Chinese Military Corruption & Readiness - The Rocket Force, Purges & PLA Readiness
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 มิ.ย. 2024
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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
Patreon:
/ perunau
Relevant Reading/sourcing
The Bloomberg article:
www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...
Nuclear Notebook - PRC
thebulletin.org/premium/2023-...
Military and Security Developments involving the PRC - 2022
media.defense.gov/2022/Nov/29...
2020 version
media.defense.gov/2020/Sep/01...
Yang, Milanovic, Yaoqi Lin - Anti-corruption campaign in China: An empirical investigation
wid.world/document/anti-corru...
China’s national defence in the New Era
english.www.gov.cn/archive/wh...
Reporting on the Rocket force removals:
www.reuters.com/world/china/s...
www.scmp.com/news/china/polit...
www.reuters.com/world/china/c...
Deng & Wei - Measuring Corruption in China
www.project-syndicate.org/com...
Chinese media on Xu Caihou and surrounding cases
www.globaltimes.cn/content/86...
www.globaltimes.cn/content/86...
www.reuters.com/article/us-ch...
www.globaltimes.cn/content/88...
edition.cnn.com/2024/01/05/ch...
The party-military relationship
www.globaltimes.cn/content/87...
Reporting on anti-corruption in China
www.reuters.com/world/china/c...
www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...
www.businessinsider.com/china...
Peng Wang - Military corruption in China: The role of Guanxi in the buying and selling of military positions
www.jstor.org/stable/26291585
Featured article on Russian corruption
www.businessinsider.com/ukrai...
China deploying to Gulf of Aden
www.globaltimes.cn/page/20230...
Chinese military raises pay
www.scmp.com/news/china/diplo...
nationalinterest.org/blog/reb...
RAND - US China military scorecard
www.rand.org/pubs/research_re...
Naval exercises
www.reuters.com/world/asia-pa...
FAS - Chinese silo construction
fas.org/publication/china-is-...
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
Sponsored by Private Internet Access, Use the following link to access their promotional offer: www.piavpn.com/Perun
When interpreting intelligence reports - it pays to be cautious. When interpreting second hand fragments of intelligence that make it into the press, it pays to be especially so.
Personal view - annonymous source + odd or extreme claim + tension with other evidence and assessments = extreme scepticism about some of these specific headlines.
One day, I want to have a detailed look at the capabilities of the modern PLA (as best as we can assess them from afar) but with the recent claims of water filled missiles, broken silos and continued turnover in senior Chinese military leaders, I thought it might be worth stopping for a week and going through some of the recent claims, how we might interpret them, and what the impact of corruption might be on China's overall military modernisation efforts.
If there is one other thing I'll say, it's that when I use the term 'possible' - that does not mean likely. I can't disprove the claims, and they're not physically impossible - but that very much doesn't mean I'd give the specific claims we go over here (like the water in the missile thing) good odds of actually being a real, substantial phenomenon in the way described.
I highly agree. I would doubt some parts of the reports made by various media sources. As a Filipino who has been following analyses and intelligence concerning the Chinese, I do not find it easy to trust various sources without at least verifying it with more sources. On the other hand, I find it important to keep in mind that the information coming out of China may not always be so clear. Even until now, intelligence gathering in China seems to be difficult and made so by Chinese counter-intelligence.
The mountain is high, and the Emperor is far away. Has not changed in centuries. Fortuitously for us in Oz. Thanks be to Dan. Not.
Your advertising is too good. I‘ve been distracted into googling emu attacks for 20 minutes…😂
🥰😍🤩😘
I can remember back in the 1970s when the USA was studying the MX missile, Johnny Carson made a joke about this on one of his monologues
.Something like,,,,,You know how to make one of those MX missiles disappear? Put it on an AMTRAK train and no one will know where it is.
Due to mistranslation, Chinese media has reported that Emutopians are cracking down on sex with spiders, with officers having to regularly remind troops _that they are not there to have sex with arachnids._
💀
😂 God dammit
They have also started research into the effectiveness of air-dropped drider squadrons, hoping that copious amounts of spidussy would cause the Australians to be content enough to ignore China’s actions in the Pacific.
