Xi’s AI Purge Inside the PLA: Why China’s Military Still Won’t Rebel

Hello everyone, welcome to Inconvenient Truths. I'm your host Jennifer Zeng. News from inside the Chinese Communist Party's military shows that Xi Jinping is using big data and AI technology to carry out a large-scale purge inside the People's Liberation Army. The goal is to find people connected to former Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang who was arrested in January this year. Many people are asking this question. Under such a brutal purge of the military by Xi Jinping, why don't Chinese generals and soldiers fight back? Today, let's talk about this interesting issue. According to former CCP official Du Wen, a while ago, a People's Liberation Army officer who had been out of contact for several months suddenly reached out to him. He described the ongoing large-scale purge still happening in the CCP military. This officer went home for Chinese New Year, and when he returned to his unit in March, he suddenly disappeared. His family could not reach him and was scared. They asked the military unit, but the unit only said he was on a mission. In fact, as soon as he returned to the unit, he was isolated and investigated. He went through several months of life and death torture. Only after they found nothing wrong with him was he released. He said that around him, many officers had also disappeared. The entire military system is now investigating back 14 years, checking everyone connected to Zhang Youxia. Why go back to 14 years? Because Zhang Youxia became Minister of the PLA General Armament Department in 2012 and entered the Central Military Commission. Since then, he held great power in the Chinese military system and promoted many officers. The current purge checks not only his direct or indirect subordinates, but also their subordinates and their subordinates' subordinates. It goes from generals all the way down to ordinary battalion-level officers. Everyone is being checked. That means everyone promoted after 2012 is being screened. This kind of dragnet-style screening has never happened anywhere in the world before. Also, in the past, investigations only targeted military commanders and political commissars. This time, even technical officers and specialists in technical branches are also being checked. Because there are too many people to check, manual screening is impossible. The Military Discipline Inspection Commission does not have that ability. They have now started using big data and AI to investigate. They even check contact lists on phones and WeChat friend circles. For example, if someone's phone has Zhang Youxia's number and Zhang Youxia's phone has that person's number, then that person is locked as a target. After locking, they check his subordinates, even his driver, the driver's family, relatives, and comrades in arms. So, in the 5 months since Zhang Youxia was arrested in January, at least several thousand people in the PLA's 5 major theater commands have been investigated. It could even be tens of thousands. Right now, the entire PLA, from top to bottom, is in an unprecedented state of panic and paralysis. The show of force to the outside world is actually just to create tension on purpose so that other countries dare not act rashly. Statistics show that since Xi Jinping took over as chairman of the Central Military Commission in 2012, he has promoted 80 PLA generals. But now, only 4 are still in position. Two of them were promoted very recently. So many people ask, Xi Jinping is carrying out such a brutal and widespread purge of the military. The 7-member Central Military Commission now has only Zhang Shengming left. Besides Xi Jinping himself, with such a cruel purge, why doesn't the military resist? To answer this, we must first understand the structure of the CCP military. As everyone knows, in the CCP army, besides military commanders like division commanders, there are also political commissars, and there are also military discipline inspection commissions. Political commissars are in charge of political work and ideological education. They ensure the military's loyalty to the Party. At the same time, they act like spies watching the military. China's military also uses the so-called gun-bullet separation system. Guns and bullets are stored and kept in different places by different people. For example, when sentries stand guard the work in pairs, one holds an empty gun without bullets, the other carries the ammunitions. Guns themselves are not loaded. Bullets are kept separately by special personnel. Only when both sides agree that the situation is urgent will they temporarily combine guns and bullets. Weapons and ammunition are stored separately, strictly registered, managed by two or even three people, and checked regularly. Units usually have guns without bullets, or bullets without guns, to prevent any single person or small group from controlling complete weapons. The power to move troops is highly concentrated in the Central Military Commission. Only the chairman of the Central Military Commission can approve moving troops. For a PLA division commander, the only troops he can directly command and move are about only 100 men in his guard company. The weapons and ammunitions they can use are very limited. If he wants to rebel, he needs to move large units and heavy equipment. He must go through officers below him, regiment commanders, battalion commanders, company commanders, platoon leaders, squad leaders, and so on. This chain is very long. If any one of them disagrees with you, he can report you and your plan will be exposed immediately. Another huge difficulty is that joint logistics support and communications command belong to different branches. Some large ammunition depots are not in the same place as the troops. They are in different locations, sometimes even across provinces and theater commands. The ammunition and supplies on hand are barely enough for one exercise. They completely lack the ability to launch a military operation. Even if someone risks a rebellion, they would face immediate large-scale encirclement and suppression. Even if they somehow reach Beijing, the CCP's