Will China’s Military Purges Sabotage Its Global Ambitions?

Chinese Secretary General Xi Jinping’s dramatic military purges are weakening China’s military preparedness and “may prove deleterious to Xi’s global ambitions,” the Diplomat wrote on March 20. The development is the latest indication of how China will soon be the junior partner in the Russia-China partnership.

Since 2022, more than 100 high-ranking officials with the People’s Liberation Army (pla) have been dismissed, disappeared or died under unexplained circumstances.

Xi’s most recent purges were of Gen. Zhang Youxia, second-in-command of the pla, and Chief of Joint Staff Gen. Liu Zhenli. With their ousters, the Central Military Commission was left with only two of its seven members: Xi himself and one lone general, Zhang Shengmin.

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Chairman Xi portrays the purges as anti-corruption measures. But they are widely viewed as an effort to remove threats to his power. In place of seasoned generals with the stature and networks to pose a potential challenge to him, Xi is filling the positions with men lacking experience but firmly devoted to the Xi Jinping cult of personality.

The measures appear effective in securing his position at the helm of China. But they have hollowed out the pla’s command structure, leaving key posts in the hands of untested officers whose chief qualification is sycophancy—and whose capacity to lead is deeply in doubt.

The dramatic purges “might create strategic deficiencies by depriving the pla of much-needed operational experience and expertise,” the Diplomat writes. “With the removal of the battle-hardened Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli as well as their followers, informational and institutional memory in the Chinese military system could gradually diminish. That could pose an obstacle to the pla’s goal of becoming a world-class military by mid-century.”

Within a deeply personalistic system like the one Xi is building, leaders are also likely to become ensnared in an information trap, insulated by “yes-men” who give them only good news. Such a system may bolster a leader’s confidence and sense of success for a time, but it leaves him blind to inconvenient truths—the kind that must be confronted if a nation is to assert durable dominance over its region.

This all means that even as Xi Jinping tightens his grip on power, the nation he leads is growing less cohesive and less prepared for the wars he is so eager to wage.

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King Over the ‘Kings of the East’

The Trumpet takes a keen interest in such developments because we have been anticipating a reduction in China’s power and its strongman relative to Russia and its ruler, Vladimir Putin.

Biblical prophecy warns of a massive Asian military force that would arise in the modern era, called in Revelation 16:12 “the kings of the east.” Ezekiel 38:2 describes the leadership of this Asian bloc, saying it will be headed by “the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal” (New King James Version). Meshech and Tubal are early names corresponding to modern Russian cities, and Rosh is a variation of an ancient name for Russia. So this “prince” is clearly a Russian leader.

The verse says “the land of Magog,” which includes modern China, will also be an important power within this alliance. But the phrasing makes plain that it will be not a Chinese individual but a Russian one that is the main ruler, or prince, over this oriental conglomerate.

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has identified Vladimir Putin as the man who will fulfill this role. In his booklet The Prophesied ‘Prince of Russia,’ he writes: “We need to watch Vladimir Putin closely. He is the ‘prince of Rosh’ whom God inspired Ezekiel to write about 2,500 years ago!”

At present, China has 10 times the population of Russia and 10 times the economic power. And while Russia has a far larger nuclear arsenal, China’s military is larger and viewed as more powerful than Russia’s in terms of conventional capabilities, technological advancements and economic capacity to sustain production. For these reasons, most analysts today view Russia as the junior partner in the Russia-China tandem.

But the ongoing purges in China’s military come at the same time that China is facing serious headwinds in both economics and demographics. All of these factors could help reduce the power of Xi Jinping and China relative to Vladimir Putin and Russia—and shift the power balance in accordance with the Bible’s prophecies.

In the meantime, both Putin and Xi are causing serious suffering in their nations and far beyond their borders. We should expect them to keep on pushing the world deeper into the era biblical prophecy calls “the times of the Gentiles” (Luke 21:24). This is an age when ruthless dictators increasingly impose their power worldwide. The future for Russia, China and all nations will be a dark and violent one.

But there is also profound hope tied to current developments and trends.

Mr. Flurry closes his booklet by underscoring that Putin’s rule signals something much larger: the approaching end of mankind’s failed experiment in self-governance. He writes:

What we are seeing in Russia ultimately leads to the transition from man ruling man to God ruling man! And it is almost here! It is just a few short years away. … A great transition is about to occur. We have to realize that this is all good news ….

To understand the significance of the up-and-coming “kings of the east” axis, the impending reduction of Chinese power relative to Russia’s, and the deep hope that lies at the heart of these developments, order your free copy of The Prophesied ‘Prince of Russia.’