Arachnids in question: Rachnera Arachnera
In other news recent leaks confirmed that the Chinese re-tasked 274 nuclear warheads with the intention of completely annihilating Australia due to concerns of arachnids of unusual proportions.
As a Chinese scientist I'd like to add one point, the worst corruption is in the form of miss-allocation of resources. Like someone in the high rank decided to carry on a already failed project so that they don't have to call it a failure and keep being funded. Which use all the resources they have including our lab, leaving me utilizing my Monday watching Perun video on 'a cannot legally accessed website'.
This is an insightful comment. Thank you.
The corruption is doubtless concerning, but on the other hand, at least you had time to watch this video. 😉
That's not so much corruption as incompetence. In the US we have plenty of military industrial projects that mainly exist to funnel money to states represented by important lawmakers.
In US you won't find any of your colleagues complaining because they are all in on the grift.
@@djinn666SLS comes to mind. Alabama’s senators and reps partially forced NASA to use the shuttle SRB technology because they didn’t want aerospace jobs in their districts to disappear.
That's not a China problem. That's universal. Same with spending all of your budget on bullshit so it isn't cut next year.
As I was informed by the channel Sandboxx filling something with water can be a chinese euphemism for corruption. So a missile filled with water might not be literally filled with water but simply rendered useless due to corruption.
I'm thinking it's literally them filling the fuel tanks with water, as there are explicit references by former rocket force soldiers who recounted using it to cook their food with.
This might be an explanation. Get this upvoted guys.
@@terryfaugno9242missiles have solid fuel these days. Only very early missiles (V-2 and derivatives + Soyuz) had liquid propellants. LOX is really annoying…
Not to forget LOX oxidises you as well.@@peterfireflylund
@terryfaugno9242 they probably meant that the rocket fuel was being used as fuel for a stove/cooker
Is it just me or does “convicting 5 US congressmen for corruption every year and one state governor every second year” not actually sound that unreasonable?
If China is playing the long game, and are actually starting to hire for competency and not familial ties/money…. the west might have a problem. Won’t be this decade, but they might truly excel and be more than a minor plastic threat in time.
If I recall correctly, being elected Governor of the State of Illinois has a stronger correlation with going to prison than being prosecuted for Murder in the United State.
That line got me too... for a couple years, that'd be fantastic.
That would be great, but instead of doing that, the government just legalized bribery so long as you call it “lobbying”. Now there’s nothing shady or illegal going on!
If we had any functional oversight of the national legislature, I'm betting that number would be much, much higher. Possibly an entire order of magnitude higher.
"An India-China nuclear war isn't on anyone's 2024 bingo card"
this timeline has been going full throttle with no brakes since 2020, don't tempt fate
India will not be Ukranie. Good luck to uncle Sam finding Ukranie in Asia.
The point is that nuclear wars are highly unlikely between countries that are not the top dog, as such exchanges would barely budge the current world order while annihilating the parties involved. Whether that perception is accurate… maybe so?
@@randomguy7175Arguably Korea was already the Ukraine of East Asia, getting half grabbed by China but resulting in an extremely competent, motivated, and tough South Korea still holding the line. Likewise arguably Philippines, Vietnam, and yes India too, have already had territories taken by China… and have all shown remarkable spikes in pro-American sentiment whenever China does so.
Yup. Bingo cards are updateable. By either side individually.
TBF "Pakistan bombs Iran" probably wasn't on many peoples either.
The filled with water thing comes from the chinese term "Guan Shui" literally "Fill water " is a blanket slang term used to describe replacing any material with cheaper substandard material to increase your profit margin. Like garbage steel, or actually replacing fuel with water.
Interesting term. Possible that the rockets aren't filled with water, but the rocket fuel storage? Easier to take the money meant to buy the fuel than trying to sell the fuel once already bought. You have to put something in those stores for inspections so maybe water? If these fuels are as unstable as indicated they need to be replaced from time to time. If you simply don't replace you can pocket that replacement money each cycle.
Or potentially even just subatandard fuel, gasoline instead of RP-1 for example.
@@Achmedsander Its everything. doesnt have to be related to the rocket fuel. Can be siphoning off diesel for the base truck fleet, can be the steel used to for the missile parts, can be shoddy rebar in the concrete for the missile silo, can be cheaper fabric for the soldier's uniform. It is really hard to elaborate to you how endemic corruption is. PLA is also worse affected because its an insular institution with an hierarchy and no outside oversight.
