now it’s the first time the PLA has removed its Vice Chairman of the CMC, a sitting one. There were only two precedents, where active CMC vice chairmen were ousted. The first one was General Lin Biao, Mao’s chosen heir, who died in a plane crash in Mongolia in 1971 or 1972, while fleeing to the Soviet Union.
And the second was former party chief Zhao Ziyang, who was also CMC vice chairman under Deng Xiaoping. And Zhao was removed because he opposed using force to crack down on the student movement in 1989.
Now, Zhao Ziyang wasn’t a military leader and his vice chairmanship was purely symbolic. So, the previous two presidents, one died and the other wasn’t really a military leader, they weren’t that relevant. So, He Weidong’s purging marks the first time the PLA has ever removed a sitting Vice Chairman.
And number five, the most shocking part of this development is that all nine generals are Xi Jinping’s loyalists, without exception. And they’re not just his loyalists, they are the pillars of the Xi faction. They are his handpicked, diehard loyalists.
So let me tell you who they are so you understand the scale of this. OK, so first on the list is vice chairman He Weidong. He is the highest-ranking among them. He had been rumored to be sacked since March, when he went missing.
He was Xi Jinping’s right-hand man in the military, someone she had fast-tracked through every rule and rank. Now, before the 20th Party Congress in 2022, He wasn’t even a delegate, not a central committee member, not a CMC member. But Xi Jinping personally decided that he was the capable senior commander in the PLA and fast-tracked him upward of three ranks in one go.
He was promoted three ranks in one go, to central committee member, Politburo member, and CMC vice chairman, making him the third most powerful man in the military. Now, three years later, he has fallen from grace, becoming the shortest-serving CMC vice chairman and Politburo member in the CCP’s 76-year history. So his downfall absolutely humiliates not just himself but Xi Jinping.
And so if He is Xi’s right-hand man, then Miao Hua is Xi Jinping’s left-hand man. From 2017 to 2024, for seven years, Miao was Xi’s chief political commissar. Especially playing the role of a personnel boss responsible for promoting senior officers and ensuring ideological loyalty.
Now, like He Weidong, Miao Hua came from Xi Jinping’s old base, the old 31st Group Army in Fujian. Xi’s original plan reportedly was to have He Weidong succeed Zhang Youxia as first CMC vice chairman, because he was second vice chairman. Zhang Youxia was the first vice chairman.
So Xi Jinping’s plan was to have He Weidong replace Zhang Youxia and Miao Hua as the second vice chairman. So forming a triangle of absolute control. Now, Xi Jinping’s both hands have been chopped off.
Next on the list is General He Hongjun. And now, I don’t know if you remember, July last year, that’s when He was promoted to a full general and also to be the executive deputy director of the political department. So he was basically groomed to replace Miao Hua to lead the political department and personnel.
This promotion was so important to Xi Jinping that he held a special ceremony just for him. It was a one-person ceremony. And Xi Jinping likely planned to, like I said, to use him to replace Miao Hua when Miao Hua moves up.
But Miao fell, and soon after, He Hongjun followed. So the two men in charge of political loyalty and personnel are now both gone. The next is Wang Xiubin, another fallen general who also came from Xi Jinping’s old base, the 31st Group Army in Fujian.
Now, Wang rose fast from commander of the 80th Group Army to deputy commander of the Eastern Theater, then commander of the Southern Theater, and finally, deputy head of the Joint Operations Center. Next on the list is someone you’re familiar with. This is General Lin Xiangyang, the commander, the man who replaced He Weidong to be the commander of the Eastern Theater.
Now, he had commanded three different group armies, the 31st, the 47th, and the 72nd. A rare feat. And he participated in two of Xi Jinping’s military parades, one in 2015 and one in 2017.
And he rose from lieutenant general to full general in just 14 months, the fastest promotion ever. And Xi Jinping counted on General Lin to lead the Eastern Theater Command, the main force for any Taiwan operations. But before any war began, Lin fell.
The next on the list is Qin Shutong. Okay, we have three on the page. So Qin Shutong, like Miao Hua, had once been political chief of the 31st Group Army, also based in Fujian.
