[mojito]

Interesting but long article on the PLA.

For China watchers and East Asian security buffs.

[lurk]

Corruption and everyday life in China are the same thing.

Read the book Out of Mao’s Shadow by Pan. Top to bottom, the system operates by bribery and greasing the skids under the table. Sort of like Washington.

[hinckley buzzard]

This should not be surprising. The Chinese military has not engaged an enemy since the Vietnamese bloodied their nose in the late seventies. They have no officer corps with combat experience. Dittoes NCO's, the guts of any military. Their weapons have not been proven under combat conditions, and the years of peace have rendered their careerists corrupt.

Like North Korea, a formidable force--on paper.

By contrast look at the US military--fatigued perhaps from years of continuous hostilities but with an officer corps and cadre of NCO's who know what combat is all about. A wealth of experience using the latest weapons available, their strengths and weaknesses. In a hot war the US would have major advantages over either of these preposterous foes.

But like the paper dragons, our major weakness is political malfeasance from the top down, and that cannot be fixed by the men in uniform.

[Clintonfatigued]

Ping

[Nat Turner]

And how do you think the civilian commies with “cure” the PLA??? Stalin tried purges but it was the short sighted attack by Hitler and the Wehrmacht that saved the Red Army. Look for these boys to get “into some trouble”