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Is the Chinese military a Potemkin village?
American Thinker ^ | 06/20/2024 | Andrea Widburg

Posted on 06/20/2024 10:20:14 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

I want to direct your attention to a Joe Cunningham essay in which he posits that the Chinese military is in trouble. He’s almost certainly right. The problem with communism is that it reduces societies to the lowest common denominator of any behavior and, as people scrabble for advancement in a controlled system, it invites corruption.

Writing at Red State, Cunningham points out purges and problems regarding China’s military:

The Chinese President is calling for “deep reflection” among his military forces as he renews his focus on corruption, which has plagued China in recent months. His call comes after what the Wall Street Journal describes as a “purge that has brought down more than a dozen senior generals and defense-industry executives.”

Recently, Xi was embarrassed to find that missiles were filled with water rather than fuel, with officials pocketing the money meant to make the missiles fly.

Just today, the Wall Street Journal was back with more news about China’s military problems. The story is behind the Journal’s paywall, but the first paragraph tells you a lot:

Chinese leader Xi Jinping ordered a redoubled campaign to eradicate graft and enforce loyalty in the military, suggesting no end to a purge in the country’s defense establishment that has raised questions about Beijing’s ability to wage war.

In his speech to top military officials, Xi pointed to problems with discipline, ethics, ideology, and moral character, all of which are permeating the military.

I agree with Cunningham that Xi’s concerns reflect a real issue rather than being a communist chief’s periodic reminder to the military about who’s in charge and the fate that can befall those who run afoul of him. No doubt they all know that, in 2016, Kim Jong-un executed two of his senior officials using anti-aircraft guns.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: China; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: china; inbredneocons; military; neoconpyschos
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To: DesertRhino

Since the Chinese are racists if they win a war it does not count.

;-)


21 posted on 06/20/2024 11:09:34 AM PDT by cgbg ("Our democracy" = Their Kleptocracy)
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To: God luvs America

Wishful thinking.


22 posted on 06/20/2024 11:10:40 AM PDT by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2024... RETURN OF THE JEDI. )
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To: DesertRhino

1979. They went in to ‘teach Viet Nam a lesson’ and promptly got their butts kicked. In all fairness Viet Nam had been fighting for 20 years. Not the case now but what’s a million Chinese?


23 posted on 06/20/2024 11:18:14 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
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To: SeekAndFind

The “one child” policy that was in place for a generation will kill China demographically. They are already old and sick. Now there is a dearth of men who will NEVER find a partner.

China will face a demographic “dip” as a country usually only sees as a result of a large scale war.


24 posted on 06/20/2024 11:21:20 AM PDT by Vermont Lt (Don’t vote for anyone over 70 years old. Get rid of the geriatric politicians.)
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To: POGO163

No to mention they could hit that very large dam.


25 posted on 06/20/2024 11:23:12 AM PDT by Vermont Lt (Don’t vote for anyone over 70 years old. Get rid of the geriatric politicians.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Look how “professional” the Chicoms are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-yJiJQpYrc

They attacked Philippines supply boats with axes, machetes, pikes. A Filipino got his thumb cut off.

This happened the other day, I think the 16th.


26 posted on 06/20/2024 11:23:43 AM PDT by ifinnegan (MDemocrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: SeekAndFind
Jian Yang has an uncle who is a general in the PLA and he's a VERY CORRUPT.
27 posted on 06/20/2024 11:24:45 AM PDT by PJ-Comix (Yes, I am the Toxic Troll Terminator)
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To: SeekAndFind; All
Every military disaster in history starts with overconfidence, and underestimating the enemy.

Look at this graph of global share of steel production, compare to USA and Japan during WW2, and tell me the USA doesn't look like the Japs in 1941.


28 posted on 06/20/2024 11:26:16 AM PDT by Reverend Wright ( Everything touched by progressives, dies !)
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To: SeekAndFind

China is far ahead of Russia now, they don’t even belong in the same sentence. This is not the China that was slapped down by the Vietcong a couple decades back. China has built a massive navy and has ports around the world. It is training an invasion force for Taiwan. Underestimate at your peril.


29 posted on 06/20/2024 11:31:24 AM PDT by KingofZion
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To: POGO163

Really, Egypt is our ally so is Saudi Arabia supposedly, right now the Red Sea and Suez Canal are blocked by a bunch of goat herders wearing flip flops armed with missiles from Iran and our Navy can’t stop them or at least has not done so up until now.

When was the last time the US Navy was involved in any type of Naval Warfare when the enemy could shoot back with the capability to sink ships.

At the actual fighting level in the Army and Marines, perhaps at the Captain level and below how many soldiers does the US military have right now that have seen real combat, the war on terror is over, most everyone who served in Iraq and Afghanistan is gone.

