Hello and welcome to The Bunker. I'm Gavin Esler.

Democracies have a simple but effective means of changing course. They get rid of leaders

and politicians who, for one reason or another, fall out of favor or are accused of

being corrupt by voting the rascals out. China, like other authoritarian regimes, uses a different

technique. The history of the Chinese Communist Party since Mao Zedong's revolution has been one

of purging some of those in senior jobs who, for one reason or another, do not meet

the leader's expectations. Sometimes the charge is corruption or incompetence. Other times,

it's essentially rivalry and potentially threatening the leader or the leader's objectives.

The recent very significant purge of two of China's top military leaders has led to all kinds

of speculation about why they fell out of favor with President Xi Jinping.

For some perspective on who's gone, why they've gone, and perhaps the wider political tensions

within China, I'm delighted to be joined by Daria Impio Bato, who is senior analyst at the Mercator Institute

for Chinese Studies in Berlin.

Welcome to the bunker, Daria.

It's a pleasure to be here.

So can you tell us who has been pushed out and what were the reasons given for this?

Sure.

I mean, obviously, since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, 2013, millions of people

have been purged, quite literally, both from the party and the military. This time, though,

the wave kind of reached the very apex of political and military power with Zhang Yuzha and Yudin Li,

especially the purge of Zhang Yosha shocked quite many analysts in and outside of China

because he was for a long time seen as loyal to Xi Jinping and to the PLA cause and he survived so many purge rounds that now that he was so

...