סין: מקורבים לשי ג'ין-פינג נעלמו לאחרונה מעין הציבור, ייתכן שהודחו במסגרת מאבקי כוחות חריפים בתוך המפלגה הקומוניסטית

As trade tensions escalate between Washington and Beijing, inside China, another battle of power is quietly boiling. Recently, some of the closest aides to Chinese regime leader Xi Jinping have disappeared from the public eye. It sparked speculation about whether they have fallen victim to the regime's internal struggles. Experts say if confirmed, their ouster would sharply reduce Xi Jinping's power and impact his plan to invade Taiwan. For more than a decade, Xi has carefully placed his trusted allies within the Chinese military while removing over 200 generals who were not loyal to him. Another of Xi's ambitions is to take control of self-governed democratic Taiwan, which the CCP has never ruled. U.S. intelligence believes that Xi set a deadline for the invasion the year 2027. However, something seems to have gone wrong since last summer. A slew of key players that Xi designated to lead his Taiwan invasion have vanished from the public eye or been removed from their positions. Zooming in, the third-in-command of the Chinese military, He Weidong, has not been spotted in public for almost a month. U.S. intelligence and the Pentagon told The Washington Times that he could be the latest victim of Beijing's purge. Another admiral of Xi's fraction, Miao Hua, is under investigation for violating the Communist Party's guidelines. Miao previously helped Xi promote many officials inside the Chinese military. Insider sources say nearly a dozen top Chinese military officials, seen as Xi's closest aides, are being investigated or arrested. NTD cannot independently verify these reports due to Beijing's lack of transparency and its control over the flow of information out of China. But one thing we do know is that these individuals have not been seen in public for a while. So if they were ousted from the CCP's ranks, who's pulling the trigger? Heng He is a China affairs expert who has studied China issues for over three decades. He has testified before the U.S. Congress and the EU Parliament as an expert witness. The first possibility is that Xi Jinping is purging his own people. But that doesn't make much sense, because not everyone in the military is his people. If he starts removing his own loyalists, it would only weaken his influence within the military. So that scenario seems unlikely. However, such purges would still need his approval, which means if this is being forced on him, then the opposing forces must have grown so powerful that he can no longer resist them. So, in my view, it's clear that Xi Jinping's power is now facing significant constraints. Tang Jingyuan has been a China affairs analyst for the Chinese-language edition of NTD for years. He, too, suspects that Xi's aides are being targeted by an opposition force inside the CCP, not by Xi himself. Among those reportedly being purged are the commander of the Eastern Theater Command and the commander of the Rocket Force. Both would be key players in a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan. When it comes to invading Taiwan, the two most critical military forces Xi relies on are the Eastern Theater Command and the Rocket Force. These are the two foundational forces he values the most. Given the situation, it can only suggest that this is a sweeping purge and act of retaliation orchestrated by his political rivals, directly targeting Xi Jinping. Insider sources from Beijing's political circle report that the force opposing Xi from within the Communist Party has been spurred to action because of China's sluggish economy and record-high geopolitical tensions.