China’s 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 Feb 24.

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 (People’s Liberation Army) 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 Chinese defence ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

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 2025.

The crackdown has cut China’s seven-man supreme military command body to a committee of just two people – CMC chairman Xi himself and a newly promoted vice-chairman, Mr 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 that “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.

Mr 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,” Mr 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.

China’s share of the regional total grew to almost 44 per cent in 2025, up from an average of 37 per cent between 2010 and 2020. REUTERS