On October 17, 2025, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) expelled nine of its most senior military leaders, including members of the Central Military Commission (CMC), former defence ministers, and theatre commanders, from party membership. While the expulsions were not unexpected, given that most had been detained in recent months, the sheer scale of this purge, surpassing even those under Mao Zedong, startled China watchers. The episode raises pressing questions: were these officers purged by a rival faction seeking to undermine Xi Jinping's influence? Does it signal an escalating rift between the military and civilian leadership? Or could the crackdown weaken China's combat readiness, particularly its preparations for a Taiwan invasion?
Everyone Is Xi's Loyalist
Xi had closely observed the limitations faced by his predecessor Hu Jintao, who, despite assuming the presidency in 2002, governed within a system constrained by Jiang Zemin's loyalists. Hu's key policy initiatives were frequently obstructed by Jiang's entrenched appointees; an experience Xi was determined to avoid. Consequently, early in his tenure, Xi moved decisively to purge Jiang's allies from the military and security apparatus.
Since 2012, Xi has prosecuted nearly five million officials, both senior and junior, under the banner of an expansive anti-corruption campaign. What began as a crusade for party discipline has evolved into Xi's most potent instrument for neutralising rivals across the Party and the armed forces. In tandem, the CCP institutionalised the “Chairman Responsibility System”, formally enshrining Xi as the unchallenged “core” of China's leadership.
Therefore, nearly every consequential political and military figure in China today has either served directly under Xi or owes their advancement to his patronage. In effect, the upper echelons of Chinese politics and military have been remade in Xi's image, leaving few, if any, who are not his loyalists. The argument that recent purges reflect factional efforts to weaken his grip on power, therefore, sounds hollow.
Succession And Corruption
For Xi, regime stability and the military's entrenched secrecy constitute two of his persistent challenges, each breeding its own set of enduring problems. Sustaining regime stability requires a clear succession plan, yet this process has faltered as Xi cycles through loyalists, setting them against one another and discarding those deemed weak or insufficiently loyal. His purges have extended beyond individual officials to their networks and even their successors, fostering an atmosphere of pervasive uncertainty among subordinates while serving a dual purpose: keeping his subordinates perpetually vigilant and ensuring an unfiltered flow of information to the top, thereby reinforcing his personal control over decision-making.
Further, Xi has demoted the vice presidency from a de facto apprenticeship into a ceremonial post reserved for retiring officials and prevented civilian leaders from membership in the CMC. His succession planning thus suffers from a fundamental contradiction: although Xi seeks a successor from within his loyalist ranks, he remains unwilling to empower anyone who might challenge his authority. In this respect, Xi mirrors Mao and Deng, both of whom cycled through multiple potential heirs before settling on a final choice.
The second challenge, the military's entrenched secrecy, has bred endemic and large-scale corruption. As China's defence budget has expanded to an estimated$249 billion, opacity within the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has provided cover for pervasive graft in procurement, infrastructure, and a range of other sectors, including a flourishing pay-for-promotion culture within its ranks. As a civilian leader with no military background, Xi is acutely aware of his informational disadvantage and the risks it poses to control and oversight.
To counter this, Xi has pursued a dual-track strategy: repeated purges of senior military officers and their networks, coupled with an aggressive drive to modernise the PLA through investments in advanced technologies and next-generation weapons systems. The result is paradoxical: while the PLA's arsenal is undergoing a sweeping technological transformation, its upper ranks remain in constant flux, ensuring that no commander feels secure and that Xi's authority remains absolute.
Long-Term Effects
The recent purges are neither new nor likely to be the last. While opinions differ, frequent and widespread purges inevitably erode the PLA's combat efficacy. Commanders, wary of missteps, may grow risk-averse and hesitant to take bold initiatives, while the erosion of civil–military trust further undermines operational cohesion. Therefore, despite the PLA's increasingly sophisticated arsenal, its human element remains its most fragile link. However, the PLA is a behemoth, and as its supreme leader, Xi has adequate cause, power and inventory to continue his purges at will, and to do so until his definition of loyalty is fully met.
[Harsh V. Pant is Vice President, Observer Research Foundation, and Atul Kumar is a Fellow in Strategic Studies Programme at ORF.]
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