Rocket fuel is highly corrosive so filling the tanks with water could be an attempt to reduce maintenance costs, allowing you to skim off that, while also skimming off the fuel budget.
So essentially the term 'watered down'.
As a concerned Emutopian, I believe we should immediately acquire more magpie 2s and accelerate development of the magpie 3!
You should hire me to build the Magpie 3. Me, Bruce, and Shiela have a killer shed out back for making rockets. I'll also give youa generous finder's bonus if you bring me and my mates on.
With a competing bid from Plover.
*quietly slips Emutopia's Defence Minister a fat cheque* I think you should consider the Canukistani Cobra Chicken's proven record...
Magpies?!? Pffhhh
You need Hoodie Craws!
The Magpies in Minnesota are in talks with Mooses. Such dreams.
I wish all TH-cam shows could be like this: (1) Assume you (the viewer) are adult and have critical intelligence (2) Present facts crisply without usual bad stock visuals (3) Admit unknowns & possible mistakes. (4) Well researched. You get the picture.
bad stock visuals and unnecessary music, especially of the loud obnoxious kind, really distract from content
Assumption #1 is dangerous. Please see “Dunning-Kruger Effect”, particularly read the original publication: a majority of people believe themselves smarter & more knowledgeable than they actually are.
Perun's videos have good captions as well!
He does puns, too!
@@phineascampbell3103P(er) uns
"Invalidate the intelligence" story regarding the silos reminded me of an old anecdote: a farmer owning watermelon field in a Kherson oblast was tired of locals stealing his melons, and placed signs "one of the watermelons is poisoned" around the field. One day he noticed the sign was updated by somebody and now reads "2 of the watermelons are poisoned".
Awesome quote
I heard this story originally in Japan.
That reminds me of being in a pub years ago here in the UK. Somebody went to the loo and to stop someone stealing his pint left a note on it that read "I have spat into this beer". The look on his face when he came back to find somebody had added "So have I" to the note!
@@Davey-Boyd I have a friend who used to keep an eye on his beer by putting his eye in it. Yup, glass eye.
In China we have a similar folktale about bicycle locks. A man was annoyed that his bicycle constantly get stolen and thus decided to attach two locks onto it so the thieves would target other bicycles that are easier to unlock. Next day, he found that there is a third lock...
Semi-relavant anecdote:
My Boss was working in Hong Kong Investment Banking with a bulge bracket about a decade ago and had insight into the hiring processes there. Of the junior positions they hired, fully half of them were so-called 'relationship' hires, which in China-speak meant sons/daughters of investment banking clients and/or prominent senior officials. Needless to say if nepotism and connections play such a large part in an ostensibly foreign financial institution (and its not like HK IBD only focused on Chinese business), it's not hard to imagine how much it will effect something as ideliably tied to the state as the PLA and associated MICs.
Another anecdote:
Im an indian who worked in an american banking sector for 5 years in new jersey. And in the west there is somthing called "diversity hires" so its concievable that group identity triumphs actual competence even in military and MIC so guys im 100% that my anecdote is true in every case because believe me.
It's the same in the west with the legacy admission process in Ivory leagues aka donations and recruiting from there
@@u2beuser7141. Diversity quotas if they exist can be checked
2. Quotas aren't meant to hire random people not suitable for the job, but to give an edge to specific people
3. Even if these quotas were somehow affecting US negatively or something, what's your point? The discussion is about China
4. The original comment judged corruption in China's MOD as highly likely based on their experience, not said that they are 100% correct and factual.
@@cauthrim4298Even having a so called "diversity" quota means that you are stabbing yourself in the kidney when you are hiring staff. If there were no qualified diverse people applying for the job before, any morons you hire after lowering standards will not do anything good for the company.
It's also possible that your experience was worse than that of an internal actor, since the latter know the market and you're treated as a foreign chumps?
Corruption isn't a bug, it's a feature of authoritarian systems. You pay your officals very little but you allow for plenty of opportunity for graft and enrichment. This has a couple of benefirs, the most loyal get to enrich themselves the most and if they should ever budge in their loyalty you get to dispose of them perfectly legally. You also ensure an ample supply of candidates for the position. The case of Alexey Dymowski provides a good example.
