China's Central Military Commission Shrinks to Two Members as Beijing Expels More Generals, Taiwan Adds $4.6 Billion in Defense Spending

Since the Central Military Commission (CMC) vice chairman Zhang Youxia and joint staff chief Liu Zhenli lost their commission seats on August 28, China's top military body has been reduced to just two of its normal seven members, according to Taiwanese national security officials cited by the outlet Newswav. The same National People's Congress Standing Committee session also stripped Zhang, Liu, former Strategic Support Force commander Ju Qiansheng, and longtime CMC General Office chief Zhong Shaojun of their NPC seats, a formal step that typically precedes expulsion from the Communist Party.

Taiwanese officials expect that expulsion to happen at China's Fifth Plenum, which convenes in Beijing in October. Citing a count by Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper, Newswav reported that the plenum is expected to expel roughly 40 sitting Central Committee members once combined with prior purges since the 20th Party Congress. China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection also announced on August 27 that Jiangxi governor Ye Jianchun is under investigation for "serious violations of discipline and law," making him the 11th vice-ministerial-or-higher official targeted in 2026, a record year according to Newswav's sourcing.

Analysts Split on What the Purge Means

An anonymous Chinese military academic told The Epoch Times that the scale of the purge suggests Xi Jinping remains deeply worried about loyalty among senior commanders. "The CMC has had so many people fall. There are already very few military members of the Central Committee," the academic said, adding that "the possibility of war is not very high, but the harassment [against Taiwan] will not stop."

That academic's read, also carried by ZeroHedge, is that political loyalty is now valued over military competence inside the PLA, and that gray-zone pressure against Taiwan may be one of the few tools a hollowed-out command structure has left to use. The academic noted Zhang Youxia had personally overseen simulated Taiwan-invasion training and that finding a replacement with comparable experience "would be difficult."

This remains an anonymous interpretation, not confirmed Chinese policy. A purge this deep could just as easily mean Beijing is less prepared for a major military operation in the near term, not more inclined toward one. Taiwan's own National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen told reporters in July that July through September is typically a period of heightened Chinese exercises regardless of internal politics, a seasonal pattern that predates the current purge.

Taiwan's Air and Sea Space Under Record Pressure

The numbers on the ground have been climbing. Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense reported on September 5 that it detected 20 sorties of PLA aircraft, including J-11s, Su-30s, H-6 bombers and KJ-500 early-warning planes, alongside six PLA Navy vessels, according to ANI News. Twelve of those sorties crossed the median line into Taiwan's air defense identification zone.

The Japan Times, citing Bloomberg ship-tracking data, reported on September 7 that China has deployed an average of two coast guard cutters per month off Taiwan's Pacific coast since June, patrolling an area of 27,100 square nautical miles, more than twice Taiwan's landmass, while staying just outside Taiwan-claimed waters. That marks the first time such Pacific-side patrols have shown up in tracking data going back to January 2025, and it followed Japan and the Philippines announcing plans to define their overlapping maritime border in the same region. Ryan Martinson of the US Naval War College's China Maritime Studies Institute told the Taipei Times the scale of the operation, including the use of research vessels whose data can feed China's military, is unprecedented even if the tactic itself is not new.

Taiwan's Response: More Money, New Missile

Taiwan's Executive Yuan is answering with money. According to a September 11 update from the Institute for the Study of War, the cabinet proposed a supplementary budget of 145.7 billion New Taiwan Dollars, about $4.6 billion, on top of the 2026 general budget. That includes $1.77 billion for uncrewed systems, $411 million across seven defense programs, $231 million to refill depleted ammunition stocks, and $2 billion for two unspecified classified projects.

The move comes after the original special defense budget, passed in May at $24.67 billion, had its domestic drone and joint US-Taiwan development funding stripped out by the opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan. A separate KMT-backed six-year drone procurement bill was signed into law on September 10, ISW reported. Taiwanese media also disclosed on September 3 that Taiwan's 2027 budget documents reveal a new long-range cruise missile, the Ching Tien I, with a reported range of 1,500 kilometers and speeds up to Mach 3, already in serial production.

The supplementary bill, part of a larger $19.1 billion package that mostly funds the state oil company CPC Corporation, now goes to the Legislative Yuan for review, where the same opposition coalition that gutted the May budget will get another vote. The outcome will test how seriously Taiwan's own political system is treating the pressure documented by its defense ministry.