In the past few years, successive defense ministers, Li Shangfu and Wei Fenghe , were purged; before them, former Central Military Commission (CMC) Vice Chairmen Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong fell. Counting the many other officers expelled since President Xi Jinping came to power more than a decade ago, one could almost line up a platoon of purged generals.

China’s military recently expelled nine top leaders from both the Communist Party and the armed forces, including Central Military Commission Vice Chairman He Weidong and chief political commissar Miao Hua.

In the past few years, successive defense ministers, Li Shangfu and Wei Fenghe, were purged; before them, former Central Military Commission (CMC) Vice Chairmen Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong fell. Counting the many other officers expelled since President Xi Jinping came to power more than a decade ago, one could almost line up a platoon of purged generals.

The ousted leaders have come from the very core of China’s defense establishment. Such sweeping purges should have provoked fierce institutional backlash or political shock waves. Yet, despite the flood of coup rumors circulating in overseas Chinese media, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has remained placid, perhaps even more politically uniform than before.

The PLA’s official mouthpiece published several commentaries before and after the recently held Fourth Plenum, an important Chinese Communist Party meeting, reiterating that “the party commands the gun, and the gun must never command the party.” It stressed that the entire military must obey the leadership of the chairman of the Central Military Commission. The paper portrayed the recent investigations of senior officers as evidence that the CMC remains the ultimate source of political authority within the armed forces.

Many observers find this puzzling. Questions often surface in my conversations with Chinese scholars and across Chinese-language discussions on