The purges have resulted in the PLA being stripped of experienced military commanders, raising serious doubts over the armed forces readiness to go to war, including against Taiwan, an independent territory claimed entirely by Beijing as its own. “In the near term, given the significant vacancies, it would be incredibly difficult for China to launch large military campaigns against Taiwan,” CSIS China Power Project director Bonny Lin, who was part of the team compiling the data, wrote in his assessment of the study results.