A troubling development last week casts some doubt on China's long-term stability. The story on the surface sounds innocuous, as is often the case in China's opaque internal politics: The People's Daily, the official Communist Party newspaper, announced a reorganization of the Communist Youth League.
But what makes this so significant to China's future — and therefore global security — is that the league has for decades functioned as one of two incipient political parties within the Communist Party. That President Xi Jinping has essentially purged it is evidence of his gradual, mindful push to become the country's all-powerful dictator.
Instead of sharing power across factions as his two predecessors did, Xi is consolidating power for himself. And, as the recent coup attempt in Turkey demonstrates, a slow march toward dictatorship is a leading indicator of future instability.