Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) decade-long anti-corruption drive within the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is aimed at ensuring the military is not only modernized, but is also operationally ready to launch an invasion of Taiwan by 2027, a US intelligence report made public last week said.
The report, which was released on Thursday last week by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and is titled “Wealth and Corrupt Activities of the Leadership of the Chinese Communist Party [CCP],” states that up to 65 percent of all government officials in China accept bribes or engage in graft.
Xi launched a sweeping anti-corruption campaign when he came to power in 2012. Since then, nearly 5 million officials at all levels of government have been found guilty of bribery, the report said.
Photo: AP / Xinhua News Agency
The campaign has targeted rampant corruption within the ranks of the PLA, “which have included a culture of pay-for-promotion that continues even a decade after the anti-corruption campaign’s launch.”
Some of the biggest names removed from their jobs include General Li Shangfu (李尚福), former minister of national defense in 2023, and Admiral Miao Hua (苗華), former director of the political work department of China’s Central Military Commission, responsible for maintaining political loyalty within the PLA last year.
“Both Li and Miao were accused of party discipline violations, and both were considered protegees of Xi, demonstrating the seriousness of the CCP’s concerns regarding loyalty and effectiveness — particularly within the PLA — and the scope of the regime’s approach to corruption,” the report said.
“His focus on corruption in the PLA may also reflect concerns that corrupt practices will prevent the military from acquiring the capabilities and readiness he has directed it to achieve by 2027, in preparation for a potential conflict over Taiwan,” it added.
Corruption is an “endemic feature of and challenge for China, enabled by a political system with power highly centralized in the hands of the CCP, a CCP-centric concept of the rule of law, a lack of independent checks on public officials and limited transparency,” the report said.
In October 2020, Xi set the PLA the goal of becoming a “modern military” by 2027. US officials believe this means Xi wants China to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027.
The report also said that Xi has amassed more than US$1 billion in assets through relatives.
The six-page declassified ODNI report was commissioned by the US Congress under the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act. The legislation mandating a report was sponsored by US Senator Andy Ogles and then-Senator Marco Rubio, now US secretary of state.
The Washington Times said the ODNI report is the first official US disclosure about the “sensitive subject of Chinese leadership and CCP corruption.”
A congressional aide said a Chinese embassy official unsuccessfully lobbied the US Congress to have the report killed, the newspaper reported.
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