I dont think this is inherent to authoritarian systems singapore is an authoritarian country it has no independent media nor does it have independent judiciary yet its the least corrupt country. In contrast south africa is a liberal-democracy look at freedom house reports yet its almost becoming a failed state because of the corruption.
Edit: the report on corruption is from transparency international for anyone wondering
@@u2beuser714 a lack of an independent judiciary and media means that any disclosures of corruption come from the marketing office.
That you don't realize or see an issue with that reflects extremely poorly on your intelligence and critical reasoning skills.
Not unique to authoritarian systems at all. Monarchies would greatly disagree with you.
@@u2beuser714 Who would report on Singapore's corruption?
it comes from transparency international reports an NGO
I think that "filled with water" is Chinese slang for filled with low quality substitutes, where the difference in cost is grabbed by the command and manufacturers. I dont think any missiles are actually filled with water. *Alright nevermind he talked about that.
Even then, the sources are well...anonymous could be anyone
Nevertheless, liquid fueled rockets are typically not fueled years in advance. Perun explained why. There is a reason everybody moved to solid fueled rockets for their newer missiles.
@@danielch6662 It depends on the missile tbh. Smaller ones can be packaged up and have a shelf-life of years (mentioned in the John D Clark book "Ignition!" - read it if you can, it's very good). But yeah, ICBMs get fueled in the silo as there's infrastructure there, and if the fuel or oxidiser is cryogenic then it has to be filled up just before launch.
the "filled with water" euphemism is briefly explained at 29:25
the pig seller pump water into their pigs so that the pigs weigh more overall than their actual amount of meat, the extra weight come from the water pumped inside their stomach (this practice is the same with cattle & poultry)
this is a fraud practice in order to make a little more profit
I gotta say the guy getting arrested for having a metric ton of bribes is an absolute stud. Horrendously corrupt. But like insane numbers. This is Dragon Hoard levels of wealth and ill gotten gains. Bravo you crazy crook.
Life goals: Be as corrupt as Xu Caihou!
Metric...
TONS...
of...
CASH!
@@andrewsuryali8540 Some real sketchy calculations. Assuming the Yuan weighs as much as an American banknote (1 gram), it was in ¥100 denominations, and it was 1 metric ton exactly. It's ¥100,000,000. Or $13,898,154.00 given current exchange rates. So you only need to embezzle $14,000,000 to top that.
@@philiphockenbury6563 ..... Well, that's disappointing...
Senator Menendez was impressed!
@@specialnewb9821 bot
As an Australian ex-uniformed Southeast Asia Operational Intelligence Analyst at a Military Headquarters level, where China was the constant elephant in my 'room', I suggest Perun hugely undersells his own understanding of how the CCP and the Chinese military 'work' in relation to military capabilities and weaknesses.
Was your department responsible for tapping all those phones for mineral resources?
No, @@mrcontrarian1416.
That was a) civilian operatives, and
b) Economic Intelligence = not remotely related to Military Operations, so we didn't even know about it.
@@shanewall4470 Thats true but all of the conservative fart huffers in public office seem to be more than happy to bend the rules on behalf of the previous government for ideological grounds regardless of moral ethics so thought I would ask.
is it true autralia is heavuly infiltrated by the ccp..it seems in some areas australia kow tows to the ccp
If you were indeed a spook or a ghoul, then why do you not know that there's no such thing as the CCP?
"You're not gonna go to the moon on a solid fuel rocket"
The entire KSP community:
"WATCH ME."
"BEHOLD!"
@@sjonnieplayfull5859 "A delta V measured in Mm/s"
You can't go the Moon in KSP. However, you can go to the Mun.
@@seneca983 Real Solar System says otherwise.
@@Squeaky_Ben Is that a mod? If so, does it have realistic scale? IIRC, the normal KSP system is about 10x smaller than the real solar system.
Your local energetics guys here. I'm so glad you clarified the "water in the missiles" piece, when I heard that my skeptical eyebrows went to the moon.
Liquid propellants, both bi-propellant but especially mono-propellant are horrendous to work with. Corrosive, volatile, carcinogenic and generally angry. They need special care to store properly let alone use without big fireballs.