No one is saying China will destroy Taiwan without suffering any loses, I’m just saying, assuming their military is a paper tiger is a very dangerous assumption.


30 posted on 06/20/2024 11:31:50 AM PDT by srmanuel
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To: POGO163; srmanuel

srmanuel posts pro-Chicom narrative things all the time but won’t discuss.

Brick wall. Just fyi.


31 posted on 06/20/2024 11:36:05 AM PDT by ifinnegan (MDemocrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: ifinnegan; POGO163

You can’t help but laugh at anyone who warns people I won’t discuss anything by discussing about me and why I don’t like the US being involved in everyone other countries issue and ignores our own.

The same person who never mentions that I would fight China in any number of other ways, perhaps stopping the fentanyl coming from China thru Mexico that is killing thousands of Americans, perhaps rounding up and deporting the thousands of military aged Chinese crossing our border and deporting them, perhaps, kicking out all Chinese exchange students in US colleges, perhaps delisting their companies on the NYSE and NASDAQ, all would be preferable to a kinetic war over Taiwan.

It’s a true democratic tactic to accuse others what you are doing yourself.


32 posted on 06/20/2024 11:58:24 AM PDT by srmanuel
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To: DIRTYSECRET; DesertRhino

RE: 1979. They went in to ‘teach Viet Nam a lesson’ and promptly got their butts kicked

It is dangerous to assume that the Chinese and Vietnamese military are the same today as they were nearly 2 generations ago.

Things have changed significantly since 1979.


33 posted on 06/20/2024 12:00:20 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Purges are not necessarily a bad thing for the Chinese military. They may indeed be getting rid of the incompetent deadwood. I’ve heard for a long time that Chinese officers can buy their commissions.


34 posted on 06/20/2024 12:03:01 PM PDT by rbg81
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To: srmanuel; POGO163

I am referring to your refusal to discuss this topic on yesterdays thread beginning with my post here.

https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4245242/posts?page=62#62

And your repeated non-response “ Keep going you only make yourself look small.”

My comment here was to pogo as an fyi.

I pinged you as courtesy.


35 posted on 06/20/2024 12:05:05 PM PDT by ifinnegan (MDemocrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: ifinnegan

As I said then, the truth was self-evident.


36 posted on 06/20/2024 12:13:40 PM PDT by srmanuel
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To: srmanuel

Yes it is.


37 posted on 06/20/2024 12:22:43 PM PDT by ifinnegan (MDemocrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: wildcard_redneck

[Dont confuse corruption and self-dealing with weakness. The British Empire conquered the world with officers that paid enormous sums for their commissions.]


Robert Clive of East India Company fame was the epitome of the breed.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Clive

Autocracies have always provided extensive room for self-enrichment. Germany’s WW2 commanders acquired a lot of wealth in the course of the war, not all of it licit. Unfortunately for them, defeat meant coughing up their often ill-gotten gains.


38 posted on 06/20/2024 12:44:52 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (My dad had a Delta 88. That was a car. It was like driving your living room)
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To: DIRTYSECRET

[1979. They went in to ‘teach Viet Nam a lesson’ and promptly got their butts kicked.]


That’s certainly the rhetoric. And for many years, I took it at face value. Then I looked at the campaign beyond the Cliff’s Notes version and discovered there was more than meets the eye. The PLA advanced into Vietnam, took the provincial capital of Lang Son, lost as many casualties as they inflicted.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Vietnamese_War

At Lang Son, they are said to have destroyed Vietnam’s Gold Star division, a seasoned regular (i.e. non-draftee) unit that saw action during the Vietnam War. In addition, they killed 100,000 Vietnamese civilians, if the Vietnamese government’s claims are to be believed.

https://www.historynet.com/war-of-the-dragons-the-sino-vietnamese-war-1979/

Then they shipped entire Soviet-built plants back to China at their leisure, without Vietnamese forces being able to interfere with their stately withdrawal, lest the incursion become a permanent occupation or even an outright annexation of the territory overrun.

* The Gold Star Division had run-ins with US forces in South Vietnam and had to be rebuilt from scratch, despite exaggerated Vietnamese claims of battlefield victories in the 60s, doubling or tripling the reported number of KIA inflicted on GIs in their area of operations as compared to the true numbers.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/3rd_Division_(Vietnam)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Masher


39 posted on 06/20/2024 1:32:39 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (My dad had a Delta 88. That was a car. It was like driving your living room)
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To: Zhang Fei

I would be happy to believe you. So why is this not our?


40 posted on 06/20/2024 6:42:10 PM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
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