
WarRoom Battleground EP 873: President Xi Purges Top Military As Speculation Hints At Failed Coup...
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This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these people. Reasons I got a free shot. All these networks lying about the people, the people have had a belly full of it. I know you don't like hearing that. I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it. It's going to happen. And where do people like that go to share the big lie?
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MAGA MEDIA I wish in my soul.
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I wish that any of these people had a conscience.
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Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose? If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved. War ROOM here's your host, Stephen k. Band.
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Monday, 20th of October, Anno Domini 2025 Hanwell here at the helm on Steve Bannon's War Room. Well, the big news coming out today is from Beijing from China with the fourth plenary. And apparently the emperor, the guy we were told just last year was now effectively destined to rule for life in China, has some internal problems he's going to resolve or need to resolve, will be with the new federal state guys a little later on in the show for the personal dynamic there and what's going on. But first of all we're going to talk to the the two people I know have the most insights on China, the two gyms. Captain Jim Fennell and Jim Rickards. Gentlemen, thanks for coming on the show. Tell me this is, this is a yearly event, the plenary. This is the fourth plenary. I think they have like these yearly mini plenaries that last between the 5 year Queen Cranial 200 of the most leading communists in China gathering together. Jim Rickards, why don't you open tell us exactly what has happened and to President Xi. I gather he's now having to report to a superior group. Is this a temporary thing? Is he going to fight back? Is he going to purge the people who've tried to put him on a chain? Tell me the news, what's happened today?
C
Well, well, there's definitely a struggle going on between the Xi faction. But you know, the Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao factions never completely went away. They were squashed by Xi, they were marginalized, et cetera. The one Shanghai base, but they never completely went away. They're now reemerging. The PLA is asserting more power. Xi's power is being diminished, but that doesn't mean he's weak or he's done. What's interesting, Ben, is to put this in the context of 3,000 years of Chinese history. And I can give you, I give you the short version. For 3,000 years, China centralizes, centralizes, centralizes. The empire grows, becomes peak, centralized, and then it falls apart. You have the Warring kingdoms period, you have warlord periods, multiple dynasties in different parts of China. Then it consolidates again. This is like an accordion. It gets more centralized and then falls apart. So one of the easiest predictions I've ever made was a few years ago when Xi could, got maximum power. We started to talk about Xi Jinping, thought on a par with Mao Zedong, thought he got a third term. No one had ever had more than two terms before, at least since Mao Zedong, et cetera. I said, okay, that's peak centralization. This is all going to fall apart. And it is in the process of doing that. And it's bigger than just Xi standing with the popular and with the generals. That's very important. And I think, I think James knows a lot more about that than I do. But in addition to everything we just described, the economy is falling apart. Their GDP is down significantly. That they admit, take two points off because they lie about it. Maybe take another point off for investment, which counts to gdp. But if you build a ghost city and no one's there, yeah, you got steel and concrete and copper and cement and all jobs and all that, but there's no one there. An accountant would require you to write that off immediately. So there's a doll shortage. Their banks are suffering, credit losses going up. So the economy is, I don't want to say imploding. That's a little bit of an overstatement. But the economy is collapsing very quickly on top of all the politics we just discussed.
D
I get the point that such a large country, large in terms of population, large in terms of economy, can't really be centrally commanded by one guy. And you did absolutely call it when you said that this is now going to be over centralized. But when you say that there are different factions and rivals, rivalries here, what amazes me was last year when we were watching this, when, as you say, she had his unprecedented in modern terms, third term. The very day I think he was, he was, he was granted that they walked. It was huge. They, they walk. If maybe serves me correctly, they walked him out, didn't they? They literally walked. And you saw him bewildered as he was much. We never found out exactly what that was, though. They said at the time it was some kind of medical emergency, which would probably be news to Hu Jintao himself. But tell me then Jim Rickards, continue this point, if you wouldn't mind. Tell me how these factions are still bubbling under the surface, if their exponents have been defenestrated.
