Reforming China’s lumbering army has been a key goal of Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012.
Now, a year-and-a-half into his tenure as China’s paramount ruler, Mr Xi has scored his biggest success with the downfall of former general Xu Caihou, once a top commander in the People’s Liberation Army, who stepped down from the politburo last year. On Monday he was stripped of his Communist party membership and his case has been referred to prosecutors on corruption charges for al-legedly doling out promotions in exchange for bribes.
But tackling endemic corruption, while perhaps resolving a vendetta or two along the way, is just one aspect of Mr Xi’s reform efforts. He is also seeking to transform the military from an overly politicised, peasant-based army, which is a vestige of the Mao era, into a professional fighting force capable of projecting power into the western Pacific, over the internet and even into outer space.