Xi’s Purge Could Signal Danger. America Must Be Ready

Indications are that China’s Premier Xi Jinping is tightening his grip on power—and in the process, making China’s military less predictable, more brittle, and potentially more dangerous.  America needs to be prepared.

At a recent briefing in Pearl Harbor, U.S. officials told reporters that Xi has fired nine senior generals and admirals from the People’s Liberation Army, expelled them from the Communist Party, and referred them for military prosecution. According to the Washington Times and other outlets, the purged officers include multiple Politburo members and two generals directly involved in operational planning against Taiwan. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth received a more detailed classified version of the same assessment.

The move reflects an escalation: Xi’s fear of internal dissent has now reached the highest levels of China’s armed forces. He has replaced professionals with loyalists, and debate with obedience.

History shows that such purges come at a cost. Josef Stalin’s Great Purge of the late 1930s removed some 35,000 Soviet officers, a self-inflicted wound that would later cripple Russia’s ability to fight the Wehrmacht in the opening stages of the Second World War. Xi’s own political “rectification” campaign may have a similar short-term effect, as the PLA scales back exercises and grapples with disorganization and mistrust within its ranks.

But that’s cold comfort. The same purge that temporarily weakens the PLA could ultimately make it more responsive to Xi’s personal whims, particularly regarding Taiwan. And history has shown that when a dictator replaces competent commanders with sycophants, the danger is not caution—it’s overconfidence.

Xi has staked his legitimacy on what he calls the “reunification” of Taiwan. Every scenario for achieving that goal is fraught with peril for him. A blockade would risk confrontation with the U.S. Navy and American allies and invite crushing global sanctions. And despite China’s new Fujian aircraft carrier and recent display of advanced weaponry, a full-scale amphibious invasion would be even riskier. No power has attempted one against a peer adversary since Korea, and modern missile technology has made such operations extremely daunting. If Taiwan’s defenses inflicted major losses, the resulting humiliation could threaten the Communist Party’s survival.

That may be why Xi’s recent firings included key Taiwan planners. Perhaps they were guilty not of corruption but of realism—raising the same concerns military experts in every country would. In communist systems, honesty often looks like treason. Mao Zedong once branded warnings about famine during the Great Leap Forward as “counterrevolutionary.” Xi could be repeating the pattern: silencing those who tell him what he doesn’t want to hear.

The result is a Chinese military that may be less competent but more compliant, led by yes-men who tell Xi victory will be easy. That’s what makes the situation truly volatile. A leader surrounded by loyalists and convinced of his own infallibility is far more likely to gamble and to drag the world into crisis.

If that happens, the United States and its Indo-Pacific allies must not only be prepared; we must signal preparedness. Deterrence in this era isn’t just about having more ships or jets; it’s about technical supremacy, from cyber resilience to secure communications to artificial intelligence.

That starts with protecting the networks that bind our militaries and economies together. The Chinese telecom giant Huawei, with its deep ties to the CCP, still dominates much of the world’s 5G infrastructure—including in countries that would be key to any Pacific conflict. In a crisis, those networks could become Trojan horses for cyberwarfare, allowing Beijing to disrupt command systems, manufacturing, even hospitals.

The United States has banned Huawei equipment, and some allies have followed suit. But others—including major economies in Europe and Asia—have not. That’s why the Justice Department’s recent approval of Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s acquisition of Juniper Networks—reportedly at the urging of U.S. intelligence officials—matters. The merger creates a credible Western alternative to Huawei and a more secure digital backbone for democratic nations.  Kudos to the administration for recognizing these concerns.

America’s edge in artificial intelligence is equally critical. Artificial intelligence now underpins decision-making in logistics, targeting, and cyber defense. We must ensure our AI infrastructure—data centers, cloud pipelines, and semiconductor supply chains—remains secure from Chinese influence or espionage. That means incentivizing domestic production, tightening restrictions on sensitive technology exports, and preventing U.S. companies from training China’s next generation of AI engineers.  And yes: This means the Nvidia premium chips stay here.

And finally, cyberspace now extends into outer space. China is testing anti-satellite weapons, orbital “grapplers,” and algorithms designed to disable Starlink and other low-Earth-orbit constellations—the very systems that would keep U.S. communications alive in a conflict. Washington should accelerate partnerships between the Space Force and private industry, ensuring that commercial satellite networks can sustain military operations when conventional channels go dark.

Xi’s latest purge suggests he may be building a war machine in his own image: centralized, loyal, and intolerant of doubt. That could make China’s behavior less rational, not more. The United States cannot afford complacency. We must treat technology, cybersecurity, and space infrastructure as strategic assets, not afterthoughts.

For all his power, Xi’s regime still depends on the brittle system of Party loyalty, fear, and censorship. Ours depends on open innovation and trust. The best way to deter China is not through slogans, but through technical mastery: ensuring that when deterrence is tested, our capabilities leave no doubt.

If Xi is silencing the truth-tellers in Beijing, we can’t afford to silence the engineers in Silicon Valley. As the China challenge deepens, America’s future security depends on them.

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