WASHINGTON -- China's crackdown on military corruption "may have disrupted its progress" toward a 2027 milestone for force modernization, the U.S. Department of Defense said in an annual assessment released Wednesday.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has waged a sweeping anti-corruption campaign since he came to power more than a decade ago, recently shifting focus to the armed forces. More than a dozen high-ranking military officers and defense executives, most notably Defense Minister Li Shangfu, were removed in the second half of 2023 alone, the report said.
