The Purges Within China's Military Are Even Deeper Than You Think

2/27/2026 at 3:57:13 PM

I predict Xi will go a lot deeper to catch up to Mao. If I were the next in line I would flee the country whilst I could. Totalitarians always take many casualties with them in their paranoid crash out.

by Bender

2/27/2026 at 7:07:09 PM

Having Mao's mug on the World BRICS global reserve currency is irony maxxing.

by __patchbit__

2/27/2026 at 8:02:30 PM

That and having all citizens read from the little red book for 15 minutes every day.

by Bender

2/27/2026 at 4:14:46 PM

Sounds pretty mild, compared to the obvious benchmark: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Purge#Purge_of_the_army_...

by bell-cot

2/27/2026 at 5:44:49 PM

Reminder literally every part of PRC was corrupt, everything that operates at awe-inspiring scale and efficiency... that's all despite (and arguably due to corruption - access money aligns ability to execute with graft). PRC was only country where increased corruption was correlated with increased growth, because ultimately, there's enough competent people from denominator effect that you can filter for skill and skim at same time.

The difference between PRC corruption and US corruption which westoids label as lobbying, and thus totally legal is PRC corruption at least doesn't undermine state capacity. That's why PRC shipbuilding is 100s times larger US, but only generates a single digit times more revenue. Each ton us US ship built is literally magnitude more regulatory capture / rent premium... which of course is not corruption and totally functional /s. Maybe problem is PRC purging too much, but US not purging enough. At least PRC purging going to get younger gen with more technical aptitude working with modern doctrine. Who does the US purge to get procurement back on track?

TLDR PRC corruption is steroids, US corruption (i mean lobbying) is sleeping pills. PRC trying to take less juice, but US still hammering the ambien.

by maxglute

2/27/2026 at 7:18:50 PM

There is plenty of lobbying in China as well. And there is plenty of corruption; the hundreds of ghost cities scattered across the country are a good example. Hell, the real estate bubble nearly destroyed the Chinese economy and took extreme efforts by the national government to contain.

The difference is that the PRC isn't bound by the same property rules and rights that apply in the U.S. or most of Europe. If the U.S. tried to do what China does when it wants to build something, people everywhere would be yelling their heads off about the extreme abuses of eminent domain.

by gamblor956

2/27/2026 at 7:50:36 PM

>the hundreds of ghost cities

There's a reason ghost city wiki article got renamed to underoccupied developments. There't aren't 100s of ghost cities. Either way this case of building housing runway, considering PRC urbanization rates = 100s of millions still need to urbanize, prebuilding housing stock is just preparing even if inefficient.

RE bubble did not nearly destroy PRC economy, it's the 2-3% difference between 5% gdp growth vs 7-8%. 2-3% of gdp is misallocation, but compared to US spending 8% more on healthcare vs oced peers for worse results, it's not gross misallocation. BTW the 1T+ HSR network in PRC that's suppose to be staggeringly wasteful? That's 6 months of US surplus health spending. Even the most wasteful shit in PRC west harps about is basically moderate waste that delivers abundant surplus. VS west's moderate-extravagant waste that delivers paperwork.

>that apply in the U.S

See PRC nail houses. PRC eminent domain in many ways stricter than US, difference is PRC can afford to pay peasants lavishly to gtfo.

>plenty of lobbying in China as well.

Yes of course, lobbying/corruption/capture, it's part of any system. The point is system can use it to boost abundance, others scoliosis. What's better, corruption that builds more infra or corruption that bills more meetings.

And to circle back on topic, vis as vis PRC MIC, corruption = more hardware because more hardware = more graft. The side effect of more hardware = cheaper per unit cost due to economies of scale.

by maxglute

2/27/2026 at 7:50:17 PM

As opposed when we yell our heads off about abuse of eminent domain when it comes to windmills or apartments

by estimator7292

2/27/2026 at 8:26:19 PM

Ironically, your first paragraph sounds like it "operates at awe-inspiring scale and efficiency" because it actually has unfettered capitalism going on behind the scenes!

by saltcured

2/27/2026 at 4:28:17 PM

Beyond the loyalty angle, this is a pretty stupid play. Sure, China has about 2B people, so good strategists should be reasonably available, but it takes decades of training and experience to make an effective battlefield general. If they actually intend to go all imperialist and start doing truly stupid things like invading Taiwan, they are going to get absolutely plastered without a good cadre of experienced officers and enlisted men. And the “vanishing” of the upper echelons is only attractive to yes men and sycophants; the ones who will be the least effective in any real engagement.

Now, from that aforementioned loyalty angle… this definitely works. If you purge dissent and people with a history of lateral, non-conforming thinking, you most definitely get a system where people ask “how high?” when you scream “jump!”.

I mean, Trump has been doing much the same with the American military, albeit less dark (only relieving them of their positions). It’s the authoritarian/fascist playbook in action, and it will mean much less resistance in the ranks when ‘murica decides to invade Canada, or Greenland, or any other juicy target.

by rekabis

2/27/2026 at 4:36:30 PM

[flagged]

by ai-christianson

2/27/2026 at 4:41:52 PM

>Much like Stalin's purges of the Red Army before WWII, there's a massive trade-off between political loyalty and operational competence.

Completely different.

Stalin purged people with war experience to replace them with people with less war experience. Xi is purging pencil pushers and is going to replace them with other pencil pushers.

Let's not act like Xi is purging Bradley or MacArthur

by mamonster

2/27/2026 at 5:29:44 PM

More like Xi is replacing pushing pencil pushers that pecks on keyboard with starcraft generation with 300 APM. The teritary/technical uplift between generation is huge. The only people less qualified to to operate modern multi domain / systems warfare than lol Sino-Vietnam vets are the vets before them.

by maxglute

2/27/2026 at 10:07:30 PM

[dead]

by JohnnyLarue