So he was promoted under Miao’s watch. So he was meant to be Xi Jinping’s trusted political inspector in the army. So when Miao went down, Qin followed.
Next is Yuan Huazhi. Oh yeah, on the same page, the navy officer. Now Yuan Huazhi had also been Miao’s subordinate in the navy.
He got promoted because of Miao. He was promoted on Miao’s recommendation. So when the mentor fell, the protege fell too.
Wang Houbin’s fall hits even harder. He is the fourth rocket force commander to be purged in, I think, the past two to three years. Yeah, since 2023. It’s only been two years.
Now, the rocket force is Xi Jinping’s crown jewel, responsible for China’s nuclear and missile arsenal, key to both Taiwan operation and US deterrence. But this elite branch has now lost four consecutive commanders under Xi and they’re not just consecutive. I mean, it’s only been around for 10 years. So it only has had four commanders, but they’re all gone.
The first one was Wei Fenghe, the former defense minister. So they’re all gone. So think about it. One mistake is forgivable. Two, understandable. Three, disastrous. But four? That’s catastrophic, right? So, four rocket force commanders have been eliminated.
Now, Wang built his career in the Navy when he was promoted to lead the Rocket Force. Many people were surprised because that branch requires specialized technical skills. So Wang got the job purely because of his connection to Miao Hua, because they both came from the Navy.
Finally, Wang Chunning, the armed police chief commanding over 1 million officers, I should say soldiers, because the armed police is not considered police, it’s considered part of the military.
Now Xi Jinping trusted this man very much. He had restructured the armed police out of fear of coup. Removing it from state council oversight and placing it directly under the CMC.
Yeah, so the armed police force used to be under the state council, and then Xi Jinping moved it to be part of the military, the military commission. And he purged the previous generals promoted during the Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao era, and he installed Wang Chunning. Now, prior, just to show how much Xi Jinping trusts this man, prior to leading the armed police, Wang had served as commander of the Beijing garrison from 2016 to 2020.
Now he’s purged. So think about it: nine generals – all handpicked by Xi Jinping – all loyal, all toppled. In the past, these downfalls were only whispered rumors. Now they’re official.
Now what I want to tell you next is what I think is the most striking, how the state media has treated this announcement. That’s the most alarming part of this latest development.
So the original announcement on Friday said, yeah, this is the original. It was said that the decision was approved by the Party’s Central Leadership and the CMC, and did not mention Xi Jinping’s name, at all. And it did not mention any of Xi Jinping’s signature political slogans.
The defense ministry basically held a press conference and its spokesperson basically delivered the news, and he was using some seriously damning voice. It sounds very threatening the way he said it. So after the press conference, the Defense Ministry posted the news on its website at 5.15 PM.
And the title reads, as you can see on the screen, “He Weidong, Miao Hua, and Seven Other Generals Seriously Violated Discipline and Are Removed from the Party and the Military.” Xinhua reposted the same story 20 minutes later.
Where is it? I want to show you. They didn’t post it to the front page. I mean, think about it. This would be headline news.
I mean, your Vice Chairman, one of your Politburo members is being brought down because of some serious issues. And nine generals, right? You would think that it’s headline news, but no. So although Xinhua published the same story, but they buried it.
They hide it in some place on their website, and you can hardly find it. And then around 11 PM, Xinhua published a second version with a new title, and that one says something like this, okay? It says, “Defense Ministry Spokesperson Held a Presser and Answered Questions about Recent Military Affairs”. Suddenly, Miao Hua and He Weidong’s names disappeared from the headline.
And the piece downplayed the purge by mixing it with unrelated issues like the South China Sea tensions. So it made a major event in the military sound like a Q&A session by the spokesperson. So that’s on Xinhua news.
And then People’s Daily. Well, People’s Daily completely stayed silent first, yesterday. Well, it’s probably because they’re a print media, but if they want, they could still put something on their website.
