After a massive purge of promoted generals, Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping recently reiterated to the military, “The barrel of the gun must always follow the party’s command,” and emphasized the need to ensure that all construction projects have “quality assurance, capability assurance, and integrity assurance.” Experts believe Xi’s quality assurance statement exposes issues such as cutting corners in military production. Xi’s extensive cleansing of the military is driven by concerns over political disloyalty within the army, causing him considerable anxiety.
The Central Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China held a collective study session on July 30 with a focus on national defense and the military. Xi Jinping emphasized during the meeting the importance of ensuring that “the barrel of the gun must always follow the party’s command,” and further stressed the need to intensify the fight against corruption, strengthen supervision of major projects, and guarantee the quality, capability, and integrity of all constructions.
These three aspects of assurance are not new concepts. During the “Two Sessions” in March 2025, Xi Jinping had already made similar remarks while attending a meeting with representatives from the military and the armed police.
Su Ziyun, Director of the Institute for National Defense Strategy and Resources at the Taiwan Institute for National Defense and Security Studies, mentioned that Xi’s so-called quality assurance underscores potential issues in the military such as inflated equipment quality, cutting corners in production, inadequate combat capabilities, and integrity issues among military officers and defense industry enterprises. These systemic problems have been brought to light.
In January 2024, Bloomberg cited U.S. intelligence reports indicating serious corruption within the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force, with some missiles filled with water instead of fuel, and defects found in Western launch silo covers. This revelation directly prompted a sustained crackdown by the top echelons of the Communist Party on senior military officials.
Regarding Xi Jinping’s renewed emphasis on military obedience, Su Ziyun believes that these statements expose Xi’s inner uneasiness. “The barrel of the gun is what Xi urgently needs to control, but the fact that he has not quickly filled the ranks of the Military Commission indicates lingering concerns about military obedience to him. This also reflects the presence of differing voices within the military.”
Since assuming power in 2012, Xi Jinping’s cleansing of the military has been relentless, especially targeting senior generals he personally promoted, most of whom have been removed. The current Central Military Commission consists only of Chairman Xi Jinping and Vice Chairman Zhang Shiping, who was promoted in October last year, with the other five members being sidelined.
Yuan Hongbing, a scholar based in Australia, told Epoch Times that in more than a decade of relentless purges, Xi Jinping’s purported aim of combating corruption is essentially a demand for absolute loyalty from all Communist Party officials. However, it is unrealistic to expect absolute loyalty from anyone to another person. Xi’s demand itself goes against basic human nature and political logic.
Yuan stated that Xi Jinping aims to transform the Communist Party into a political mafia controlled solely by him, placing himself and millions of party officials in an absolute state of opposition. This inevitably leads to alienation and dissent. Hence, after the 20th Party Congress, the Xi faction cultivated by Xi Jinping is demonstrating political rebellion. He can only rely on a massive secret police apparatus for control, which is inherently unsustainable.
He cited that from the highest command structure of the Party Guard to the command structures at various levels and branches of the military, almost all have been eliminated by Xi Jinping. “Now is the most vulnerable time in the history of the Communist Party Guard. We can compare the current Party Guard to a giant with cerebral palsy.”
Yuan Hongbing pointed out that corruption has become a normal way of life for Chinese officials, including Party Guard military officers. Behind the astronomical figures of corruption lies absolute political rebellion against Xi Jinping. This is the fundamental reason why Xi Jinping is now feeling restless and conducting repeated rounds of large-scale purges.