C
Well, what happened to Hoshin, that was a public humiliation. There's just no other explanation for it. They could have done a lot of different ways, disembodied them, whatever. He was humiliated in public. But these factions, as I described them, are more than just the leaders they have. Jiang Xiamen died, I think, 10 years ago, but it's his followers, it's his supporters, et cetera. They have their own clubs, their own organizations. They're suppressed to a point. I was in Hong Kong not long ago, but it was Asia Societies, the top leaders in Hong Kong. I've been in Hong Kong for 40 years. It was the first time someone took me aside and said, be careful what you say. And I never am. And I was at a table, a fairly small group, and they were praising Xi Jinping, etc. And I said, whatever happened to Bo Xilai? And they just, they just, they. They froze. You know, I don't mention that name around here, but. But the truth is, we don't know if he's dead or not. But in some ways, these. He was in Shangcheng. But in some ways, these factions don't go away. They keep their head down, but they re. Emerge at certain times, and that's what's happening now.
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Jim, I know you've got a bounce. Just stay with us for five more minutes, if you wouldn't mind. I know you're on an interesting mission in Slovenia right now, but just hang with us for five minutes, if you wouldn't mind. I know you have government business to attend to. Captain Fennell, what can you tell me about the inner intra China power dynamics that are taking place right now at the fourth plenary?
E
Yeah, Ben, I don't disagree with what Jim has said to the extent that there's no question that there are various factions within the Chinese Communist Party. I think my, My issue is to the degree with which those factions have a real substantive impact on Xi's ability to have control. For instance, and I mentioned this in the morning segment, you know, this purge of these nine generals that hit on Friday that's really raised this issue before plenum. Those were being discussed over the last year, and some of the first purges were occurring. And this is something that's occurred throughout Xi's 12 years of rule. And it gets to the heart of his efforts to reform not just the party, but the PLA and so he's done over 12 years massive changes to the PLA, especially in 2015 and 2016. And so what we see right now is the economy is weak. As Jim said, there are factional problems. We're at this point where if there's going to be a discussion about these kinds of factional disputes, it will come in this plenum. And what I think Xi did was he cleaned out the pla, those that were party members that were going to be in this party congress to clean them out so that they were not in present at the event. So there would be no kind of event like you saw with Hu Jintao and that he could have total control over the process to be able to set the 15, five year plan. And so I think that's kind of where we're at. And when it comes to the military aspect, you know, throughout, if you go back and you follow our analysis of the Soviet Union, we always looked at leadership and intentions and we looked at capabilities. And in this case, when you look at the prc, we can examine leadership. And we had, you know, rumors from the kind of the same sources saying that Xi had a stroke over the last couple of months. Yet we continue to see Xi very much present in the international stage. Last week meeting with International Women's, Global Women's Forum and meeting many, many people. So those rumors kind of don't come true. Also, Xi's not having control of the party. If you go back to June and July, these rumors were existing that Xi was losing control of the pla. Yet who was leading the big PLA parade in Beijing this last month? It was Xi. So I would put that in the leadership bucket and then in the military capabilities bucket. As I mentioned in the morning segment, we are seeing a continual uninterrupted trajectory and a strategic trend line of PLA modernization, growth and capabilities and in expanding operations. Now, Jim mentioned that maybe that's to show the flag and to be kind of aggressive because they got these problems at home. It's possible. But my assessment is, looking at their military, that this is a natural progression to meet Xi's global Defense Initiative, where he wants a global security initiative, that he wants to have a global military. So we'll find out in the next week if Xi is still in power a week from today, we'll know that maybe these rumors weren't true. If he's gone, then that'll be something that we'll have to face.
D
I realize that China isn't a monolith, that there are different currents Although it's very easy to take a party, single party structure like the CCP from outside the country externally and just think of it as just a monolithic structure. I realize that it's not. And there are different trends and currents going on there. Much of what we see taking place behind the scenes for obvious reasons to do with stability, domestic political stability. But one would have thought that after 10 years of being quite a hands on kind of guy, she would have succeeded already in eliminating opposition. And I gather some of the generals that have been purged are his own appointments appointees. Tell me, does that indicate that as time goes on it's not just a case that he hadn't cleaned out the system in his first 10 years? Is it perhaps, Captain Fennell, the situation that the more he goes on, the more his third term in office goes on and we'll see whether it finishes within a week or whether it goes on for longer. The resistance, the internal resistance to him within the CC P itself is actually growing. Is that where the opposition is coming from? It is a, it is a growing spontaneous reaction to his rule.
E
I, it's possible that that's part of it, but I think it's more endemic. I think Jim talked about the, you know, the thousand years of history and there's an old saying that, you know, in the, in the center is the rule and out in the hinterlands there's, you know, they can't control everything. And so what I think is what Xi is running up against is thousands of years of dynastic evolution where people make money through corruption and clinging to bits and pieces of power. We see it in our own country. It's part of human nature. And so what I think is, is that Xi is having to continue to continually find and root out corruption in the party in order to achieve his global initiatives. And so I think he has a global Marxist, Leninist view of how he wants the PRC to rule the world. And he knows that he can't get there if the people under him are corrupt and not following through with pure party loyalty.
