On January 24, China announced that its two top military officers, Generals Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, were placed under investigation for violating party discipline and law. They are accused of "seriously trampling the Chairman Responsibility System," i.e., directly defying President Xi Jinping's supreme authority and damaging the Party and the People's Liberation Army (PLA)'s combat capability. The speed and severity of the investigation reflect Xi's drive to remove the last bits of independent authority in China - a purge aimed at pre-empting potential 'mountain-tops' in the PLA, ahead of next year's leadership renewal at the 21st Party Congress. The key question is, what does this purge mean for China's defence policy? And, how will it impact India's security, especially along the Line of Actual Control (LAC)?

Zhang, the fallen general, is a princeling, Xi's childhood friend and a close collaborator during the latter's rule since 2012. Long regarded as seasoned military professionals, Zhang and Liu belong to the PLA's old guard, humbled by their combat experience in Vietnam. Predictably, they have not been able to fully share and align with Xi's sense of urgency over the PLA's accelerated buildup for a Taiwan contingency. In Xi's book, as........

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