China’s Corruption Scandals Cast Doubt on Military Ambitions – US Intelligence References

Large-scale repression among military commanders began in China following the revelations of numerous corruption scandals that cast doubt on Beijing’s invasive ambitions for Taiwan. “Bloomberg” writes about this, referring to US intelligence data.

“President Xi Jinping’s sweeping military purge came as widespread corruption appeared to undermine his efforts to modernize the armed forces and questions China’s ability to wage war“, the publication wrote, citing informed sources.

Corruption has been particularly prevalent in China’s missile forces and the corresponding segment of the military-industrial complex. Things are so bad there that the U.S. already has much less confidence in China’s large-scale military activity in the coming years, according to people familiar with the matter.

At the same time, Bloomberg cited several obvious manifestations of corruption in the Chinese military, allegedly known to US intelligence. In particular, it is alleged that in some cases corrupt officials are poured ordinary water instead of fuel into the rockets.

It also mentioned “huge fields of missile silos” in western China where the protective covers were not functioning properly, making it impossible to “ensure effective launch” of the missiles.

“The United States believes that corruption in China’s People’s Liberation Army led to weakening confidence in its overall capacityespecially when it comes to missile forces, and has also hindered some of Xi Jinping’s top priorities for modernization,” writes Bloomberg.

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The publication notes that it has not been able to get an official comment from either the US authorities or Beijing. But in recent months, evidence of the corruption purge itself has emerged.

For example, it is known that on December 29, the highest legislative body of China dismissed nine senior military officialsfive of them related to the missile forces and at least two from the Ministry of Equipment Development, which is responsible for arming the army.

In addition, a few days ago, China’s top political advisory body publicly fired three heads of state-run missile manufacturers.

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This series of purges follows the ouster in October of China’s former defense minister, Li Shanfu, who had been in office for just seven months.

It is noted that this is only what is known from the public space, since the Chinese military does not reveal the facts of investigations against corrupt officials.

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2024-01-07 21:44:50
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