Xi’s purges of China’s military run deep, new study shows

M. Taylor Fravel, the Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science and Director of MIT’s Security Studies Program, was cited in a New York Times piece about changes in China’s military. “Xi has purged all of these people and, obviously, it’s framed as their lack of loyalty to Xi and to the party,” Fravel says. “But he also needs expertise to have the military he wants — loyalty as well as expertise — and how will he find those people? That’s going to be harder now.”