D
Captain, stand by. I'm going to come back to you on this point in just a moment. Jim Rickards, before you go, just answer me this question. Because my reading of China was basically the corruption was built in. When you see people being picked out and removed from the system because of corruption, that is simply a public presentation for domestic consumption because everyone has their hand in the till and it's for other reasons that they're being moved out, probably political disloyalty. Give me your reading on that, will you?
C
I agree with that. I think, I think they're all corrupt. Literally all the. Maybe one or two exceptions, but they're basically all corrupt. And so when you hear corruption charges being announced, it's completely, it's opportunistic and it's political. In other words, you're all corrupt. But I like you five, but you two, I don't. So I'm going to announce an investigation or corruption charges against the two. It's a way to get rid of people. It's a way to again, humiliate them publicly. But it's not like they're the only corrupt ones and they're rooting out corruption. What they're doing is they're using corruption as a way to root out people for other reasons. And that's political. And then as Captain Fennell said, you have to then look behind the curtain and say, okay, why you? Who appointed you? Why are you being kicked out? Why now? Corruption, as I say, is just an excuse.
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Jim Rickards, I know towards the end of this show I'm going to read out the details of where people can go to get hold of strategic intelligence. But in terms of social media, where do people get, where do folk get hold of your analysis which is world rated? It is first rate. Where do people go on social media? Yeah.
C
Thank you. On X. I'm Eel Jim Rickards at Real Jim Rickards. I also have a website, the jamesrickerdsproject.com where you can find all my books and a few background details. Thank you, Jim.
D
I'll let you bounce. Thanks for staying with us and we'll catch up with you throughout the rest of the week. How long are you in Slovenia for?
C
I'm here for a couple days and I'm going down to Medjugorje. I haven't been there, so I want to go there before the whole world shows up.
D
Of course. Then keep us briefed. Thanks, Jim. Take care. God bless.
C
Thanks.
D
Captain Fennell, we'll be back with you in just a moment. But first, when inflation jumps, when you hear the national Debt is over $37 trillion, do you ever think maybe now would be a good time to buy some gold where there's a hedge against inflation, peace of mind during global instability, or just for sensible diversification? Birch Gold Group believes every American should own physical gold. Birch Gold can help you roll an existing IRA or 401k into an IRA in gold. Birch Gold is the only precious metals company we at the War Room Trust, as do tens of thousands of their customers. So make right now your first time to buy gold. Text Bannon B A N O N to 989-898. That's Bannon B A double N on to 989-898. And Philip Patrick and his great team there are waiting for your call. Captain Fernald, before you were just saying something about the. The communist political currents going on within the CPP at the moment. Sometimes it acts as if it's just a political organization and the Marxism is a political front, but it's only superficial. And other times it appears, especially in terms of the, the way they run the party, the political police state that, that it is. It's very much in the Soviet model. Can you tell me a bit more about how that might move forward if she should be removed within, let's say, because we were mentioning earlier on the show, let's. Let's say within the next week. But even if it's a bit longer than that, even if it's a few months or something, will that be. Will they be kicking him out to make sure that the regime itself goes on, or will they be kicking them out because actually it's revolution time and time for the whole thing to be overthrown?
E
Well, that's a great question. And I would say that the party itself, if it's in this kind of turmoil, to the extent that they remove Xi, you know, it'll be very hard for us to predict exactly who will replace him. There are the. There are speculations that this General Zhang, who's the other vice minister or vice chair of the Central Military Commission, if he's the one that's really moving the chess pieces around, and he's a strong proponent of the pla and all these PLA activities that we've seen ramp up, especially towards Taiwan in the last three years, if he's the generator of all this, then we should be standing by for some very serious potential for an invasion of Taiwan. On the other hand, there's the factions that may say, hey, we've gone too far. The economy is being destroyed and we need to pull back our, you know, pull back a bit in terms of our aggressiveness and let's get. Keep our economy going and let's try to repair our. The damage that Xi did economically. So it's kind of two pronged. I would say those are the two major prongs on where it could go. Again. I still believe that Xi's in power. And that to me, suggests that there's a longer continuity between Mao all the way To Xi, that is. They've all had the same agenda, which is to restore in their minds China to this global Marxist world power. The other leaders couldn't do it because they didn't have the economy, they didn't have the military, who, Zhang and Deng didn't have it, Mao didn't have it, but he was so, you know, he was kind of a different kind of a person. So Xi's adopted Mao's kind of aggressiveness, but he now has the tools to do it. So again, it's really a matter of what will, what will we see in this next week? I think we'll get a really clear signal. I mean, if he's not, if he's not mentioned or talked about or he is diminished in any way, I don't think the party can, I don't think he, if he, if he's under struggle for power, he's not going to accept some kind of partial agreement. He's either going to say I'm the leader or I'm not. And that's my assessment of what we would see in the next week. So if we see him, we're going to see this continuity towards his agenda, this global domination.
