Many news outlets reported on a major purge of senior officer's in China's rocket forces. The official accusation was "corruption," but many observers think Xi and his close associates use this as a blanket excuse to get rid of people they distrust.
Now Bloomberg is reporting, based on unidentified US intelligence sources, that there really was serious corruption in China's rocket forces, and that it has had major impacts on readiness:
The US assessments cited several examples of the impact of graft, including missiles filled with water instead of fuel and vast fields of missile silos in western China with lids that don’t function.
What to make of this? Is this:
- True?
- Xi's excuse to purge his enemies?
- US propaganda, possibly aimed at further increasing tensions within China's military?
- Something else?
Beats me. But I have been wondering for some time about the alleged capabilities of China's rocket forces. Like, the DF-17, supposed to be a "medium-range ballistic missile with a hypersonic glide vehicle that has a range of 1,600 kilometers." Dozens of these have appeared in recent Chinese military parades.
Really? It took the US billions of dollars and several failed tests before we recently had a single successful test of a hypersonic glide vehicle, and the Chinese have already deployed such a weapon at large scale?
I am skeptical. It is certainly possible that the US is way behind here, which is what the Navy says when they ask for more funding, But it strikes me as equally possible that the Chinese missiles are all show. Could it be that Xi has been leaning on his rocket forces very hard to deliver weapons capable to destroying the US Pacific fleet, and they have responded by deploying weapons that don't work? That would certainly fit with the big shake-up and all the accusations of corruption.
But I'm not going to believe either the official Chinese media or unnamed US intelligence sources about what is really going on.
1 comment:
"Xi's track record is utterly damning - literally as soon as he came into power, he began ruthlessly purging potential opponents under the guise of "corruption". He removed hundreds of top level officials, both in the government and in the military - and he filled the vacancies created with his own loyal supporters."
The same can be said of Trump. He started doing this at the end of his last term, and will, if reelected, continue doing so.
When I first heard the military complain about China's hypersonic missile success, I thought they were looking for increased funding. I suspect we are far more competitive in this area than we are admitting. This keeps the funding coming.
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