• China missiles filled with water, not fuel: US intelligence
  • Xi seeking to root out corruption, prepare military for combat

US intelligence indicates that President Xi Jinping’s sweeping military purge came after it emerged that widespread corruption undermined his efforts to modernize the armed forces and raised questions about China’s ability to fight a war, according to people familiar with the assessments.

The corruption inside China’s Rocket Force and throughout the nation’s defense industrial base is so extensive that US officials now believe Xi is less likely to contemplate major military action in the coming years than would otherwise have been the case, according to the people, who asked not to be named discussing intelligence.

  • falcunculus@jlai.lu
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    10 months ago

    War isn’t inevitable. Back in the cold war it was averted multiple times, and the USSR had a much more closed economy than China’s. China going to war with NATO would lose them all their largest trading partners.

    • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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      10 months ago

      No one builds a trillion dollar navy without intending to use it, but sure.

      It might not happen.

      In a world that solves its energy crisis and stops climate change.

      • Risk@feddit.uk
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        10 months ago

        Surely they intend to use it the same way the US does - projecting force to cement soft power?