When I read the story I thought filling up a missile with water (or some other stable substance) was probably a good idea if they don't need high readiness. For example if they were stored in a depot with all their other explosive friends. You probably don't want to find out your missile leaks for the first time when it's dripping carcinogenic boom sauce.
Selling the propellant is kinda laughable too. "Hello prospective buyer. Would you like some liquid cancer that will almost certainly explode randomly and publicly leading back to me?"
instead of selling the propellant they could have cut a deal with the supplier. So there was never any propellant in the missiles. The General cuts a deal where he gets a kick back and the supplier never delivers the real propellant.
@@brucenorman8904 : Yes, exactly. The profit is in the undelivered margin, not the resale.
You, sir, win the phrase of week with "carcinogenic boom sauce". Bravo!
They were using chunks of solid propellant for the hot pots, so I imagined someone climbing into a rocket nozzle with a serrated knife . Not that perchlorates are particularly friendly.
One other theory I heard that seems pretty plausible to a non-scientist such as myself is that they were being filled with water to simulate the weight of fuel, without the actual volatility of fuel. Useful if, say, you're doing drills and don't want your launcher vehicles to sprint ahead of the rest of the vehicles because their payloads way nothing, but also don't want them to go up in a fireball because someone carelessly lit up a cigarette.
I am no rocket scientist. However, in another life I was an aircraft fuel system mechanic. In that, I learned a bit about vacuums and venturis. Given the volatility of liquid rocket fuel, it may be safer (likely) and quicker to fuel the rocket by drawing in fuel by pumping out water. Adding a liquid to an enclosed cylinder requires it either be vented or have a vacuum applied to the cylinder. Venting creates a danger by venting gas off the liquid that is volatile. By drawing in the liquid fuel by pumping out water, the need for a vent is removed. The only other reason to have a vent would be thermal expansion as the fuel warms. Therefore fueling just before launch and doing so rapidly would be key. Drawing in fuel by pumping out water would also aid in this. Fueling could be done far more rapidly and safer than purely venting.
I was thinking the exact same thing.
Rocket fuel tend to be cryogenic tho. Unless they are using hypergolic fuel... in which case the water is not gonna be of much help...
@@zao7035 Yes, it will likely turn the water in contact to ice. The evacuation of water will still create a vacuum. Any remaining water/ice will act as an oxidizer aiding in combustion
@@DHunter52171I see what you mean, but wouldn't the vacuum make the cryogenic fuel to start to boil at an even lower temperature? What would be the benefit over flushing the fuel system with an inert gas? And how would the remaining water act as oxidizer, wouldn't the ice create problem for the fuel system?
@@zao7035 An inert gas isn't going to create a vacuum unless you pump it out, then the pump is creating the vacuum. That would be a waist of gas and time. Water will do it by gravity. Water = Hydrogen and Oxygen, oxygen (O) supports combustion, hydrogen i(H) s combustible (the O is "Oxi" in oxidizer). A rocket should have valves that block the fuel lines from the tank down stream of the drain. Very little ice should remain in the fuel tank and none in the lines.
Dude gets 200k views in 12 hrs. Incredible. A gentle reminder that hard work pays off :)
A gentle reminder that many of us find the whole package (not just the detail, also the humour etc.) spell-binding. And that’s despite Peru being an Aussie!
Dude has almost 500k subscribers and this video, 4 days after release, has 400k views. Means, theoretically 80% of subscribers watch his releases. And it's worth it. I watch it at work when dealing with boring and repetitive stuff. Makes it less boring and you don't need to stare to the slides all the time.
China intelligence probably now watches to see if disinformation is working!
@@StevenJackson-re6qmwell, he is not there to f... Spiders.
This is simply the most fair, balanced, and insightful reporting to be found freely anywhere. My sincere thanks, you are a blessing in this world of disinformation and overly hyped media. Please keep up the good work.
Agreed!
Perun is a fraud who only sounds smart to people who are mentally incapable of processing information when someone talks fast.
Perun is coming from a distinctly elite Western perspective. He has not background in Chinese philosophy, culture, economics or history. The Wests motives are innately good, and China has no legitimate security concerns that motivate them. There is nothing balanced about his approach; he is a flak for the Western Imperial narrative.