And today, they printed only the modified Q&A version, right? So they printed this version, the one you saw. It’s all about Q&A. On page six of its zongheban, I don’t know what you call it, zongheban, the integrated page, it’s this.
So it’s not front page. It’s on page six of the integrated news section. So there’s no mentioning of Miao Hua. There’s no mentioning of He Weidong. It’s trying to hide it. It’s basically saying this is just a part of the Q&A.
Meanwhile, CCTV, one of the most important state propaganda machine, CCTV’s primetime evening news completely ignored this earth-shattering event, both yesterday and today. It’s the first time in CCP’s history that Defense Ministry leads or led Xinhua and People’s Daily. Usually, it’s the other way around.
Clearly, Xinhua would usually publish this kind of story first, followed by other state media like the People’s Daily, CCTV, and then the PLA Daily, and the Defense Ministry. But in this case, it’s the opposite. The Defense Ministry held a press conference with a statement and posted the website, and then Xinhua, People’s Daily, all tried to tone it down.
They tried to cover it up, and then, the CCTV basically didn’t say anything about it. So clearly, the division between the CCP’s propaganda system and the military is out in the open. The two sides are fighting, or the defense ministry was operating on its own, per the order of the military, and then the entire propaganda machine stayed silent.
So now, here’s the big question:
Did Xi Jinping take down these generals himself, or did his opponent, Zhang Youxia, do it? Here’s his favorite picture. I think the answer is obvious, but believe it or not, some people still believe Xi Jinping is firmly in control, and that he’s simply being ruthless with his own loyalists, just like Mao Zedong or Stalin, Joseph Stalin.
So they’re saying that it was Xi Jinping who took down the nine generals. But the other camp, and I belong to this one, believes there’s no way Xi Jinping would take down nearly all his top military leaders, and he’s no Mao Zedong. Mao’s authority was unchallenged, but Xi, far from it.
And these loyalists, I believe, were taken down by Zhang Youxia. I don’t think Xi Jinping has the guts to take down this many of his own people. Even if he did, it would make him look very bad, and he has no reason to do it, unless they went against him.
But there’s no way these nine generals would rebel against Xi Jinping alone, without the support of Zhang Youxia. It just doesn’t make sense. And the biggest evidence to me is the split between the military media, or I should say, between the defense ministry and state media.
Because if this were Xi Jinping’s move, state outlets like the People’s Daily, the CCTV, would be all over it, right? But they’re not. They muted the news and played it down. Remember? I said that Xi Jinping still controls 95% of the propaganda machine, even though he only controls 10% of the military.
So that’s proof that this was not Xi Jinping’s action. It was Zhang Youxia’s doing. Now, the next question, I want to talk about this, because if you watch media outlets like the BBC, I don’t even know, maybe Radio Free Asia, there are some media outlets that still are saying that this is Xi Jinping’s action.
There are still some highly respected China experts who claim that this is Xi Jinping’s own housecleaning. I don’t know what you think. It’s not.
Not when the state media collectively remains so silent on this. That division shows that it’s not his action. OK, so now let’s talk about, so why were they removed? Why were they removed two days before the Plenum?
Well, judging by the stern language in the announcement, it wasn’t about corruption. It was political. It was clear that they were anti-party and anti, I mean, when I say party, CCP, they were anti-CCP, they were anti the PLA. They were involved in a political coup against the military’s leadership, and that’s not Xi Jinping, that’s Zhang Youxia.
And based on previous reports, after Xi Jinping fell ill during the third plenum last July, Zhang Youxia took control of the military. And when Xi Jinping recovered, his loyalists tried to help him regain authority, but failed. And these nine generals were most likely the key players in that failed attempt. And it may not be just one attempt, there were multiple attempts.
Now, just as we were digesting and trying to understand this announcement, another bombshell dropped today. And this came from a commentator who has accurately disclosed many of these military downfalls before. That’s Mr Cai Shenkun. Now, by the way, Mr Cai belongs to the camp…that believes that Xi Jinping is still in control.
He’s highly respected, he’s very objective, even though he believes that Xi Jinping is in control. I don’t know if he still holds that view as of today, after this bombshell that he dropped. But he’s just been very cautious in saying that Xi Jinping has lost power and he has made many revelations and many leaks related to these generals’ downfalls.
