OTTAWA/LOS ANGELES — On the Bureau Podcast’s second episode on the extraordinary political turmoil in China, I’m joined again by former U.S. official and veteran China watcher Chris Meyer to walk listeners through what we can say about the reported purge swirling around General Zhang Youxia in Beijing.
Known knowns: Zhang is not a mid-level casualty—he is the most senior and respected military figure associated with the Central Military Commission, and his removal or neutralization is a major signal about the state of control, cohesion, and fear inside the People’s Liberation Army. This event increasingly appears to revolve around Zhang’s view that the PLA is not ready to invade Taiwan by 2027, which is the order that President Xi has publicly issued. At the same time, Xi Jinping has continued to appear in public and host visiting leaders, a reminder that the regime is trying to project stability at the top even as the system appears to be shaking underneath.
Known unknowns: Beyond the official acknowledgement of Zhang’s arrest, the information environment turns murky fast. Online reporting and diaspora chatter have pushed dramatic claims about a coup attempt, counter-moves, internal armed standoffs, injuries, arrests, and family detentions. Chris is careful: he cannot confirm the most sensational accounts, and he cautions listeners against treating viral narratives as settled facts simply because they appear in Western headlines. One of the strangest features, he notes, is what he describes as an unusually heavy silence—the absence of the kind of coordinated denunciations and public bandwagon messaging that often follows a top-level takedown in China. Whether that reflects uncertainty, fear, or an operation still unfolding behind closed doors remains unclear.
Chris credits diaspora channels with surfacing fragments that sometimes align with later signals—especially the shape of unrest: elite anxiety, hesitation, and the sense that loyalty inside the PLA may not be as automatic as Beijing wants the world to believe. What can be seen and heard from Beijing currently is enough for him to conclude this is not being experienced inside China as a routine corruption case. It’s being felt as a power event.