D
He's an interesting figure, isn't he? She, as I understand it, he, he very much sees it as his vocation, let me use that word, as his vocation to restore the, the Communist Party as the cultural heart of China, the one party system. He's very loyal to that system even though it sort of, it didn't, you know, it didn't do, didn't do very much good to hit his father when he was a kid growing up. Right. He, his father fell out of favor in, in a big way. But she himself is very keen on his beliefs that the, the, the, the glue that holds China together is, is the, is the, is the party, is the Communist Party. So you have that on the one hand, but on the other hand, the actual ideology, the communism behind the ology. I don't know how much that permeates his thinking. I think he is more communist than say someone like Hu Jintao because the party sort of the party's strength had very much been waning up until Xi Jinping. What. Just give me two minutes on that dynamic and what it might mean for the future of the, the CCP as a one party state moving forward without, without Xi Jinping. They're pushing that with the force of his personality.
E
Right? I mean clearly, as you described it, Xi is, is more red than any other paramount leader that China's had in its history since Mao. And he has pushed through, you know, kind of a top down, again, control of the economy that Deng and Hu didn't have. I mean, he has been pushing for the state owned enterprises and the control of the economy, centralized control and the importance of these five year plans. And he is now in a position to where he's also in charge of the pla and he's been in charge of the PLA and he's inclined to use the PLA much more often. I mean, as we talk about in the military arena, the Chinese military aircraft, jet aircraft, never crossed the center line between the mainland and Taiwan. They did it four times in 60 years. And after 2020, they're doing it hundreds of times a year. So there's a, there's a party unity that he's bringing where it's very much, you know, centrally controlled. Going to achieve the great rejuvenation of China, which is his phrase. We're going to have the great rejuvenation of China. We're going to make China this global power and we're going to replace the United States. So we're going to attack on all fronts. They call it comprehensive national power. We're going to go after economic reforms or economic power through the way we run the Belt and Road initiative. We're going to do what they just did with this tariffs on rare earth elements that doesn't seem to have any fear of the United States, maybe that they had when Deng was in power. And so now you see red tourism, it's big in China. People going to see the places where the Chinese Communist Party in their history of the establishment of the prc, that's a big item. He's pushing it across all fronts. And it seems to be taking on a kind of a populist patriotism inside China, not as the ancient Chinese civilization per se. But he's even embraced religion in certain areas and brought religion back in. That's something that Mao didn't do during the Cultural Revolution. So he's very adept at this.
D
We've got about two minutes left. Can you just tell me, because we've not spoken about Ukraine right now as a dynamic of what's going on. And you can see that she's trying to wear down on every metric possible of the United States from being an opposition and a restraining force on him and his ambitions. Tell me just what would happen to this friendship without limits between China and Russia should Xi be replaced?
E
Well, that's, that's been the greatest strategic failure of The Biden administration, it was this rabid obsession with calling Trump an agent of Russia. And we drove, in a way, China or Russia into China's arms. Now, there's a natural economic relationship there, but there is a larger. And we've talked. I mean, people talk about this as historic animosity or distrust between China and Russia. So the idea that we could get Putin and Russia to kind of pull back a bit from China and not be so reliant upon them, if we could do that, that would be great. But I think China's very well entrenched themselves economically, militarily, into the Russian sphere. And I don't see it happening right now. And that's my biggest fear, is that Russia and China continue to stay linked together, and their military operations have only increased over the last two decades. If you go back to 2005, when they first started the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and they would do some of these military exercises, the Russians would come back and laugh about the Chinese military. Now they don't. They work closely together, and it's the Chinese that are setting some of the standards in certain areas in certain fields. And so. And now China has been supplying, obviously, funding to Russia through the purchase of oil, but also we're getting the reports of sending in drones and all kinds of other kinds of munitions that we probably don't know about. And their relationship with North Korea and bringing North Korea into that, that dynamic has also been China's doing, in my opinion.
