I'm John Dutche with my good colleague and mentor Gregory Copley, Defense and Foreign Affairs.

Over these last weeks and years, Gregory has been laying out a landscape that right now looks most intriguing,

which is the miracle of the Fourth plenum demonstrating that something has changed

in the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. Remember, the Chinese Communist Party

insists that the People's Liberation Army swear allegiance to it, not the people of China,

not the Constitution of China, to the Chinese Communist Party.

Xi Jinping is the head of the Chinese Communist Party by dint of continuing the tradition

of being General Secretary for the third time.

However, there is reason to believe in these last days that in some fashion the army is

asserting itself. I'm going to stop there

because that's as far as i know and turn to gregory there were seven names named uh named of general

officers who were relieved and i'm told they are she's choices these are his people i'm told

there is a there is a movement somewhere, and the army's involved in it, to move him towards

retirement.

Have we had any clarity whatsoever, Gregory?

It's becoming agonizingly, slowly, more clear as the hours pass at the fourth plenum. I don't think we'll see

anything definitive emerge until the evening of the 23rd of October when the plenum wraps up.

And even then it's going to be blurred by attempts to make it look like business as usual.

Both the general secretary Xi Jinping and by attempts to make it look like business as usual.

Both General Secretary Xi Jinping and the elders who oppose him and the military wanted to appear as though it's business as usual in Beijing

and that any transitions or changes are coming about as a matter of course in the

normal process of things. That's far from the truth. The immediate pre-Planum announcement by the

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