What Trump and Xi Have in Common
Both the United States and China are replacing top military commanders with ideologues.
This article is brought to you by American Purpose, the magazine and community founded by Francis Fukuyama in 2020, which is proudly part of the Persuasion family.
Last night, Vice Admiral Fred Kacher was removed as Director of the Joint Staff. The move comes while the United States is actively debating military strikes against Iran—a time when stability and expertise are paramount. For over a year, the American national security apparatus has been systematically decapitated: generals have been fired, intelligence directors have been removed, and top uniformed lawyers have been dismissed.
It all sounds like a story we’ve heard before.
A few weeks ago, Beijing confirmed that Zhang Youxia, the highest-ranking military official in China and a long-time confidant of Xi Jinping, had been purged from the Communist Party. The news sparked the predictable, feverish rash of Western analysis: Is Xi losing his grip? Is the People’s Liberation Army in a death spiral of corruption? And, most urgently, does a decapitated military command make a Taiwan invasion more or less likely?
The first two were the correct questions to ask of an adversary. But it is past time America had the courage to ask them of itself.
For the last year, mirror-image purges have unfolded within the United States and Chinese military and intelligence communities. While the justifications differ—Beijing cites “discipline and corruption,” while Washington cites “loyalty and bureaucracy”—the structural result is identical. Of course, the stakes for those affected remain vastly different: in the United States, a purge usually means an early retirement with full pension, healthcare, and a potential board seat; in China, it often entails trumped-up charges, the seizure of all personal assets, and a disappearance into the black hole of the prison system.
Yet while the individual outcomes vary, the institutional damage is the same. Donald Trump’s purge of the American national security apparatus has been as far-reaching and strategically destructive as Xi Jinping’s. While Xi’s actions are hollowing out the PLA’s readiness, the United States is delusional if it thinks its own house remains in order.
A score check, courtesy of the tracking done by Jordan Schneider and various other outlets, reveals the scale of these purges. Both superpowers have now removed their highest-ranking military leaders. In China, it’s Zhang Youxia; in the United States, it was the unceremonious firing of General CQ Brown, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, barely weeks into the new administration.
The decapitation has not stopped at the top. It has extended to the service chiefs and the theater commanders who actually manage the mechanics of war. Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the Chief of Naval Operations, was relieved of duty in a move that stunned the Pentagon. In a chillingly similar move, Xi Jinping purged PLA Rocket Force Commander Li Yuchao, the man responsible for China’s nuclear and conventional missile deterrent.
Further down the organization chart, the scale becomes even more alarming. In April, the U.S. Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) was ousted after a whisper campaign from political activists. In August, the Trump administration purged the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) following a disagreement over the agency’s assessments of the strikes on Iran. Even the legal guardrails have been dismantled: last February, all three service JAGs, the top uniformed lawyers responsible for ensuring military orders comply with the Constitution and international law, were replaced in a single afternoon. Meanwhile, Xi has purged two consecutive defense ministers and five out of the seven members of the Central Military Commission.
Both leaders are effectively telling their respective forces the same thing: professional expertise is a liability, and dissent is a firing offense.
The cognitive dissonance in the current discourse is staggering. If the expert consensus is correct that these purges are catastrophic for Chinese decision-making and have decimated the PLA’s readiness, what should be made of the American mirror image?
The public is told that the PLA is a “paper tiger” because its commanders are chosen for their fealty to the Party rather than their tactical brilliance. Yet, somehow, the expectation remains that the U.S. military will remain the world’s most lethal fighting force even as seasoned combatant commanders, like Admiral Alvin Holsey at United States Southern Command, are forced into early retirement for daring to question the legality of specific kinetic operations. American intellectuals and military leaders mock the yes men in Xi’s inner circle, while their own Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, explicitly clears the decks of any officer who might offer a roadblock to the commander-in-chief’s impulses.
The dissonance is irreconcilable. A military that prioritizes political purity over professional competence is a military that has already begun to lose the next war. While Trump was able to conduct a targeted raid against Nicolás Maduro, the United States lost seven Reaper drones, two fighter jets, and burned through one billion dollars to achieve a stalemate against the Houthis in Yemen.
In China, the purge of Zhang Youxia points to a president who no longer trusts his own generals to tell him the truth about Taiwan’s defenses. In the United States, the purge of the intelligence community points to a president who views objective reality as a personal insult. Both leaders have created a feedback loop where the only information reaching the top is the information they want to hear.
The result is a dangerous new reality. Trump’s purges have made him more erratic, more willing to use force as a political performance, and less considerate of long-term strategic outcomes. When a leader removes principled skeptics from the Situation Room, America doesn’t get a more efficient military; it gets a more reckless one.
The United States spent decades arguing that the strength of the American system was its apolitical military and its robust, independent intelligence. This was framed as the primary advantage over the CCP. That advantage is currently being set on fire in the name of domestic political vendettas.
If the PLA is indeed a mess because of Xi’s paranoia, America should not be celebrating. It should be terrified. When two nuclear-armed powers simultaneously purge their best thinkers and replace them with loyalist ideologues, the world is in for a rough ride. The United States is no longer just competing with China for regional dominance; it is competing to see which country can destroy its own military institutional stability first.
The score is currently tied. And in this game, nobody wins.
Shahn Louis is the founder of Anansi Strategic Intelligence LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based geopolitical risk firm. A former senior intelligence analyst with experience across the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community, he specializes in China analysis and East Asian regional dynamics.
Follow Persuasion on X, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube to keep up with our latest articles, podcasts, and events, as well as updates from excellent writers across our network.
And, to receive pieces like this in your inbox and support our work, subscribe below:
 | A guest post by
|