The Dictators Survival Guide

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 Party officials have been removed during Xi’s time in 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 his right hand man, pictured at his side during virtually every state occasion. That is — until he, too, was suddenly gone. He failed to appear at key meetings in December. At the end of January, Chinese state media said Zhang and another top military general were under investigation for ‘wrongdoing’. It’s all but assumed he’ll evaporate into China’s secretive prison system. So — the question is: why would Xi turn on Zhang Youxia - one of the only people known to be in his inner circle? Why now? China’s rumour mill has a million theories… Zhang was planning a coup. Zhang was selling nuclear secrets to the Americans. Zhang stood in the way of Xi’s plans for Taiwan…. Long-time China correspondent and analyst, Celia Hatton, talks to China watchers and those who study dictatorships to try to work out what’s happening at the very top of the Chinese establishment. And at a time when ‘strong man’ politics is on the march, it feels that there’s never been a better time to try to understand the behaviour of dictators.