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Is China Weak Or Just Pretending? Do the mysterious removals of cabinet ministers and generals signal weakness? Paranoia? Or something else?
The Federalist ^ | 01/12/2024 | Chuck Devore

Posted on 01/12/2024 9:24:46 AM PST by SeekAndFind

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1 posted on 01/12/2024 9:24:46 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Does the writer mention the fact that the government of China, like that of most nations, is not a monolith but instead is divided into two general factions: the deep state; and the patriots.


2 posted on 01/12/2024 9:27:43 AM PST by reasonisfaith (What are the personal implications if the Resurrection of Christ is a true event in history?)
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To: SeekAndFind

Xi is surrounding himself with yes men, just like Kim..........................................


3 posted on 01/12/2024 9:29:10 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: SeekAndFind

China is probably gearing up to invade Taiwan and is purging their government of anyone who may be critical of the invasion.


4 posted on 01/12/2024 9:29:45 AM PST by Mr. N. Wolfe
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To: SeekAndFind
I'm inclined to believe that Xi Jinping has taken a lesson from Putin on how graft and corruption can infiltrate your military and upper level leadership.

Based on the disaster that Russia had with corruption in it's military and the negative impact it had on the invasion of Ukraine, Xi is doing his own little preemptive audit to get an accurate take on his military preparedness..

Better to find out now and fix the problems that to than to be surprised by them a year or so down the road when China invades Taiwan.

Thanks Jo Jo for giving our two greatest near peer adversaries a heads up on areas where their military is corrupt, incompetent, unprepared and deficient before they try to take us on.

We want them to be as near of near peers adversaries as possible before we engage them in combat operations. /Sarc

You just can't make this stuff up

5 posted on 01/12/2024 9:35:55 AM PST by rdcbn1
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To: SeekAndFind

Have none of these numbnuts read Sun Tzu?


6 posted on 01/12/2024 9:39:40 AM PST by Noumenon (You're not voting your way out of this. KTF)
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To: SeekAndFind

If one must look for a comparison, China is much like the former Soviet Union. So you can say, China is both strong, and quite weak, at the same time.

Xi Jinping is considered more of a traditional maoist/chinese leftist - so he will sacrifice economic growth, vitality, freedoms, for stability and especially - Party unity (under his leadership). He absolutely understands that instability and opposition will not come from outside the party, but from a split within it.

He won a struggle against the more open, consensual, free-wheeling (and corrupt) “Shanghai” wing of the party under the late Jiang Zemin and Hujintao and Xi will consolidate his gains.

So the Chinese Govt indeed can move quickly on many things and is very strong in some ways - development of energy security, building its military, copying/surpassing western technology in areas it focuses on, etc...

But its also weak. Marxism is destroying its demographics, politics do not allow for revision of failed policies, private business is suppressed, many people feel hopeless, etc...


7 posted on 01/12/2024 9:46:25 AM PST by PGR88
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To: Mr. N. Wolfe

Well Xi better do something about their inferior gear first. For example they found some of China’s liquid furled rockets full of water. The fuel is stolen. Solid fuel is also stolen for cooking. Jet fuel is also stolen.

Of every billion yuan spent on the military about 2/3 of it disappears.

Their humv clones’ armor plating is just mild steel. Wheels fall off of their tanks.

Then there’s China’s Navy with it’s joke carriers and ships that have to stay close to land.

Xi’s problems won’t be solved by purging everyone but yes men


8 posted on 01/12/2024 9:49:22 AM PST by Seruzawa ("The Political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence" - Marx the Smarter (Groucho))
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To: SeekAndFind

I think its very possible that Xi is getting rid of the CCP.


9 posted on 01/12/2024 9:55:00 AM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: SeekAndFind

I predict they are a prelude to “something else” as Xi works to insure more government loyalty TO HIM.


10 posted on 01/12/2024 9:58:13 AM PST by Wuli
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To: Georgia Girl 2
I think its very possible that Xi is getting rid of the CCP.

Based on... what?

11 posted on 01/12/2024 9:59:19 AM PST by Fury
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To: Fury

I don’t know maybe because he’s disappeared a boatload of them in the last year or two. 😆


12 posted on 01/12/2024 10:03:26 AM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: reasonisfaith

The government of China is a shell, it is a tool of and subservient to the Chinese Communist Party.

The “deep state” in China is various party apparatchiks allied into factions competing within the party structure. They control local parties and through them government offices to execute party decisions.

Chairman Xi is the Party General Secretary, Chairman of the Party’s Central Military Commission (who command the Party’s military (the PLA is a Party army, not a national military), and last and least, the ceremonial job of President of the PRC.

Nothing in this structure remotely resembles anything in the West. “Patriotism” in the People’s Republic is allegiance to the dominant Party faction. Anything else is a threat that the Party must neutralize. No where in this discussion are the best interests of China and the people of China. These are irrelevant to the Party.


13 posted on 01/12/2024 10:04:13 AM PST by drop 50 and fire for effect ("Work relentlessly, accomplish much, remain in the background, and be more than you seem.")
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To: SeekAndFind

The USA had big problems in the 1930s, but eventually recovered.


14 posted on 01/12/2024 10:10:35 AM PST by Brian Griffin
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To: Noumenon

I came here to say that, too.

Deception, decades-long strategic planning, and a leadership and population that are quite convinced that they are the only legitimate superpower; reading China is never easy, underestimating your enemy is invariably fatal.


15 posted on 01/12/2024 10:14:31 AM PST by Republican in occupied CA (We had enough government in 1789)
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To: PGR88

A diplomatic saying older than this country: “Russia is never as strong as it appears, but never as weak as it appears”.


16 posted on 01/12/2024 10:16:31 AM PST by Republican in occupied CA (We had enough government in 1789)
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To: drop 50 and fire for effect

Yes, but also the population has a very high percentage of people who believe in the *idea* of China.

They may hate the Party, they might admire many things about the West, but they are absolutely NOT in doubt that we are the barbarians and they are the civilized ones- EVERY bit as much as any European in the 16th-19th century would consider the American Indian or African Tribesman an inferior.


17 posted on 01/12/2024 10:20:42 AM PST by Republican in occupied CA (We had enough government in 1789)
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To: rdcbn1
"If you can cheat, then cheat" has been the primary guiding axiom of the Chinese since long before there was a Russia.

China Observer

Fake toxic food and decoy military. China has already collapsed, interests in the West are still holding up their mask for them.

Xi has no more power than Biden or any other passenger does to stop the Titanic from sinking. Rearranging the deck chairs keeps you busy and looks good for the pictures in the history books.

18 posted on 01/12/2024 10:22:36 AM PST by gnarledmaw (Hivemind liberals worship leaders, sovereign conservatives select servants.)
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To: rdcbn1

He might reduce corruption in the military. But after he’s done returning China to the Mao Era he will have utterly crap military gear. He could and probably will institute a reign of terror with secret police everywhere. This will result in a even worse level of military gear than he has now. And more demoralized troops. He will then have a crashed economy and no way to mount an invasion. Chances are good he’ll face a revolution if her tries.


19 posted on 01/12/2024 10:49:47 AM PST by Seruzawa ("The Political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence" - Marx the Smarter (Groucho))
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To: reasonisfaith

Actually it is divided into 7 families - Xi Jinping represents one family.


20 posted on 01/12/2024 11:22:47 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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