The Peter Zeihan Podcast Series - Xi Purges Chinese Military of Corruption…Kinda || Peter Zeihan

Episode Date: July 9, 2025

Xi Jinping's ongoing anti-corruption campaign has just found and purged its eighth CMC member, General Miao.Join the Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/PeterZeihanFull Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/zeihan/xi-purges-chinese-military-of-corruptionkinda

Hey all, Peter Zion here coming you from Colorado. Today we're going to talk about something that went down in China on the 27th. That was last Friday. We have had an arrest of General Miao, M-I-A-O, I think that's pronounced M-I-A-O. I think that's pronounced M-O. Anyway, M-O-Hou. He was one of the leaders on China's Central Military Commission, which is kind of a combination of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,

but also throw in the Defense Secretary and the American President. If you were put them all in one body, that's the CMC. It's a six-person body. Miao is the eighth person that has been arrested and fired for nominally corruption. Now, the Chinese leader Xi Jinping has been operating what he calls an anti-corruption purge now, ever since he became premier back in 2012. Most of it isn't actually about corruption. Most of it is about political control, basically going through the system,

getting anyone who might theorize. stand against him. He started with political rivals and then just went into anyone who might eventually show the potential. And now that the CMC has basically been gutted over and over and over and over again, I think it's worth pointing out two things. Number one, in the Chinese military, the anti-corruption angle might actually be a little bit more legitimate than it is with all of his other political purges. China's military is one of the most corrupt parts of the society, and he actually waited until just two or three years ago to really start going after it. That doesn't mean there isn't a political angle.

Of course, there's a political angle. The CMC is not an independent state body. It is part of the Communist Party. The party runs the military, which brings us to the second point. You can imagine how effective I think the Chinese military is. I mean, number one, when all of the decisions are made by party audiologues,

as opposed to people with military experience, there's your first hint. Second, when the ruling body, of six people, which includes the chairman, has had eight people purged from it, it tells you what you need to know about the quality of the leadership. So I'm never going to tell the U.S. military to not take the Chinese threat seriously. All I want to do is kind of underline that when the leadership is this bad and rotates this much and is purged this thoroughly this often, the idea that the Chinese order of battle actually matches what the Chinese state is

capable of is kind of a stretch.