PDB Afternoon Bulletin | September 21st, 2026: Xi Jinping Purges China’s Military & Pakistan Strikes Afghanistan

Mike Baker (0:11)

It's Monday, the 21st of September. Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, China's military purge is reaching the very top, with Xi Jinping removing two of the country's most powerful generals. I'll have the details. Later in the show, Pakistan carries out new airstrikes inside Afghanistan, killing dozens of suspected militants, as the Taliban warns that there will be a response. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. Xi Jinping has spent more than a decade trying to turn China's military into a force capable of fighting and, of course, winning a modern war. But as Beijing races to expand its military power, Xi is also tearing apart the senior command structure that he built to lead it. Now, China today formally expelled two of the most powerful generals in the People's Liberation Army, the PLA, that would be Zhang Yuxia and Liu Jianli. Now, Zhang was the senior vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission, the highest ranking uniformed officer in the country, and until recently, second only to Xi Jinping himself, in the military hierarchy. Liu headed the PLA's Joint Staff Department. Now, that puts him at the Center of Operational Planning, Training and Coordination between China's different military branches.

Both men had already been under investigation, but today, Beijing made their downfall official, expelling them from the Communist Party and the military and referring their cases to military prosecutors.

And the accusations go well beyond ordinary corruption. Chinese authorities accused the two generals of taking enormous sums of money, abusing their positions and helping others win promotions. But Beijing also says they formed political cliques and factions and were disloyal and dishonest to the Communist Party, the CCP.

Now, there's no public evidence that either man was plotting against Xi Jinping, but the language is striking because this is no longer simply about officers taking bribes or stealing from military procurement accounts. Beijing itself is saying there was a political problem inside the highest levels of China's military command. And Zhang's fall is especially remarkable. For years, he was viewed as one of Xi Jinping's closest military allies. Their families reportedly knew each other going back generations, and Xi kept Zhang in a senior position well beyond the age when many Chinese officials normally retire.

He was also one of the PLA's few remaining senior officers with actual combat experience, having served during China's war with Vietnam. Liu also had battlefield experience, and now both are gone. But to understand the scale of what's happening, you do have to zoom out a bit. When Xi assembled the current Central Military Commission back in 2022, it had seven members, including Xi himself. Five of those seven have now been purged. And the result is extraordinary. Xi Jinping has effectively dismantled much of the senior military leadership team that he personally selected just four years ago.

And the purge doesn't stop there. Researchers at the Center for Strategic and International Studies have tracked more than 100 senior PLA officers who have either been removed or appear to have been caught up in the campaign since 2022

The disruption has reached China's rocket force, weapons procurement system, theater commands, political leadership and the joint staff department. The purge is essentially reaching into the institutions that Beijing would have to rely on to plan, supply and command a major war.

And that brings us to the point that Washington, DC is watching very closely. Xi has repeatedly ordered the PLA to improve its ability to fight complex joint operations, with the year 2027 serving as an important military modernization milestone. That date is often misunderstood. It's not an announced deadline for China to invade Taiwan, but Beijing does want the PLA to be much more capable by then. The problem is that Xi is now removing many of the senior officers responsible for getting the military there. Outside analysts say these leadership gaps could create real short-term problems for readiness, morale and coordination, and those problems would become especially important in any operation against Taiwan. An invasion or even a major blockade would require enormous coordination between China's Navy, Air Force, Missile Forces, logistics networks and theater commands. China would have to move troops, ships, aircraft and supplies on a massive scale while coordinating strikes and communications across multiple military branches. And that's exactly the kind of operation where experienced leadership matters.

None of this, of course, means that China has suddenly lost the ability to threaten Taiwan. Its military buildup continues. Its ships, aircraft and missile forces are still expanding. And Xi may ultimately believe that removing corrupt or politically unreliable commanders will make the PLA stronger. Well, or more loyal to Xi, depending on his real motivation for the purge. But there's clearly a trade-off. The more officers that Xi removes, the more disruption he creates inside the command structure he expects to fight a future war.