The Peter Zeihan Podcast Series - Purging China's Central Military Commission || Peter Zeihan

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

Xi Jinping has removed yet another senior official from China's Central Military Commission (CMC). After 14 years of eliminating officials, prioritizing loyalty over competence, China's institutions are hollow.Join the Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/PeterZeihan

Hey all, Peter Zine here coming to you from the Denver airport. Today's news is the Chinese Premier, Xi Jinping, has just dismissed a member of the Central Military Commission, by the name of Zhang Yuzia. Very, very, very short version. The Chinese Premier has been launching the most intense purge in history, something that really even dwarfs Mao or Hitler, and has basically spent the last 14 years

removing anyone competent from any position so that all that is left is personal loyalty to himself. For those of you who really like Trump, take note. It's gotten to the point that China has become functionally ungovernable if your goal is to actually achieve meaningful change. And now in the case of the military, the CMC is functionally like the American Joint Chiefs of Staff. But now of the seven-man commission, you've got Xi, you've got a political crony who is basically an acquisitor,

and everyone else has been suspended or is under investigation and is no longer sitting. So the entire military leadership of China is now two people, neither of which have any meaningful military experience. So I'm not ever going to tell the U.S. military to not prepare for a fight, but we now have a completely decapitated structure in China that is completely incapable of instituting reforms or making strategy that is worth a damn. So political purges might make you feel better about yourself, but they are guaranteed to absolutely collapse the institutions that you're trying to reform if you're. goal is really just political control and that's what we're dealing with here. So if you're anyone but China, this is amazing news because it means that today functionally their military doesn't work. That's kind of fun.