headquarters in Zhongnanhai has underground passages in all directions. As soon as there is movement outside, leaders inside would have already escaped through underground tunnels. Zhongnanhai also has air defense systems, so outside troops find it very hard to break into Beijing. Communication between different armies is also difficult. It is hard to secretly plot across regions and departments to rebel together. A PLA general said that there are only two possible ways to succeed in rebellion. One is an uprising inside the CCP's Central Guard Bureau. If they take action, the success rate is 100%. They just need to act directly, and outside armies provide support. But if they don't move, success is almost impossible. The second possibility is if Xi Jinping dares to inspect the troops, then generals or soldiers can risk their lives to take actions. In that case, it might succeed. That is why after Xi Jinping arrested Zhang Youxia and joined Staff Chief Liu Zhenli in January this year, he no longer dares to inspect the troops. In past years, he would visit troops for Chinese New Year greetings. This year, he sat alone in military commission buildings in Beijing and greeted the troops through video. According to Du Wen, from what he learned inside the CCP military, 60% of soldiers and over 80% of generals sympathize with and support Zhang Youxia. Only a small part firmly supports Xi Jinping. However, because of the military system, it is extremely difficult for the army to rebel. But no matter how tight the surveillance and system arrangements are, there may still be loopholes. On June 26, a small plane crashed into the tallest building in Beijing. People call it the Beijing 911. This incident showed that Beijing's air defense system is useless. A small plane went off course and lost contact for 20 minutes. It flew in central Beijing, even near Zhongnanhai, only 4 miles away, and almost hit a civilian plane. There was no alarm or interception. It shocked the whole world. There are also rumors that the air defense system actually detected the plane, but no one dared to decide what to do. They could only report layer by layer up to Cai Qi, Xi Jinping's close aide and the de facto number two in this party. Cai Qi didn't dare decide either, and reported to Xi Jinping, who was inspecting outside. By the time Xi Jinping gave the order not to shoot it down, the plane had already crashed into the building more than one hour earlier. We don't know if this rumor is true. Maybe it is just a joke. But it vividly shows how slow the system becomes in an emergency after power is highly centralized. No one wants to take responsibility. So when something happens, no one handles it. There are also rumors that Xi Jinping's reckless actions have already generated and provoked resistance from all other major CCP families. These red families, like the Deng Xiaoping family and Jiang Zemin family, used to share the profits of ruling the country together. Now Xi Jinping practices dictatorship, and they get no benefits. The arrest of Zhang Youxia was the last straw. These people realized they must unite to resist. There are reports that these people have now chosen Deng Xiaoping's eldest son Deng Pufang as their representative. They are negotiating with Xi Jinping through Xi Jinping's brother Xi Yuanping to force Xi Jinping to step down. The reports also say this pressure has partly worked. Some military officers arrested along with Zhang Youxia have recently been released one after another. Of course, inside the CCP's political black box, no one knows what really happened. But from some recent personnel changes, we may see signs. For example, Ma Xinrui, former member of the CCP Central Politburo and former party secretary of Xinjiang, has close ties with Xi Jinping's wife, Heng Liyuan. His downfall was officially announced in April this year. That was later than the official announcement about Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli. However, at the National People's Congress Standing Committee meeting on June 25, Ma Xinrui was stripped of his NPC representative status before Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli. On the other hand, Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, who fell in January, still have not had their NPC status cancelled, nor have any other positions been announced as removed. Another example is Chen Xi. He is very close to Xi Jinping. At Tsinghua University, he was Xi Jinping's classmate and roommate. They were even said to have slept on upper and lower banks. Chen Xi was the former president of the CCP Central Party School. He also served for a long time as head of the CCP Central Organization Department, where he controlled personnel power. Not long ago, he was mysteriously removed from his post. But there was no public announcement. People only learned that this important position had changed hands from a very small and unnoticeable news report that referred to Cai Qi as the president of the party school. There are online claims that Chen Xi's status has fallen off a cliff. It is said that he dropped from the deputy state level to the deputy department level. That would be like returning to the rank he held 26 years ago. And the recent CCP celebration of the 105th anniversary of the party's founding, Chen Xi also did not attend. That is also very abnormal. There have been many other unusual personnel changes too. So the power struggle within the top level of the CCP may be happening fiercely. But on the surface, to protect the CCP system and save face, everyone maintains the false appearance that everything is fine and peaceful. In this fierce internal struggle, who will fall first? We can only wait for time to tell us the answer. Maybe we won't have to wait too long to see the result. Well, that's all for today. Please like and share this episode, and leave a comment to help our voices go further. Please also visit my website at JenniferZengBlog.com to become a member or make a donation to support us, so our voice can reach more people. Tomorrow is America's 205th anniversary. As a proud new US citizen, I have a lot to say. 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