[🇨🇳] Chinese Army News/Views

China says growing its military helps world peace
Agence France-Presse . Beijing, China 15 June, 2026, 22:36

China said on Monday that strengthening its military is beneficial to world peace, slamming a think tank report that warned the threat of a direct strike by Beijing on Australia was increasing.

A Lowy Institute report said on Sunday that China is capable of a direct missile strike on Australia and the threat of such a move is growing as Beijing amasses long-range and hypersonic weapons and builds islands in the South China Sea.

China’s capacity to strike Australia would grow over the next decade as ‘the DF-27 intermediate-range ballistic missile, and potentially a conventionally armed intercontinental ballistic missile, grow in service numbers’, the Sydney-based group said.

China condemned the report’s ‘serious strategic misjudgement’ on Monday, saying it was committed to ‘a path of peaceful development’.

‘The growth of China’s military strength represents an increase in the forces for world peace,’ foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters at a news briefing.

‘China’s development of military strength is intended to safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests and is not directed at any specific country,’ he added.

The report found the main threat to Australia was from Chinese missiles fired from ships, submarines and a new intermediate-range ballistic missile that could reach the island continent from China.

The DF-27 missile has a range of 5,000 to 8,000 kilometres, the US military said in December.

The report said it was assessing Beijing’s capability and not its intentions.

Lin urged the ‘relevant institutions’ on Monday to ‘stop hyping up the so-called China threat’ and to view the country’s development in an objective, fair and rational manner.

Australia reshaped its military strategy three years ago in response to China’s rapid navy build-up and rising friction between Beijing and Washington, focusing on deterring an adversary from its northern approaches.​

China removes two top generals from supreme military command body

China's Central Military Commission member Liu Zhenli arrives for the Beijing Xiangshan Forum in Beijing, China Oct 30, 2023. Source: REUTERS/Florence Lo/Pool

China on Friday removed two senior military officers from its supreme military command body, the state Central Military Commission, state-run Xinhua reported, following investigations over suspected serious violations of discipline and law.

The removal of Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli leaves just two active members on the formerly seven-member commission, including President Xi Jinping himself.

Zhang was second-in-command under Xi as vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) and a member of China's elite Politburo. Liu was a CMC member and chief of staff of the CMC's Joint Staff Department.

Corruption Crackdown

The military has been one of the main targets of a broader corruption crackdown ordered by Xi in 2012.

Last month, Xi urged senior leaders of the ruling Communist Party to deepen the fight against corruption in the military. The years-long campaign has seen ⁠scores of senior officials and top generals investigated, removed and purged.

China has parallel Communist Party and state CMC structures but they function as a single institution. Friday's announcement by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress concerns Zhang and Liu's positions in the state CMC.

They have not been formally or publicly stripped of their posts in the Central Military Commission of the ruling Communist Party.

12 National People’s Congress Deputies Lose Seats

Zhang and Liu's names were removed from an updated list of deputies published by China's parliament, the National People's Congress, on Friday, indicating that they had officially lost their seats, along with 10 other lawmakers.

Among them are Lieutenant General Zhong Shaojun, former director of the CMC General Office and General Ju Qiansheng, a former commander of the military's Strategic Support Force.

The list also included Gao Shiwen, former mayor of the southern Chinese city of Nanchang, who previously worked at state-owned aerospace and defence giant China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

Separately, China's top political advisory body on Wednesday stripped Zhao Zongqi, a former commander of the Western Theatre Command during the 2020 China-India border clashes, of his membership.​