China’s Military in 10 Charts

As Xi Jinping pushes to improve the PLA, he is running up against a significant and long-lasting problem: corruption. Since his early days in office, Xi has targeted the PLA with major anti-corruption campaigns, and he has intensified those efforts in recent years. Since 2023, two members of the powerful Central Military Commission have been purged, and one of the commission’s vice chairmen, He Weidong, has disappeared. These and dozens of other senior-level purges demonstrate Xi’s intent to root out obstacles to his ambitious modernization agenda.