D
Just give me 30 seconds on this. Is it possible that the international community, inverted commerce, might try and persuade a new leader of China to enter the international community and not be a stranger? Or is China, in and of itself, such a threat to the rest of the world that. That would. That. That wouldn't really be feasible?
E
It's definitely the former. I think living here in Europe, I see the EU enamored with the PRC and trying to make a difference, deal with them, as opposed to holding them to account, like I think President Trump is doing.
D
So you think actually, if the regime were to replace Xi Jinping, that might actually be a step closer. The normalization. Let's call it that. The normalization might actually be something easier for the evil regimes here in Europe to. To confect.
E
I think so, yeah.
D
Jim Finnell, where do people go to keep up with your analysis on this point?
E
I don't do social media. That's kind of something that you've laughed about. But I do write for American greatness every once in a while, and that's.
D
That Captain Fidel Very, very grateful. Thanks for staying with us for the first half of this show and we'll catch up again with you soon. God bless. For now.
E
Thank you You Ben, Appreciate it.
D
Standby folks. We'll be back in two minutes.
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D
Welcome back. Well, I've got Ava Chen and Forest Zhao from the new Federal State of China here to explore some of the themes that we discussed in the first half of the show in a little more detail. Guys, thanks for coming on. I'm especially interested in some of the inner dynamics of the CCP and the power struggle that seems to be taking place in front of our very eyes right now. Even though the rest of the western media doesn't seem to be paying that much attention to this. Tell me more about what happened on Friday. I gather there was a significant military purge in all of the branches that sort of navy, armed forces, the air force. Let's start off a bit about that. Ava, why don't you tell me you're telling me in the break. Tell me some more about what happened on Friday of last week for sure.
F
And this is just the three days ahead of the opening of the forest planning sessions in a sense a strong message. So I wanted to get out and let people know that she right now has the power. That's why you saw the top PLA generals, nine of them and all of them are personally picked by Xi Jinping himself. And one of the particular prominent generals among the nine are two of them. One is He Weidong and he's the vice chair of the cmc. CMC stands for the Central Military Commission. That's the highest decision making body of the army of the PLA inside the Communist Party. So of course Xi Jinping himself is the chair and he has two vice chairs and He Weidong, the one just got purged is one of the two vice chairs. But the other one is Miao Hua. Miao Hua is also a very prominent person and all of them has histories with Xi Jinping goes back to 20 years ago when Xi Jinping was the party deputy secretary and governor for the Fujian province. And that's why they gained trust from Xi Jinping. And that's exactly why He Weidong was nominated to take a seat on the CMC in 2022. Which is quite surprising move because at that time he was previously was the Eastern commander and a lot of a party rule by moving him up so quickly, Xi Jinping actually broke the unwritten party norms. But however, what we just saw three days ahead of the opening of the fourth Plenum, Xi basically purged the person he used to entrust to secure his rule. And including Meohua as well. Because Meow Hua, all the other generals in the in the batch has somehow related to Mel Hua. Either they served together in the past or either they come from the same province, the Fujian province. So this actually sending a huge message because a lot of people say oh look at somebody doing this to Xi Jinping. So Xi Jinping's power is weakening. No, that's not right. She is very safe right now. Okay. By purging all those people he perceived a threat to him. He is actually even more concentration his power. But I think this is a history in play itself. We all know where the dictator ends because power builds on field inevitably collapse and the tighter his grip grows becomes and the closer he is close to his downfall.
D
Okay, let Me, let me push on that one a little bit more. Okay. Forest. What is the view in China when the president, the Secretary General of the party, the president of the country, purges his own nominees from, from the, from the party hierarchy? Does not, does that not indicate that he's panicking somewhat? We're very used to seeing someone like Xi who doesn't, who sort of, if, if anything, he's sort of very cautious in it. When he acts, he's. He thinks a lot. Nothing chaotic, nothing out of place.
E
It's.
D
It's almost as if he's the embodiment of process. When he purges his own appointees like this, does it not look as if he's made a misjudgment somewhere along the line?
