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Earlier this month, Bloomberg carried an article which included claims about corruption in the PRC’s Rocket Force .
Those claims have gotten plenty of attention – so today, I want to look into corruption and anti-corruption campaigns in the PRC, some of the claims from the article, how we might interpret them, and what all this might mean for the PLA and the region
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Relevant Reading/sourcing
The Bloomberg article:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-06/us-intelligence-shows-flawed-china-missiles-led-xi-jinping-to-purge-military?leadSource=uverify%20wall
Nuclear Notebook – PRC
https://thebulletin.org/premium/2023-03/nuclear-notebook-chinese-nuclear-weapons-2023/
Military and Security Developments involving the PRC – 2022
https://media.defense.gov/2022/Nov/29/2003122279/-1/-1/1/2022-MILITARY-AND-SECURITY-DEVELOPMENTS-INVOLVING-THE-PEOPLES-REPUBLIC-OF-CHINA.PDF
2020 version
https://media.defense.gov/2020/Sep/01/2002488689/-1/-1/1/2020-DOD-CHINA-MILITARY-POWER-REPORT-FINAL.PDF
Yang, Milanovic, Yaoqi Lin – Anti-corruption campaign in China: An empirical investigation
https://wid.world/document/anti-corruption-campaign-in-china-an-empirical-investigation-world-inequality-lab-working-paper-2023-05/
China’s national defence in the New Era
https://english.www.gov.cn/archive/whitepaper/201907/24/content_WS5d3941ddc6d08408f502283d.html
Reporting on the Rocket force removals:
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/sweeping-chinese-military-purge-exposes-weakness-could-widen-2023-12-30/
Deng & Wei – Measuring Corruption in China
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/study-examines-off-the-book-incomes-of-chinese-officials-by-yongheng-deng-and-shang-jin-wei-2023-09
Chinese media on Xu Caihou and surrounding cases
https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/868162.shtml
https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/868273.shtml
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-politics-corruption-idUSKCN0J412Q20141120/
https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/889506.shtml
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/05/china/china-xi-military-purge-analysis-intl-hnk/index.html
The party-military relationship
https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/875606.shtml
Reporting on anti-corruption in China
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-defence-ministry-we-will-crack-down-every-corrupt-official-2023-08-31/
Peng Wang – Military corruption in China: The role of Guanxi in the buying and selling of military positions
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26291585
Featured article on Russian corruption
https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-anti-corruption-minister-thanks-russian-military-for-being-corrupt-2022-3
China deploying to Gulf of Aden
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202309/1298098.shtml
Chinese military raises pay
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2137008/china-raises-pay-pensions-trimmed-down-military
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/why-does-china-pay-its-military-generals-so-little-197554
RAND – US China military scorecard
https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR392.html
Naval exercises
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/japan-led-navy-exercise-starts-with-philippines-observing-first-time-2023-11-11/
FAS – Chinese silo construction
https://fas.org/publication/china-is-building-a-second-nuclear-missile-silo-field/
Caveats & Comments:
All normal caveats and comments apply.
In particular – I would like to note as always that this material has been created for entertainment purposes and is not intended to be a complete or comprehensive examination of the topic in question and should not be relied upon to inform financial or other similar decisions.
All contentions of fact presented in this presentation should be assumed to be subject to be qualified by the words “reportedly” “allegedly” or both depending on context. In some cases, these words have been omitted from the audio for reasons including a need to keep the presentation understandable and suitable for its primary purpose – entertainment.
Timestamps:
00:00:00 — Opening Words
00:00:46 — What Am I Talking About?
00:03:10 — PRC Military Modernisation
00:04:01 — Corruption And Purges
00:20:15 — The Bloomberg Claims
00:30:54 — The Silo Thing – And Implications
00:44:42 — Solid Fuel Issues?
00:48:25 — Readiness
00:56:21 — Regional Developments And Strategy
00:59:38 — Conclusion
01:01:12 — Channel Update
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