I heard some speculation that the "filled with water" is a mistranslation (of sorts) of a figure-of-speech expression "掺水“, the ebst approximate translation would be "watered down" but this TL doesnt always work. ANyway not supposed to be literal filled with water.
Nevertheless, "掺水“ is definitely absolutely NOT a term you want to see appearing on a report about readiness of your country's strategic forces. In this context it can mean that the capability of the rocket forces are grossly overrated, the quality/quantity/readiness of the rockets, fuel, warhead etc have been exaggerated and are actually poor, there has been alot of corruption going on, the deterrence it provide is overrated etc etc. Basically it means the rocket force got some serious problems.
By my guess it was also more of a euphemism than a reality as well like 'a bucket of sunshine' is attached to those rockets.
are you suggesting chinese rocket force is in worse shape than north korean who can launch missiles semi regularly. We see regualrly these viewpoints of russian army but they still do damage in ukraine despite big corruption and same problems. Also incase Xi is planning some real operation, organize training and these problems will quickly show up and purges continue. Im pretty sure lot of young hungry officers wanting to show their talent now that economy is giving pressure.
I had gut feeling towards direction you describe that US media likes to extremize any problems abroad to gather clicks.
Yeah, 掺水 and 灌水 are colloquial terms for an inferior replacement being used in place of its original one, not literally water inside the tank. I guess the press literally took the mistranslation and ran with it, and everyone else followed. And it's definitely not something you want to see in anything military or explosive.
Source: I speak Mandarin. Kudos to Perun for actually covering that.
That's a really good explanation of context; thank you!
It makes sense why they launched the balloons, and why China has been silent since.
Thank you for this one. As a Filipino, I have often followed your videos that directly concern Southeast Asia. I also follow the videos you have concerning China itself and its neighbors. I am concerned for my country's security, and your contributions on TH-cam to analysis and intelligence on China and it's military are valuable to those like me and to others in Asia. I highly encourage you to continue this and to also reach out to others who are doing the same thing as you. I hope you can reach out to Asians, or even Chinese people, who can give you more information that will greatly add to your videos.
I think it's high time ASEAN and Oceanic nations formed their own defence pact.
Daily reminder that the US fucked over the Filipines
@@TaylorLiam87 SEATO lives!
Did YoU SaY FiLiPiNo??!!! 🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🤸🤸♂️🤸♀️
@@TaylorLiam87
Quite dangerous given the conflicting interests. Suppose the Philipino dictator goes "Yeah, we'll have war pact!"
Then Putin, out of options to avoid a status as a Chinese colony, orders his obedient servants in Ho Chi Minh city to start something up AGAIN (Vietnam had like a dozen border wars with China prior to 1997, all over their excessive loyalty to Moscow).
And maybe by then it's late in 2024 and Putin also has his man back in the White House and US foreign policy backs whatever Putin tells it to back.
Well, now you as the Philipino dictator's perspective doesn't just have a country that's flat broke, suffering from islamist insurrection, mass emigration and is heavily polluted but you're also at war with China. And to secure your gold spot at the top of history's disaster scale, they're the good guys in that conflict, because outside of Eritrea nobody regards "We lick Putin's boots" as a rational argument to start a war.
So much respect for Xu. I can only imagine what that conversation in jail would have been.
Inmate: What are you in for?
Xu: I did a ton of corruption.
Inmate: That doesn’t sound so bad.
Xu: No I mean literally tons. As in that’s the weight of all the things that were given to me.
Inmate: …
Also inmate: Were you smart enough to stash some? I mean they probably wouldn’t even notice a few pounds missing you knoe
Sorry to disappoint you, but all the arrested high officials get single rooms in the jail
It is good to keep in mind that stories like this one can be accurate, fabricated, or deliberately/accidentally only partially true and that the target of the reporting could either be the governments involved or their populations. The purpose of making the information available is something we will never know but a strong possibility is that it is to obscure the truth or to sow confusion.
This analysis of the details of the story is a great demonstration of how we should take it - with a huge grain of salt
Until you know the narrative all news must be suspect.
28:43 Yeah, I think the "filled with water" is more of a chinese expression for cutting corners rather than literally filling with water. Mistranslations can lead to interesting consequences; today I found out about the Treaty of Waitangi where some poorly translated words led to several wars.