B
No, actually this is nothing new to the Chinese people or let's see, communist countries. If you see Stalin and Mao Zedong, they, they all purged their own generals. Stalin almost killed every top general around him. So that's kind of common in the communist dictatorship controls because there is no trust. There is nobody you can trust in this type of system. Nobody is safe, including Xi himself. That's why the moment he sees anything, he's doubted anything, he will purge. He will purge his people, changing to the new blood which he think he can trust. Maybe later on he will have any other doubts and other people try to take the position from Xi and then there will be the killing and the purge happening again. So there is nothing new, this, this kind of purge happening in China, whether it's from Mao or Deng to, to Xi, this is happening all along. And the Chinese people know all the charges, all the fake charge, whether it's bribery or corruption, it's all, it's nothing real. The real thing is the political and the purge. That's what the real thing happening in China. It's nothing new to the Chinese people or to the party members.
D
Tell me after seeing this, if this is nothing new to the Chinese people, what might the Chinese be expecting right now as they're sitting watching these events unfold? And what does, what are they drawing from the fact that this purge took place just sort of three days before this meeting at the high point, when all the press is focused, how are these things being received?
F
Okay, so if you look at how this tying it was done, it was a purge first and then the plan, a meeting. But if you look back to the history in 2014 and 2024, Xi Jinping had done it reversely. He had opened the political conference, work for the military, and then started the purge. So but this time he reversed it. So tells you that the purge is urgent. So according to the new federal State of China's intel, and this is probably you were not here anywhere else. And our intel suggests the reason why the Xi Jinping has to act right away is this is a failed coup. Okay, so these generals who Xi Jinping has personally picked, put it in those high ranking CCP military ranks and now are turning against Anxi. Okay, so this tells you as what Forrest mentioning about how brutal the system is. It's a cruelty that Xi understood himself. Because if you look at the history, whether it's styling the Soviet Union, where the communist ideology and practice come from, and in terms of the Mao and as Forrest mentioned, Stalin, every night he would have a list of people to kill the Great Purge 1937-1938 and then never stop continuing with 1940s. So there's a list of people that he wants to strike, okay. And then. And he would give to a general to executing on those people. And the next day the person who executing the people on the list were on the list himself. So this is how brutal the communist system has always been. And look at Mao. Mao basically killed all the buddies, all the comrades that fighting against the Kuomintang and so called the Japanese invader together. But all of them are purged and killed ruthlessly by Mao. Xi Jinping is basically repeating the same history. And don't forget communist system is a very low trust system because everybody is schemed and plotting against everybody else. This is why Xi Jinping cannot trust anybody. And think about the only person left, the Vice chair of the cma, what position he will be in, what he is thinking about. He understood all the history, all the history of communists and again and again played again and again. So can she trust him? Of course no. Can he trust Xi? Of course no. This is exactly where I think the west has the opportunity to apply the right pressure. When you apply the right pressure, you will enable the internal dissent magnified to a degree that would help the west to bring down the ccp. And that will help the Chinese people to bring down the ccp. Using the borrowed sword to do the things you want to do. And that's why we advocating for decoupling the ccp. And you are shaking it. And that the person who ended to destroy the Chinese Communist Party are the Chinese Communist Party members who are right now holding the guns, you know, holding the powers. Because they are the insider. They know exactly what button to push. And they pose the real Threat to Xi Jinping. As you mentioned, almost every branch of the army, the top generals has been purged and rumor has it there's 80 more, there's dozens, dozens more are right now under investigation. Think about this. When Xi comes on power after 2012, 2013, Xi had a strategy how to concentrate the power under his name only. He targeted broadly in terms of the Communist party. And he started purged, never ending corruption campaigns started in 2013. And the second he targeted a specific group. It's called Princeland. These are in Chinese, we refer them as the red second generation. So they have family blood lineage goes back to the older CCP car drains. They see themselves as a legitimate heir.
D
Like Xi Jinping himself. He's a princeling.
F
Exactly, exactly. That's where the legitimacy and that's where the bloodline legacy comes from. So who will pose the most threat to Xi Jinping right now? If you are older cadre, you were thinking all those princely could potentially replace, right? If Xi step down, if they force Xi lose the power and another princely would step in. So that is why Xi Jinping after he took power, he understood that that's why he made the enemy of that second generation, second cadre generation, his political rivalry. So that's why we saw Liu Yazhou, the other general was purged in 2022, was given death sentence with two years of reprieve. He was the son in law of Li Xianyan, which is the top general of the PLA which had bloody hands on the Tiananmen Square student massacre. So this is brutal. And Xi Jinping understood it because why he chose to be a dictator. And this is Wen Wei Street. And he has no way to turn back because if the moment he hesitates, he will be gone. And this is life struggle inside of the Communist party system.
