On January 24, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Chinese Communist party, stunned the People's Republic of China by purging General Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission.
Zhang -- a long-time associate of Xi -- was accused of among other things undermining the leadership structure of the Communist party; The Wall Street Journal newspaper even claimed that Zhang had passed Chinese nuclear secrets to the Americans. There were also rumours that Zhang had led an unsuccessful coup against Xi.
What really happened? Why did Xi turn on Zhang, who he has known almost all his life since their fathers Xi Zhongxun and General Zhang Zongxun served in the Chinese Communist party under Mao Zedong? Where does Xi's purges of senior officers leave the People's Liberation Army?
We asked Francesco Sisci, the well respected Italian Sinologist who has tracked events and personalities in the Chinese Communist party for over 30 years, for his assessment of the Zhang Purge and its aftermath.
"We have a summit with US President Donald Trump in April and we don't know what will come out of it. We don't know if Russia can continue fighting for one more year (in Ukraine) or for how long. The situation is sensitive. Xi Jinping is a man who follows events closely and may change his mind on (invading) Taiwan," Dr Sisci, the first foreigner admitted to the graduate school of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, tells Nikhil Lakshman/Rediff.
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