So today, he revealed to the Epoch Times in an interview that military purge is far from over. And following the expulsion of the nine generals, another four generals have reportedly fallen.
They are Xu, I’m just reading the names in English. I think it may not be translated correctly. Xu Xueqiang, Minister of Equipment Development, and then the Deputy Chief of the Joint Staff Department, and then the Political Commissar of the Rocket Force, Xu Xisheng, and the President of the National Defense University, I think his name is Xiao Tianliang.
In addition, he said nine lieutenant generals and 15 major generals have been dismissed, including the very important Zhong Shaojun, oh, I don’t have a picture of him, I forgot, who was Xi Jinping’s Chief of Staff in the CMC, who was formerly the Director of the Central Military Commission’s General Office, and currently the Political Commissar of the National Defense University. So the National Defense University lost its president and political commissar. Zhong Shaojun was transferred to the university last April, and was last seen, I think, during the summer in July, when Singapore’s defense minister visited Beijing.
He is another diehard Xi loyalist. So that’s another 28 generals on top of the original nine. And then Mr. Cai said, he said, “I’ve been told there are still hundreds of generals waiting in line to be investigated.”
He said the so-called Xi Jinping army that took shape after the 20th Party Congress has basically been wiped-out. And he also reviewed that, according to credible sources, both He Weidong and He Hongjun, let me just match the names. He Weidong, here’s this guy, has been, is said to have died of a sudden heart attack in detention.
I mean, rumors about his death came out months ago. Remember, it was in May and June. Many sources said that he died, but the cause of death was not known.
So Mr Cai is saying that he has died of a sudden heart attack, and he had been in poor health and had undergone a kidney transplant. So, I don’t know, I mean, such poor health, how is he going to lead the military? I’m just curious. Zhang Yongxia is 72 years old, but the man is very healthy.
Even Xi Jinping envies his good health and good energy. But this guy does not look very healthy to me. But if he’s in such poor health, I don’t know how Xi Jinping could have trusted him for leading the PLA.
Anyway, so he is said to have died due to a heart attack, and He Hongjun reportedly committed suicide. Alright. So, according to Mr Cai, this is an all-out purge.
Now, again, the nine generals, the purge is official because it came from the Defense Ministry. The rest was only disclosed by Mr Cai, and they obviously have not been officially confirmed.
So, what’s going on, right? Well, some people say this is Zhang Youxia’s last-ditch effort to prevent Xi Jinping from staging a comeback.
I just want to show their picture. They said that it’s to stop a civil war from breaking out inside the PLA or inside the CCP. It’s said that the battle between Xi Jinping and then the anti-Xi faction, and I think in this case, mostly Zhang Youxia, has become so intense that Zhang Youxia hasn’t been going home at night due to safety concerns.
And he works in the PLA Bayi building during the day and goes to the Xishan Command Center to rest at night. But that was weeks ago. Now, he probably stays somewhere for the whole 24 hours.
And three days ago, a YouTuber named Shanhe Dongfu, this man, has a lot of connections with China. He revealed in his program that Zhang Youxia had recently made an urgent visit to Hu Jintao. And according to him, Zhang told, I mean, he met not just Hu Jintao, he also went to see Wang Yang, Hu Chunhua, and Wen Jiabao.
So Zhang Youxia told them that he had observed several deeply unsettling developments, especially the frequent personnel rotations and many new faces appearing within the Central Security Bureau, something extremely rare. Now, the Bureau is the agency that protects Xi Jinping and other six Standing Committee members. The Central Security Bureau is responsible for the security of the top seven leaders.
And then the Public Security Ministry is responsible for the leaders at the next level. And I think the military provides security to Zhang Youxia. I don’t think Zhang Youxia would trust anyone for his security details other than his own military people.