D
Fascinating. I'm gonna. Forest, I'm gonna come to you in just a quick moment because I want to, I want more information. Whatever was just saying about this being a failed coup, especially about the point that, that basically she himself assumed the mantle of dictator destroying the constitutional two term norms. And now he has, he doesn't have an off ramp now he's stuck in there and being stuck in a position that means ever more fighting to maintain control. I'm going to come back to on those points in a minute, Forest, but first, what if you had one of the brightest geostrategic minds in the world here on the war room all the time delivering critical financial research every month? Well, Jim Rickards is our wise man and he was on the show earlier, you might have heard him breaking down for us the the form of this the story about the Chinese plenary slippage of power for Xi Jinping. Well, Jim is a former CIA, Pentagon and White House advisor with an unmatched grasp of geopolitics and capital markets. Jim predicted Trump's electoral college victory, for example, exactly 312 to 226. Now he's issuing a dire warning about a moment that could define Trump's presidency and your financial future. His latest book, MoneyGPT exposes how AI is setting the stage for financial chaos, bank runs at lightning speed, algorithm driven crashes and even threats to national security. Right now, War Room members get a free copy of MoneyGPT when they sign up for Strategic Intelligence, Jim's flagship financial newsletter. Time is running out. Go to ricardswarroom.com now and claim your free book. That's Ricards war room.com R I C K A R D S Forest Tell me a bit more if you wouldn't mind about because we've got like five minutes to the end of the show. Now tell me a bit more about what the purge being the result of of a failed coup. Is that what people are actually talking about in China right now?
B
Oh, I don't think that most people will know this coup happening because this is just under underground. But there's a high profile purge again, it's the message. President Xi want to send it to the internal people as well as us because he's going to meet President Trump very soon talking about the deals regarding minerals. He's in a very strong position. He need to send a message to the internal people. Look, I'm in power. I have the balls to challenge to fight with the U.S. that's his message. And you know what? Because the deal is going to happen because the President Trump himself is the master of making the deal. But how much we'll have to force give up because we have to face it now. We are at a point where forced to buy those minerals from the CCP which they had planned a dedicated plan and a strategic plan for 5 years, 10 years, 15 years as just we talked about before. So we have our intelligence. Xi already had 4 demand for the US before this negotiation. It's kind of like preconditions. The first one is when he strike Taiwan, no US military interference. Second no support any supply support from us. The third, no political support to any Taiwan leadership. The last1, the US has to keep silence about this invasion. When that happens, that's the preconditions that she prepared for President Trump. Make no mistake, I think there will be a deal. But how much we have to give up, that's the most important question. And I'm glad you and Eva just mentioned about the insiders. The insider is very important. I think for us the immediate danger is really within this own country. The CCP only becomes so efficient and so strong just because all the enemies, the enablers and collaborators within our institution, whether it's Wall street, media, the schools, including, even including our own government, we have to clean those traders out in order to save this country. Because they are not only provided the technology, the money, and also they even provide the strategy to the Chinese Communist Party. That's why they are so effective attacking and counter attacking US Movement.
D
First, I just want to go back to something that you said. Sadly, there's not enough time to go over everything. But one thing that you said was that in his favor within the system she can say, look, I've got the balls to tackle the United States head on. And because he has been doing so, how much I get, I guess that resonates with the party, but how much does it actually resonate with the Chinese people themselves? Not much. Okay. Because that is to say want did the Chinese act people actually want an aggressive policy?
B
No.
D
Against America or do they want to find a way to work together peaceably?
B
The Chinese people, okay, Chinese people has nothing to lose. They have been slaved for more than 70 years. Look at their economy. And I think James just mentioned about the economy in China. Chinese people are freedom loving people, hard working people. The situation they are in, it's all the result from Chinese crew control and the regime control. So they are ready to fight and stand to get their country back. I think the point here, we want to ask the same thing for the us the American people. We also have options to make and the decision to make the first option is to have a strong and aggressive China with CCP's leadership. The second one is the friendly, democratic and freedom country without ccp. I think the American people and American administration has to make that decision right now. Because Miles and Steve talked about back in 2017 warned that we have to fully decouple from CCP before it's too late. Here we are now, we have to buy the mineral from them, we have to compromise, we have to make a deal with them. So time is critical here. CCP took a great advantage of the pendulum effect of the political system in this country. They took advantage of all the traders they use great deal with them. That's why we are here today. So time is running out. I think we have to make decisive and bold movement to clean out the insider traitors from this country. And taking down the Chinese Communist Party dismantled just a small circle of families, CCP family, which hijacked China and turned them into a weapon to attack, to threaten the free world.
