Recent purges of senior People’s Liberation Army officers, including the September 2026 expulsion of former Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia and Joint Staff Department Chief Liu Zhenli for factionalism, disloyalty, and disciplinary violations, have intensified trader focus on potential coup-related markets. These actions followed earlier unverified reports of a foiled January 2026 plot involving high-ranking military figures and alleged countermeasures by Xi Jinping’s security detail. Ongoing leadership turnover in the PLA, framed officially as anti-corruption measures, reflects efforts to consolidate control ahead of key policy deadlines, with trader consensus shaped by the opacity of internal Communist Party dynamics and the absence of independent confirmation on any organized challenge to authority.