Anyways, so Zhang Youxia told them that he noticed that there’s some very strange, frequent personnel rotations and new faces within the Central Security Bureau. He also noticed that Wang Xiaohong, the Minister of Public Security, and Cai Qi had been seen frequently visiting the Fourth Plenum’s venue, which Zhang believed was related to the upcoming meeting. So he is concerned.
And he reportedly said that under normal party procedures, it would be almost impossible for Xi Jinping to agree to a peaceful retirement. Therefore, the Fourth Plenum might evolve into a more radical power struggle, something that would undermine the unity and stability that Hu Jintao and others have been trying to preserve. It also suggests that Xi Jinping’s earlier promise to step down and transfer power may have been a smokescreen just to buy time for him and mislead his opponents.
But he’s quietly preparing for another move. Now, my story is not over yet. I’m going to tell you another interesting drama that has unfolded today.
Today, the PLA Daily published an editorial, making a 180 degree turn. The piece not only mentioned Xi Jinping, but used the entire set of cookie-cutter jargons designed to glorify Xi Jinping.
I’ll just read you one blurb. It says, “The party’s central committee has decided to expel He Weidong, Miao Hua, blah, blah, blah, nine people from the Communist Party. Their suspected criminal cases have been handed over to the military prosecutors for investigation and prosecution, according to law. This shows the firm determination of the central committee and the central military commission to carry the anti-corruption campaign through to the end. It also shows that corruption will not be tolerated in the military.”
And here’s the last paragraph that embellishes Xi Jinping’s authority. It says, “All officers and soldiers in the PLA and the armed forces are required to firmly support the Central Committee’s decision, stay closely aligned in thought, politics, and action with the Party’s Central Committee under Xi Jinping, and strictly follow the orders of the Party’s central committee, the Central Military Commission, and Chairman Xi Jinping.”
So, we haven’t seen that kind of language for a while. Occasionally, the PLA Daily will have something like that, but this piece was a dramatic turn from yesterday’s statement from the Defense Ministry.
So, here’s the question: Did the PLA Daily issue the above editorial because they were under pressure from Xi Jinping and the party elder? So, what has happened? Or they don’t care, you know. So, it will be interesting to find out what made to publish this editorial.
I think the CCP is openly divided and already at war. Xi Jinping doesn’t want to step down. Zhang Youxia is forcing him to. And the CCP is standing on the brink of an ugly war.
And we’re now 24 hours away from the plenum. So, anything could happen. Stay tuned.
And if you haven’t subscribed, please do so. I will bring you the latest updates. All right, that’s all.
What do you guys think? I found it shocking that still people believe that the purge, the purging was Xi Jinping’s decision. I don’t know how people could arrive at that decision. But all right, here we go.
Van Keg. Happy birthday in advance. Oh, all right.
Well, you guys remember my birthday because I announced it. All right. Not sure if I can attend your program on the 21st.
Wow. Well, thank you very much for thinking of me. Thank you.
Thank you for the birthday gift. All right. Um, let’s see.
Who’s next? Arjans. Oh, this name. Arjans.
I don’t know how to say your name. Sorry. Well, thank you for the super sticker.
Thank you. Arjans. I don’t know.
I don’t even want to try and mispronounce. Louis Raymond, EP5TP. Well, thank you, Louis.
Thank you. Michael Faria. Thank you for everything.
How do you think this affects the chances of invasion of Taiwan before 2027? I talked about that in Thursday’s program. Of course, Zhang Youxia, Xi’s opponents do not want to start a war. Not right now.
I’m not saying that they’re completely abandoning that idea. I’m just saying they know that the PLA is not ready. So they’re against the idea of starting a war right now.
But Xi Jinping is playing the war card to hold on to power. But then the two sides don’t appear to be very different because Zhang Youxia is using the war rhetoric to empower himself. So if you haven’t watched my program on Thursday, I think it was two days ago, please watch it.
Anonymous. I have faith that our clever protagonist will find a way to come out on top. He always does.
There’s some people who wish he does that because they think that he’s doing everything he can to take down the regime from within, which is great. And they think that there’s no one else who is as destructive as he is. So let him keep him on.
Let him do the work. Let him kill the economy. I mean, the only thing that it would be terrible is to start the war.
