Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyXi Jinping is on a tear.Beijing confirmed this week he has replaced the general at the head of China’s rocket force unit, General Li Yuchao, and his deputy, shaking up the very military unit that would likely be central to any effort to take over Taiwan.The unit, China’s People’s Liberation (PLA) Army Rocket Force, steers China’s land-based nuclear and conventional ballistic missiles, hosting nine bases responsible for everything from mi
The Chinese leader’s replacement of two commanders has fanned speculation about corruption or failings in the force that manages China’s nuclear missiles.
TAIPEI, Taiwan — In the years since China’s leader, Xi Jinping, transformed the People’s Liberation Army, one of his crowning creations has been the Rocket Force, the custodian of China’s expanding nuclear arsenal. The force, with its array of missiles and launch silos, embodied Xi’s ambitions to elevate his country as a respected, and feared, great power ready to counter American supremacy in the region. But this week, Xi abruptly replaced the Rocket Force’s two top commanders with outsiders wi