The purge China¡¯s leader, Xi Jinping, has inflicted on the military elite was plain to see at a recent legislative meeting. A year earlier, state television footage showed around 40 generals in the room. This time, there were only a handful.

Yet Xi indicated that an upheaval that rivaled those of the Mao Zedong era was not over. Stony-faced, he warned the remaining officers to beware of disloyalty.

¡°The military,¡± he said, ¡°must never have anyone who harbors a divided heart toward the party.¡±