But some people say he only threatens to start the war. He’s afraid to actually start a war. So there are people who believe that by keeping Xi Jinping in place, it’s actually good for geopolitics, because he’s taking the regime down from within.
And then it’s actually not advantageous for the West if a reformist, if a quasi-reformist takes over. It will give the regime more time to survive. All right.
So yeah. So who knows? Anything could happen. We don’t know.
All right. Let’s see. Oh, okay.
All right. Wow. I got a lot of comments.
Comments, questions. Okay. Let me see.
This one is from Armin Santiago. Armin, Armin, Armin. When military officers are removed, when do they announce the replacements? Shouldn’t this be done immediately? That’s a good question.
We have not seen this. This is another reason why people don’t believe that the PLA is ready to launch a war, because they haven’t announced any replacements yet. Of course, internally, they have someone put in place temporarily to do the job, but there’s no promotion.
They cannot do any promotions because Xi Jinping, the chairman, would be the one to confer titles to make the announcement. But would Zhang Youxiang want Xi Jinping to host the promotion ceremony? Absolutely not. So not until they sort out who the real chairman of CMC is, they’re not going to promote any officers.
And because there’s no promotion, it’s a big blow to the officers’ morale, because there’s so many empty positions and nobody knows who’s going to be promoted. So everything looks like a musical chair. The military is not in a stable state when you have so many vacant positions.
But they can’t announce any replacement because no one can announce that. They don’t want Xi Jinping to do that. So they’re holding off all the promotions.
But that’s self-destructive. You could do that for a little while, but how long has this been going on? For a year? So that’s very destructive. Okay, that’s a good question.
Euro-Bing-MC. An organizational structure of who is related to whom will give me some context of how things work. An organizational structure of who is who, who is related to who.
That would be, yeah. I have covered those in early years of my YouTube career. You have a good point.
You have a good point. Yeah, there’s so many things to discuss, and it only has 24 hours a day. Thank you.
Thank you. A good point. All right.
The Wisdom to Know. Oh, I love that name. I absolutely love that name.
Stargazer1000. Thank you. Thank you for the super sticker.
Ccalvinist777. Well, thank you. BergTV.
What’s the likelihood that Xi Jinping is replaced? I would say 50-50. I really think maybe 51 to 45, if you have to place a bet. I think there’s 51 chance that he will be replaced, but there’s 49 chance that he’s staying.
Yeah. Someone, Jenny, there will be no war, even though you want it so much. I think there is war.
We’re just not seeing it. But now we’re seeing it, because the CCP is very good at hiding it. Just because we don’t see a war doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.
People say, you know how many times Hu Jintao survived assassination attempts? At least three times, if not four. Do you know how many times General Liu Yuan, the son of Liu Shaoqi, who is currently Zhang Youxia’s helper, you know how many times he survived assassination attempts? I heard six, six times. So there’s a war going on.
We just don’t see it. I mean, what I have reviewed to you is probably a small fraction of what’s really happening. And then the rest of the media is absolutely not talking about it at all.
So that’s why people think there’s no war. Michael Estrada, happy birthday. Thank you.
Thank you. All right. I’ll be under so much pressure for my Tuesday’s program.
They will kill Chairman Xi. Okay. Nice glasses.
Oh, thank you. Oh, happy birthday. All right.
John Fallon. Lay, you’re amazing. Why do MAGA people, China hawks, like bannons, like bannons not know your perspective? You are totally amazing.
And explain Trump administration actions. Lay is weird, crazy, smart thing. Yeah, I think I’m weird.
I do. I agree with you. I think I’m weird because I was talking to a fan who via email and somehow we came to the conclusion that I’m a 15 year old redneck.
Or Lay has the aspiration to become a 15 year old redneck. But anyways, it’s hard to explain. Weird.
Oh, I want to answer a question. Should I answer that question? Well, I’ll save that for Tuesday. I’ll save that for my birthday talk.
It’s interesting. All right. Well, thank you.
Thank you for the super sticker and the comments. Yeah, okay. Weird, crazy, smart.
