Corruption and Reliability Concerns in a World-Class PLA

Executive Summary

MAIN ARGUMENT

Endemic corruption in China’s military system is largely due to the lack of checks and balances independent of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). An analysis of the confirmed list of PLA personnel indicted on graft since the 18th Party Congress points to distinct politico-military significance behind each round of the purges since Xi assumed the chairmanship of the Central Military Commission (CMC). As the latest iteration underlines, China’s defense ecosystem continues to be plagued by unresolved issues. But despite the fact that the coup de grâce against graft continues to elude Xi, the problems of the previous state of affairs prior to his time at the helm are gradually, albeit slowly, being addressed, thereby boosting China’s future warfighting capabilities going forward.

POLICY IMPLICATIONS

• While high-profile graft cases have continued to emerge a decade into Xi’s anticorruption campaign in the PLA, some successes have been achieved in curbing malfeasance. This complicates simple media narratives about the supposed abject “failure” of the initiative, Xi’s lack of authority over China’s armed forces, and the PLA’s lack of combat readiness.
• The cleanup of the PLA Rocket Force, the CMC Equipment Development Department, and China’s military-industrial complex in Xi’s third term in office highlights unresolved challenges in the PLA procurement and acquisitions system.
• Given the CCP’s continued monopoly on power and the lack of external checks and balances, corruption cases in the Chinese military will re-emerge. Still, those corrections initiated during Xi’s period of leadership are likely to have a positive net effect on the ability of the PLA to improve its prospects against the U.S. armed forces in a potential future contingency over the distant horizon.

James Char is Assistant Professor with the China Programme and Deputy Coordinator of the MSc program (Asian Studies) at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.