WASHINGTON: China’s foreign ministry urged the United States to stop issuing “irresponsible reports” after the Pentagon said that corruption in the Chinese military might have disrupted the country’s military modernisation goals.
The report ignores facts and is full of prejudice, Lin Jian, a ministry spokesperson, said in a Thursday (Dec 19) press conference.
Corruption in China’s military may have disrupted its progress towards its 2027 military modernisation goals, the Pentagon said in its annual report on Beijing’s military that was released on Wednesday.
Since last year, China’s military has undergone a sweeping anti-corruption purge and last month the defence ministry said a top-ranking military official had been suspended and was under investigation for “serious violations of discipline”.
The wide-ranging Pentagon report said that between July and December 2023, at least 15 high-ranking Chinese military officers and defence industry executives were removed from their posts.
“In 2023, the PLA experienced a new wave of corruption-related investigations and removals of senior leaders which may have disrupted its progress toward stated 2027 modernisation goals,” the report said, using an acronym for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
US officials, including the head of the Central Intelligence Agency, have said that Chinese President Xi Jinping had ordered his military to be ready to conduct an invasion of Taiwan by 2027.
China’s official 2027 modernisation goals include accelerating the integration of intelligence, mechanisation and other tools while boosting the speed of modernisation in military theories, personnel, weapons and equipment, the Pentagon said.
