How Xi Jinping Broke All the CCP’s Rules | Heng He
American Thought Leaders
The Epoch Times
4.9 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 31 January 2026
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
“We are witnessing the turning point of the Chinese Communist Party rule. … The chain of command in the military is totally broken,” says veteran China analyst and Epoch Times columnist Heng He.
On Jan. 24, China’s Ministry of National Defense announced that two top military generals, Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, were under investigation for “serious disciplinary and legal violations.” This comes on the heels of a series of purges of Chinese military leaders.
Of the seven original members of China’s Central Military Commission, five have now effectively been purged or removed. Only two remain. And one of those two is Xi Jinping himself.
In my deep-dive interview with He, he lays out why he’s convinced the latest purges are the signs of something historic happening in China.
“They have open rules, and they have hidden rules. But what Xi Jinping did was against every single rule,” He says.
What’s really going on behind the scenes now? And what does this turmoil mean for the Chinese Communist Party’s plans to invade Taiwan? What are the policy implications for the United States?
Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | There's been an unprecedented purge of top Chinese military leaders, |
| 0:04.4 | including most recently top general Zhang Yu Sha, a longtime ally of Xi Jinping. |
| 0:10.6 | This never happened in history of the communist rule. |
| 0:15.3 | Of the seven members of China's central military commission, five have effectively |
| 0:20.1 | been purged or removed, only |
| 0:22.3 | to remain. |
| 0:23.6 | One of them is Xi Jinping himself. |
| 0:25.9 | Even during the cultural revolution, Mao Zedong didn't really purge the high-ranked |
| 0:30.9 | officials in the military. |
| 0:33.1 | What's really going on behind the scenes? |
| 0:36.1 | And what does this turmoil mean for the Chinese Communist Party's |
| 0:39.3 | plans to invade Taiwan? In this episode, I'm sitting down with veteran China analyst |
| 0:44.5 | Hung He, a longtime columnist with the Epoch Times, to unpack all of this. |
| 0:49.8 | Soviet Union collapse is not because they don't have strong military, it's because the |
| 0:56.1 | system collapsed. |
| 0:58.2 | Now, Xi Jinping face the same situation. |
| 1:01.5 | This is American Thought Leaders, and I'm Yan Yekj Kelek. |
| 1:09.8 | Heng Ha, such a pleasure to have you back on American Thought Leaders. |
| 1:13.6 | Yeah, the pleasure is mine. Thanks for having me. |
| 1:17.6 | So there is something absolutely astonishing happening among the top leadership of the Chinese Communist Party with profound implications for the country, perhaps for the world. |
| 1:29.0 | What's going on? |
| 1:32.4 | Yeah, I think of what happened last week, it's very rare to find such thing. |
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