Chinese President Xi Jinping has demanded absolute loyalty from the nation's armed forces, declaring that "the gun barrel must always obey the party's command" during a Politburo session ahead of the People's Liberation Army's 99th anniversary. Xi called for an intensified anti-corruption campaign to purge and revitalize the military, while emphasizing that the primary measure of its modernization remains actual combat readiness.
The sweeping anti-graft drive has significantly disrupted the military command. Currently, five out of seven members of the Central Military Commission have been ousted, leaving only Xi and the newly promoted Vice Chairman Zhang Shengmin. Recent removals include former defense ministers and top generals like Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli. However, independent defense analysts warn that these purges have compromised combat readiness and degraded the military's command structure.
To offset these challenges, Xi urged the military to build an "intelligent" system utilizing unmanned technologies and cyber capabilities. The technological push aligns with a target date noted by U.S. intelligence, which indicates Beijing wants its military capable of action regarding Taiwan by 2027, even as over 84 percent of Taiwanese citizens oppose unification and support maintaining the status quo.