Â鶹Éç

Xi Jinping is known to be a ruthless leader. In the last five years alone, China’s richest man, Jack Ma, China’s defence minister and the country’s foreign minister have all abruptly disappeared - some never to be seen in public again. Millions of Communist officials have been purged since Xi came to power.

But one man was thought to be untouchable: the head of China’s military forces, Zhang Youxia. A childhood friend of Xi’s, Zhang was allowed to stay in his post, even as other military officials were disappearing. That is, until he, too, was suddenly gone.

Months after he was last seen in public, and with 'strong man' politics on the increase, Celia Hatton investigates why Zhang was purged and looks inside and outside China for answers.

She discovers there's a kind of pattern that dictators and autocratic rulers use to hold on to power. And this, she argues, can be a useful tool in predicting global military aggression.

(Photo: Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia attends the second plenary session of the National People's Congress (NPC), at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Credit: Tingshu Wang/Reuters)