China military purge taking toll on command and readiness, study finds

HONG KONG: China’s ongoing military corruption purges are leaving serious deficiencies in its command structure and are likely to have hampered the readiness of its rapidly modernising armed forces, a leading defence research centre said on Tuesday.

The purges are likely to be incomplete, even though they have so far ranged across its supreme Central Military Commission, theatre commands, weapons procurement and development as well as defence academia, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said.

“From an organisational perspective, until the vacancies are filled the PLA is operating with serious deficiencies in its command structure,” the London-based IISS said in its annual Military Balance, a survey of global military forces that is a key research tool for analysts.

The report comes after China’s two highest-ranked generals have become ensnared in disciplinary investigations in the highest-profile military purges in decades. Zhang Youxia - a veteran military ally of President Xi Jinping - was placed under investigation in January and He Weidong was expelled in October last year.

The crackdown has cut China’s seven-man supreme military command body to a committee of just two people - CMC chair Xi himself and a newly promoted vice chairman Zhang Shengmin.

If personnel had been promoted due to connections, faulty weapons introduced through contract problems and wider morale hampered, “the purge is almost certain to have a near-term impact”, the report said.

However, it described the effects as “temporary”, adding “modernisation is likely to continue apace”.

To that end, the report outlined China’s extensive and assertive projection of military power in the Indo-Pacific in support of territorial claims and statecraft, noting increased deployments around Taiwan in 2025.

Xi made a rare public reference to the crackdown in a virtual address to China’s armed forces earlier this month.

“The past year has been unusual and extraordinary,” Xi said. “The People’s Army has deepened its political education, effectively addressed various risks and challenges, and undergone revolutionary forging in the fight against corruption.”

The IISS report noted that rises in Chinese military spending were consistently outpacing the rest of Asia amid a global surge in defence budgets.