The Black Box: Inside China’s Military Mind

The Black Box: Inside China’s Military Mind

From Face-Off: The U.S. vs China by Airwave Media

March 3, 2026 · 25 min · Season 3 · Episode 9

About this episode

The episode discusses the recent purges in the Chinese military and features insights from retired Colonel Zhou Bo.

We’re back! We’ll be publishing five brand new episodes of Face-Off bi-weekly starting today. In this episode, we welcome back Zhou Bo, a retired colonel in the People’s Liberation Army. Xi Jinping has unleashed a massive purge of the Chinese army, the biggest since the early days of Communist China. Nearly three dozen senior generals have been demoted or disappeared. Almost all have been accused of corruption. Then this past January the most senior general, General Zhang Youxia, essentially Xi Jinping's number two in the army, disappeared. No-one outside of China, and not many inside China, seem to know what’s going on. There's a reason the Chinese military is known as a black box. With Colonel Zhou, Jane discusses everything from Greenland to Taiwan to China’s military strength in the South China Sea. Guest: Zhou Bo, Retired Senior Colonel in the People’s Liberation Army Book Recommendations: Should The World Fear China by Zhou Bo China’s Quest for Military Supremacy by Joel Wuthnow and Phillip Saunders Face-Off: The U.S. vs. China is produced in partnership with ⁠Rowhome Productions⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People in this episode

Host: Jane

Guest: Zhou Bo

Topics covered

  • China's military
  • Xi Jinping
  • corruption in the military
  • South China Sea
  • Taiwan
  • military strategy

Keywords

  • Chinese military
  • purge
  • corruption
  • South China Sea
  • Taiwan
  • Xi Jinping
  • Zhou Bo

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: People’s Liberation Army

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