Strong on the outside, vulnerable on the inside. Xi Jinping knows the PLA's weaknesses, but misrepresents them, Australian think tank ASPI notes that the Chinese Communist Party openly admits to corruption, weak command, scattered training and slow development of military doctrine. All these are accused of political disloyalty. Therefore, instead of professional reform, the management reinforces indoctrination and purges. Corruption in the army has not disappeared for 14 years. The state media continues to hunt "invaders", "living rats" and "woodworms". Xi Jinping has launched one anti-corruption campaign after another since 2012, but the frequency and scale of the generals' removals show that the problem is systemic. The criticism of the command is even stronger. The phrases "two failures" and "five failures" have appeared in PLA Daily more than 150 times since 2015. They point out that the PLA does not know how to fight in a modern way, and officers are unable to assess the situation, understand the plan from above, make decisions, deploy forces and respond to unexpected circumstances. ASPI claims that PLA joint exercises often prove to be a formality that hides the activities of only one branch of the armed forces, indicating the continuation of disparities within the armed forces. Problems also affect military science." The system of developing doctrine and combat concepts did not keep up with the pace of modernization of soldiers. Xi Jinping blames the military academies for the formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and isolation of the soldiers. The party sees more political learning as a solution to all problems. This creates a double weakness. Time and resources are spent on ideology instead of real teamwork, ethics, morality, training and doctrine. Military advice to leadership is becoming more and more ideologically correct rather than objective.

Strong on the outside, vulnerable on the inside. Xi Jinping knows the PLA's weaknesses, but misrepresents them, Australian think tank ASPI notes that the Chinese Communist Party openly admits to corruption, weak command, scattered training and slow development of military doctrine. All these are accused of political disloyalty. Therefore, instead of professional reform, the management reinforces indoctrination and purges. Corruption in the army has not disappeared for 14 years. The state media continues to hunt "invaders", "living rats" and "woodworms". Xi Jinping has launched one anti-corruption campaign after another since 2012, but the frequency and scale of the generals' removals show that the problem is systemic. The criticism of the command is even stronger. The phrases "two failures" and "five failures" have appeared in PLA Daily more than 150 times since 2015. They point out that the PLA does not know how to fight in a modern way, and officers are unable to assess the situation, understand the plan from above, make decisions, deploy forces and respond to unexpected circumstances. ASPI claims that PLA joint exercises often prove to be a formality that hides the activities of only one branch of the armed forces, indicating the continuation of disparities within the armed forces. Problems also affect military science." The system of developing doctrine and combat concepts did not keep up with the pace of modernization of soldiers. Xi Jinping blames the military academies for the formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and isolation of the soldiers. The party sees more political learning as a solution to all problems. This creates a double weakness. Time and resources are spent on ideology instead of real teamwork, ethics, morality, training and doctrine. Military advice to leadership is becoming more and more ideologically correct rather than objective.