D
Guys, that, that's all we've, we've got time for. Can you just give me a one word response to this question and then we'll quickly do the socials. We've got like 40 seconds left after the plenum, right, that's taking place right now. And the, and the purge three days ago. Do you think she's time is running short now? Yes or no, Forest?
F
Absolutely it is.
D
Is his time coming to an. Is his time coming to an end, yes or no?
F
Not any time shorter because he is going that direction by no means. But right now his power is more concentrated than yesterday.
D
10 seconds.
B
It's going to happen.
D
Where do people go to learn more about the new federal state of China?
F
New getter at nfse.
A
What if he had the brightest mind in the war Room delivering critical financial research every month? Steve Bannon here. War Room listeners know Jim Rickards. I love this guy. He's our wise man. A former CIA, Pentagon and White House advisor with an unmatched grasp of geopolitics and capital markets, Jim predicted Trump's electoral College victory exactly 312 to 226, down to the actual number itself. Now he's issuing a dire warning about April 11, a moment that could define Trump's presidency and your financial future. His latest book, MoneyGPT, exposes how AI is setting the stage for financial chaos, bank runs at lightning speeds, algorithm driven crashes and even threats to national security. Right now, War Room members get a free copy of MoneyGPT when they sign up for Strategic Intelligence. This is Jim's flagship financial newsletter, Strategic Intelligence. I read it. You should read it. Time is running out. Go to rickardswarroom.com that's all one word. Rickards war Room. Rickards with an S. Go now and claim your free book. That's rickardswarroom.com do it today.
Theme: President Xi Purges Top Military as Speculation Hints at Failed Coup
Date: October 20, 2025
This episode focuses on a seismic political shakeup in Beijing: the mass purge of top military leaders by Chinese President Xi Jinping, which comes amid rumors of an attempted coup and potential instability within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Host Ben Hanwell brings together China analysts Captain Jim Fennell, Jim Rickards, and representatives from the New Federal State of China, Ava Chen and Forest Zhao, to dissect the causes, implications, and possible outcomes of Xi’s power consolidation, and what it means for China's future, its military trajectory, and the West.
Accordion Theory of Chinese Power
Current Status
Endemic Resistance:
The Stakes of Xi’s Fate:
Xi’s "Redness":
PLA’s Role:
Sino-Russian Alignment:
Prospects for "Normalization":
Scope and Significance:
Echoes of Stalin & Mao:
A Failed Coup?
| Timestamp | Topic/Segment | |-----------|------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:15 | Jim Rickards opens analysis on the CCP’s internal struggle | | 07:04 | Captain Fennell: Military and political context of recent purge | | 13:22 | Rickards: Corruption as pretext for political purges | | 17:11 | Fennell: Consequences if Xi is removed/future power dynamics | | 20:58 | Fennell: Xi’s ideological ‘redness’ and impact on the Party | | 23:39 | Fennell: China-Russia relationship post-Xi | | 32:02 | Ava Chen: Details of the military purge and Xi's inner circle | | 37:20 | Ava Chen: Claims of a failed coup and its context | | 45:06 | Forest Zhao: Xi’s demands, U.S. negotiation, and strategic stakes| | 48:47 | Forest Zhao: Will of the Chinese people, choice for the U.S. | | 51:13 | Quickfire: Is Xi’s time running out? |
This episode presents a deep dive into the latest power struggle at the heart of the Chinese Communist Party. The speakers sharply illuminate the historical cycles of autocracy and collapse in China, the classic paranoia of totalitarian leaders, and the implications of Xi Jinping's ongoing, ruthless consolidation of power. The panel agrees that, while Xi’s grip has arguably never been stronger in the immediate term, this very centralization carries the seeds of instability, as the Party’s internal tensions and economic challenges mount.
The message for Western policymakers and audiences is clear: China is at a crossroads—with both high internal risk and undiminished external ambitions. The coming weeks may reveal whether Xi’s latest purge will secure his regime, expose new vulnerabilities, or accelerate a crisis that could reshape the global order.
To learn more:
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