China preparing to invade Taiwan by 2027: US intel

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s decade-long campaign to end corruption in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is meant to ensure the military is modernised and prepared to invade Taiwan by 2027, according to a US intelligence report, Taipei Times reported.

The report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), titled “Wealth and Corrupt Activities of the Leadership of the Chinese Communist Party,” states that up to 65 per cent of all government officials in China accept bribes or engage in graft. Xi launched a sweeping anti-corruption campaign when he came to power in 2012. Since then, nearly 5 million officials at all levels of government have been found guilty.

The campaign has targeted rampant leadership corruption within the ranks of the PLA, “which have included a culture of pay-for-promotion that continues even a decade after the anti-corruption campaign’s launch.” Some of the biggest names removed from their jobs include General Li Shangfu, then-minister of national defence in 2023, and Admiral Miao Hua, who was in charge of political loyalty within the PLA, last year.