Probably forced retirement. Or assumed room temperature. Either/or.
Posted on 01/09/2024 2:42:48 AM PST by Libloather
China's recent 'purge' of several top Army officials came after an embarrassing mishap where they'd mistakenly filled missiles with water instead of fuel, according to United States intelligence.
The news comes days after a startling New Year's message from ruler Xi Jingping, who warned that 'all Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait' will be 'reunified.'
The communist country's top lawmakers ousted nine senior military officers from the national legislative body on Friday, state media reported, a step that typically precedes further punishment.
Many of those removed were from the Rocket Force - a key arm of the Chinese army overseeing tactical and nuclear missiles.
Now, American intelligence claims military corruption led to the mistakes, which also included fields of silos in Western China fitted with lids that stopped the missiles from launching.
The purges are a setback for Xi who has pumped billions into buying and developing equipment as part of his modernizing efforts to build a 'world-class' military by 2050.
In accordance with those plans, Beijing's outsized defense budget has grown at a faster pace than the economy for some years.
The recent downfall of generals and military equipment suppliers, however, has punctured some of this aura, and raised questions over whether there has been adequate oversight over the massive military investments as China vies with the United States.
Since Xi took power in 2012, he has embarked on a wide-ranging anti-corruption crackdown among Communist Party and government officials, with the army being one of its main targets.
The nine generals removed from the legislature hailed from several military divisions; three were former commanders or vice commanders of the Rocket Force; one a former Air Force chief and one a Navy commander responsible for the South China Sea. Four officers were responsible for equipment.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Probably forced retirement. Or assumed room temperature. Either/or.
Admiral We B fool in charge
Happy organ donation day.
Check next space launch. Admirals make good ballast on rocket
Rumor has it Emperor Xi has a niece who needs a kidney
So US unintelligence let the Cat out of the bag so China could correct these issues? Or is the whole story BS? If not, I guess I know who SOD Austin has been calling during his downtime.
Maybe their theory of rocket propulsion comes from those small plastic toys that we had as kids—fill them up with water, pump up with air, and launch...
So, their missiles will just hit the target and roll into the gutter?
Mistakenly my ass, someone sold the fuel.
I’ll give the ChiComs credit for one thing. When something goes bad, someone must pay. It might not be the right guy. But someone must pay.
Contrast that with our debacle in Afghanistan. We abandoned huge amounts of material. And we abandoned those Afghanis who allied with us. No matter. It’s business as usual. Our folks at the top suffered not. They kept their prestige and their pensions.
And yes, General Milley. I’m looking right at you.
The US should have kept their mouth shut.
Military corruption? The entire country runs on corruption. Why is that a surprise?
themainewire.com
Steve Robinson
Jan 8, 20254
At Rural Maine Marijuana Grow, Cops Find Asian Passports,
Plane Tickets from China, and Stolen Electricity
Versant Power Company says the illegal aliens running
the Machias marijuana grow were stealing electricity.
When the Machias Police executed a search warrant at 414 East Kennebec Road in December, they suspected they find an illegal marijuana cultivation site operated by out-of-state criminals. But the scale — and sophistication — of the operation they uncovered left them gobsmacked. “We found three Asian males in the barn that were actively tending the grow. Three buildings and the main house… all contained pretty substantial grows inside,” said Machias Police Chief Keith Mercier.
link-—[RELATED: How Chinese Marijuana Grows Took Over Rural Maine…]
The Machias police confiscated 2,607 live marijuana plants that were being grown across nine different rooms on the property, including in two large barns. “We did ID all three. Two had Malaysian passports and the third had a New York Driver’s License,” said Mercier, adding that the third man also had a passport from the People’s Republic of China.
The property — once a beautiful salt water farm with views of the East Branch of Little Kennebec Bay — sits on 37.9 acres and is valued, according to RedFin, at nearly $600,000. It has been abandoned by its current owners following the arrests of Ming Li, 52, Dong Yang Li, 60, and Peng You Phang, 61. Cops also found the wallet of an Asian woman not present at the time of the arrest, along with a plane ticket showing a recent arrival from Beijing.
link-—[RELATED: Maine Law Enforcement Raids Machias Marijuana Grow, Arrests Three Suspected Non-Citizens…]
Li, Li, and Phang were all charged with felonies related to illegally growing a trafficking marijuana. When an inspector from Versant Power, the electrical utility serving Machias, got a look at the house’s circuit breaker box, he was surprised to see that the grow operators had installed gerryrigged wires that allowed them to circumvent the power meter.
