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Sunday, March 1, 2026
Spring 2026 Issue 87
Editor's Note
The decimation of the top ranks of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) during the last two years has fueled an intense debate about the reasons behind the largest purge in the Chinese military in the post-Mao era. Despite the absence of credible evidence, many observers and journalists attribute the purge to factional strife and Xi Jinping’s insecurity. However, Joel Wuthnow’s close examination of the available evidence, primarily biographical records of the fallen PLA command
Minxin Pei
Feb 284 min read
Why Is Xi Still Purging His Generals?
The removal of PLA senior generals Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli in January 2026 represented the peak, if not the end, of a massive purge of the military leadership that began in mid-2023. The absence of credible information from Beijing has allowed many theories about the causes of these dismissals to circulate, which often center on factional politics or power consolidation. An examination biographical records, however, yields more support for the view that most purges are in
Joel Wuthnow
Feb 2827 min read
Occidental Fall: Assessing Chinese Views of U.S. Decline
China’s leadership, state media, and foreign policy analysts consider the U.S. a declining but dangerous power. That assessment has remained durable since Michael Swaine analyzed views in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in his 2021 essay for China Leadership Monitor , though the frequency of that assessment has fluctuated. The resilience of such views in the PRC press reflects genuine assessments of U.S. internal contradictions, the Chinese Communist Party’s Leninist pre
Jonathan A. Czin and Allie Matthias
Feb 2828 min read
China’s Economic Involution: State and Business Strategies
China’s economic involution, characterized by cutthroat, race-to-the-bottom competition, is a symptom rooted in its political and fiscal structure. During the recent economic downturn, the central government, local governments, and businesses entered a self-reinforcing cycle. The central growth targets and debt-reduction pressures pushed local governments to expand investment in state-favored industries, creating low-profit competition and oversupply. The declining revenues f
Ling Chen
Feb 2824 min read
(Mostly) Old Wine in a New Bottle: What is the CCP’s Overall Strategy for Solving the Taiwan Issue in the New Era?
Toward the end of 2021 China unveiled a new framing, “The party’s overall strategy for solving the Taiwan issue in the new era,” to summarize General Secretary Xi Jinping’s policy toward Taiwan since 2013. A close examination of statements by top Chinese leaders and senior officials responsible for the Taiwan portfolio shows that the “overall strategy,” for the most part, deviates little from the policy of Xi’s predecessors. However, the “new” components of the “overall strat
Minxin Pei
Feb 2825 min read
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