WELL, GOOD: Xi’s Top-Rank Purge Strengthens Chinese Leader, Weakens PLA.

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Here's what I don't understand. According to Russiagate, Donald Trump is working for Putin. According to China, the Chinese military is working for Donald Trump. Who's on first?

— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) January 25, 2026

I don’t know if these claims are true — I hope that they are! — but they won’t build confidence among the Chinese military.

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Mao had a prolonged and horrible death, with all his teeth rotted, without the use of his limbs able to breathe only if he lay on one side. As he declined he struck down Liu Shaoqi, Lin Biao both legends in their own right. Hovering, like evil spirits round the Great Helmsman…

— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) January 24, 2026

It’s the “Belisarius Dilemma,” a problem as old as empires.