This illegally circumvented power meter would have allowed the marijuana cultivators to steal an untold amount of electricity without the power company’s knowledge.
In other words, illegal pot growers were stealing electricity.
link-—[RELATED: One NYC Bank Financed More Than 50 Illicit Chinese Marijuana Grow Houses in Rural Maine…]
The Machias PD said Versant’s best guess as to how much power they might have stolen was “tens of thousands of dollars.” Electricians the Maine Wire spoke with said the circumvention technique would have required an electrician or electrical engineer with a high level of expertise. Discarded growing substrates ring the property and adjacent forest like layers of the fossil record — evidence of at least two years of steady, large-scale marijuana cultivation.
The men are unlikely to ever receive any punishment for flouting Maine’s cannabis laws. According to the Machias PD, two of the men had their bail set at $500. The third has his bail set at $1,000, but only because he had a prior charge for trafficking heroin in New Jersey, a charge for which he served federal prison time, according to the Machias PD.
Just days after the bust, a woman from New York arrived, paid the bail in cash, and the men were free. Although they have a court date this month, the cops aren’t expecting them to return to Washington County to face a judge.
In 2021, a Mass.-based company, HBA Properties, purchased the property where the illegal marijuana grow was operating. The officers of that company are listed as Fanny Sun, Qiao Yi Wu, Sinh Phat Voong, and Zhan Su.
Building a marijuana grow of that size and sophistication required no small investment of capital. The heat pumps festooning the property are worth nearly $20,000, while the lights, water pumps, power tools, and other accessories are likely worth more. But all of it has been abandoned at the property, along with an Acura MDX registered to Kenny Chen, who listed the property as his address on the vehicle registration. Chen has not been located.
link-—[RELATED: Two Weeks After $1M Western Maine Marijuana Raid, Wilton Still Abuzz With Illicit Drug Activity…]
Attempts to contacting the officers of HBA Properties were unsuccessful.“You can look at the environmental issues, the impact on the grid from the electrical usage, the impact on legal business owners,” said Mercier. “These folks weren’t permitted, they weren’t licensed, and they were running a very substandard operation compared to what the legal folks have to do,” he said. The property in Machias is one of a handful of illegal marijuana sites that have been raided by law enforcement in recent weeks.
Last month, cops in China, Maine busted a similar operation at a residential home following a tip that someone was being held at the property against their will.
link——[RELATED: Illegal Marijuana Grow in China, Maine Busted, 970 Plants Seized, Three Arrested…]
A few days later, Maine State Police executed search warrants on two properties in Belgrade, seizing roughly 2,300 live plants. All of the properties are among the more than 270 sites that the Department of Homeland Security says are controlled by Asian Transnational Criminal Organizations.
Well if we did how would Joes buddy fix the problem?
More detail here:
Water-Filled Missiles, Silo Problems Behind China Purge: Report
New reported details about Chinese corruption allegations raise questions about the country’s military readiness and modernization efforts.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/water-filled-missiles-silo-problems-behind-china-purge-report
What our gruberment talks of is what they do themselves.
The term escapes me, but the degradation of our military does not.
That’s exactly what the title was indicating. OUR SIDE let China know...”Hey Beijing, you have a problem with the missiles you want to use to destroy the USA” I am also guessing Austin made that telephone call.
They're already renaming our country to their Mother Land.
Also...LOL...
"The men are unlikely to ever receive any punishment for flouting Maine’s cannabis laws."
“The Asian men are unlikely to ever receive any punishment for flouting Maine’s cannabis laws.”
I thought this at first too but I think it's just a poorly written headline. China announced the firing of the Generals. Our Intel simply found out the reason. I really don't think we would have brought this to their attention.
I suppose with current admin incompetency, it's quite possible though.......
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