I don’t think I’m smart. I think anyone can be smart if you keep your mind and thinking simple. Wisdom does not equal knowledge.
The AI has more knowledge than we. So knowledge is only just how much information you know, but wisdom doesn’t come from that. Wisdom comes from having a very simplistic approach to a difficult situation.
If your mind, let me put it this way, if your mind is very, very peaceful and simple, you can see things clearly. Only when you’re buried in complex issues, you cannot see it. So yeah, that’s what I think children are smarter than adults.
Okay. All right. Enough of Lay’s crazy talk.
All right. Will, okay, Richard Hinman, will video of the plenum be available anywhere? No, I think it’s a closed session. We don’t see them.
They’re not open sessions that we could watch. So there’s no video. There’s no video.
I think a lot of us would be just guessing or contemplating what has happened based on leaks and insider’s information and public statements and state media. So, all right. Who is the mother of Xi Jinping’s daughter in Australia? Well, rumor has it, well, you’re referring to Yang Lanlan, the 23-year-old who got herself into a car accident.
She is believed to be a Xi family princess, but whether she is Xi Jinping’s daughter or Xi Yuanping’s daughter is not known. Yeah, but more people believe that she is Xi Jinping’s daughter. And there are people who said that the mother is an actress from Zhejiang.
Yeah. So that’s what many people believe. And by the way, she didn’t appear at the third court hearing.
Did you know that? The judge required her to appear in person, but she didn’t. She defied the court order. Her lawyers showed up.
And there was only the exchange between between the court and then her lawyer. It was only five minutes. It was very brief.
So, what has happened, you wonder? What happened to the judge? It’s unbelievable. Birch TV. If he’s replaced, would he have to be at the plenum? They’d better.
I think he will. I mean, the question, of course, he can be replaced anytime. But the plenum will give his opponents the legitimacy to make it official.
Any other time, you could replace him, you could arrest him, like what they did with the Gan of Four with Madame Mao. But that doesn’t make the move look legitimate, right? And then his opponents have such urge to want to appear legitimate. So that’s why the plenum becomes the perfect opportunity to do that.
It’s explained like that. It’s not that you can replace him anytime. If his opponents do not have this attachment to appear legitimate, they can replace him anytime, like the CCP has done before with Madame Mao and her Gan of Four.
All right. Inspiration partner. I have been aware of China’s war behavior towards the U.S. since 1996 when my company was in Long Beach, California.
An FBI agent friend told me 5,000 Chinese agents were being watched in and around Long Beach. I’m not surprised. You don’t know how many people are working for the CCP in the U.S. and they’re not official spies.
How could Yang Lanlan, the 23-year-old young woman, have so much influence over an Australian court, over a car accident that she is responsible for? You would think it’s unbelievable. I think I reached the bottom of all the comments. There are many questions I’m not able to get to.
Oh, here’s one. The car crash lady in Australia didn’t appear in court. She didn’t appear in court.
It makes me believe she is seriously a Xi family princess. It has to be. Otherwise, how do you explain? Also, the Chinese government announced that they stopped importing iron ore from Australia.
People link that to Yang Lanlan’s case as retaliation to the mandate from the judge requiring Yang Lanlan’s personal appearance at the court. Right after that, China pulled the order from Australia for its iron ore. Then I think the Australian government caved in.
It’s very wrong. This is wrong. It’s a bad example to show that we’re allowing the CCP elites to come into our society and turn our society into China.
Will Japan make Chinese leave? I hope so. It looks like the head of the lady who is Gao Shizao Miao, I think she is going to be the prime minister. She found a new partner.
I think the new alliance is only missing two votes and she could find two votes from the independents. She is most likely going to be the next prime minister of Japan. When that happens, I think they’re going to be targeting the Chinese.
The Chinese have a big influence in Japan. They have bought many Japanese properties. The Chinese have large investments in Japan.
It’s time to do something about it. All right. I reached the bottom of the comments and I thank you everyone for joining me.
Till next Tuesday. How’s that? Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I’ll see you next week. All righty.
Bye.
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