China signals Xi's purge won't deter 'reunification' with Taiwan

Bloomberg News on Jan 29, 2026

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China indicated that an anti-graft purge roiling the People’s Liberation Army won’t impede its plans for eventually taking control of self-run Taiwan, while also brushing aside doubts about the effectiveness of its military in the wake of the ouster of top generals.

While “peaceful reunification” is China’s guiding principle, “we never renounce the use of force in resolving the Taiwan question, and the PLA will never allow anyone to separate Taiwan from its motherland,” Defense Ministry spokesman Jiang Bin said at a regular press briefing Thursday.

“Eventually China will be reunified,” the senior colonel added.

The comment reiterated Beijing’s determination regarding Taiwan, which opposes China’s claims, and comes just days after a probe was announced into the PLA’s top general, Zhang Youxia, and its joint chief of staff.

China’s ruling Communist Party views Taiwan its own territory, despite never having ruled the island of some 23 million people. It conducted two days of drills around the archipelago in December, in a show of force after the U.S. announced one of its biggest arms packages ever for Taipei.

China’s long-running campaign against corruption has raised questions over whether the ouster of experienced, top officials will disrupt decision-making, hurt morale, delay weapons development and set back a push for joint operations.

Integrating army, navy, air force, rocket force and other units in combat is essential to large-scale warfare and central to Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s goal of completing military modernization by 2027 and building a world-class force by the middle of the century.

Jiang, the Defense Ministry spokesman, sought to dismiss those worries.

“The harder the people’s military fights against corruption, the stronger, purer and more combat effective it becomes.” he said. “We will always be a heroic force that the party can trust and the people can rely on.”