The ongoing corruption purges in the country are leaving serious deficiencies in its command structure and have likely hampered the readiness of its rapidly modernizing armed forces, a leading defense research center tells the agency.
The purges are likely to be incomplete, although they have so far covered the supreme Central Military Commission, operations commands, weapons acquisition and development, as well as defense academia, according to the .
“From an organizational perspective, until vacancies are filled, the Army operates with serious deficiencies in its command structure,” says London, UK-based Think Tank, a survey of global military forces that is a key research tool for analysts.
The report comes after China’s two top generals became embroiled in disciplinary investigations in the most high-profile military purges in decades. Zhang Youxia, a veteran military ally of the president, was investigated in January and He Weidong was expelled in October last year.
The crackdown has reduced China’s seven-man supreme military command to a committee of just two people: the chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), Xi Jinping, and the newly promoted vice president, Zhang Shengmin.
If staff were promoted due to connections, faulty weapons introduced due to contractual issues and lower morale, “the purge will almost certainly have a short-term impact,” according to the report. However, he described the effects as “temporary” and added that “modernization is likely to continue apace.”
The president of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, in a file image.
Power projection
To this end, the report outlined China’s broad and assertive projection of military power in the Indo-Pacific in support of its territorial claims and foreign policy, noting an increase in deployments around 2025.
Xi made a rare public reference to the crackdown in a virtual address to the Chinese military earlier this month.
“The past year has been unusual and extraordinary,” Xi declared. “The People’s Army has deepened its political training, has effectively addressed various risks and challenges, and has experienced revolutionary forging in the fight against corruption.”
The IISS report noted that growth in Chinese military spending consistently outpaced that of the rest of Asia amid a global rise in defense budgets.
China’s share of the regional total rose to nearly 44% in 2025, up from an average of 37% between 2010 and 2020.
