Xi: senior officers must ‘stay pure’ to meet Chinese military’s centenary goal

Xi: senior officers must ‘stay pure’ to meet Chinese military’s centenary goalSpeech live-streamed to PLA’s high-level units calls for resolute political loyalty with no room for self-interest or corruption2-MIN READ2-MIN3ListenPublished: 1:02pm, 9 Apr 2026Updated: 4:36pm, 9 Apr 2026With the countdown on in earnest to the PLA’s centenary next year, President Xi Jinping has urged the corruption-battered top ranks of the military to refine their ideological purity to give the armed forces a “brand new look”.Xi told senior People’s Liberation Army officers on Wednesday to maintain resolute political loyalty to the Communist Party and said that any thought or action driven by self-interest or corruption was “fundamentally against the party’s nature and purpose”, state media reported.“Senior military officers must take the lead in restoring and promoting the fine traditions of our party and military … It is essential to understand discipline, be clear about rules and norms, and maintain a sense of reverence,” he said.“We must ensure that everyone is equal before laws and regulations, with no special treatment in compliance and no exceptions in enforcement.”01:07Generals stripped of political advisory roles as China’s corruption clean-up continuesGenerals stripped of political advisory roles as China’s corruption clean-up continuesXi added that the PLA must “always stay pure” to meet its centenary goal, set for August 2027. Beijing has kept the details of its expectations vague. However, in his 2022 work report to the 20th party congress, Xi linked the goal to the PLA’s ability to “win local wars”.He was speaking at the opening ceremony of a training course for senior military cadres from across the armed forces at the National Defence University in Beijing. The event was live-streamed across the PLA’s high-level units.