Another thing to note, Yao Cheng (the PLA defector) is apparently from the PLAN (the navy). So quite what what he (allegedly) says has any bearing with the PLARF (the rocket force) as is implied is a mystery to me.
So,what you're saying is the PLA PLAN is to PLARF!
Dont they have anti ship missiles on the ships and missiles on subs
Yao Cheng specifically said he has no knowledge of the veracity of the claims about the PLARF. He shared his experience in the PLAN as an example of how insidious and widespread low level corruption exist.
i imagine the missile fuel that was siphoned from storage into a gas burner in question might still be liquid fuel, jet fuel to be exact, which is mostly kerosene
and unlike the PLA rocket force which uses mostly ballistic missiles, the PLA navy uses a lot of cruise missiles & anti-ship missiles that also run on jet fuel (for their turbojet, turbofan or ramjet engines)
so the PLAN defector mentioned might be saying about the cruise missiles in the PLA navy instead, but somehow it got spun into a statement about the PLA rocket force
@@user-xk1sy9pl6z dont forget the PLAAF 😂
I knew it. Commented last week that I was pretty sure I would not need to ask but I hope this is next. And here it is.
Perun knows whats up.
Also absolutely excellent balance between being on top of current events and also giving yourself enough time and space to research the needed information.
absolutely
Agreed!
It's ridiculous that I'm willing to stop gaming so that I can actually _watch_ (rather than just listen to) this slide show every Sunday afternoon 🤷♂
Great work as usual 👍
'we stopped this gaming session to bring you the weekly propaganda'.
Definately proooopaganda. Why is the cia wrong about so much stuff?
@@NathansHVAC I'm glad both you Muscovites have broad enough horizons to make sure that you're watching _our_ propoganda (or 'information' as we like to call it) as well as your own.
Good effort! 😘
@@wavydavy9816 you like to call it information?
i guess ignorance is strength... so don't look up how ukraine is doing, and keep believing in iraq's wmds.
@@user-ot3wq2ru5dwell last a heard people in kiev have heating ,in moskow not soo much
An hours listening feels like ten minutes. It’s so mentally engaging. Thank you. Poulsbo, Washington
The Oracle of Australia has deigned to bless us yet again with his Prognostications.
Oh great Perun, what have the Entrails and Tea Leaves revealed to your August person?
I thought he was just the Slavic god of powerpoint?
We Aussies use eucalyptus leaves instead of tea leaves for prenognistation.
@@casbot71 you just came up with an entirely new word, "prenognistation".
@@jonathanmichaelsmith9012
Oh... I misspelled _prognostication._
I'm mildly dislexic, you punt.
Tea leaves don’t work that far south of equator without some Vegemite.
A reasonable amount of deduction based on what we know about solid-fuelled rockets will rule out the "water inside ICBM" story as non-credible. A solid rocket booster of an ICBM is manufactured with the fuel inside, and the fuel is literally solid without a refueling valve. Even the oxidiser is pre-mixed into the fuel. In order to refuel such a SRB (or to replace the fuel with any counterfeit like water), you will need to disassemble them to insert new fuel or whatever you want inside. A corruption attempt by replacing said solid fuel with water is painstakingly impractical, and the worst out of all your options at corruption. The other thereotical way is to have an entire fake factory producing 'solid-fuel missiles' with water instead of solid fuel propellants. But at that point so many conspiracy theories will have to line up for the fake ICBM factory theory to work. This is to say nothing of that fact that there's no evidence backing up that Bloomberg article, and no serious PLA watchers are taking this story seriously.
I am not saying you find these claims credible (and honestly I've only watched part of this). But the story in my view is not worth addressing in the first place. Cheers
spoiler alert - I don't think a bunch of these claims pass the sniff test. some are hypothetically possible, and corruption is (by China's own data) an issue they're having to deal with - but I really don't think people are out there disassembling SRBs en masse or anything like that.
Sandboxx news has a fantastic breakdown on this and it covers some of the points you make.
TLDR, Alex agrees on your take, but cites other information that may make these claims a lil more credible
@@PerunAU One more question, the fact that china openly admits that corruption is problematic is it concievable that its actually less corrupt ? Since atleast operates with a samblence of transparency
@@PerunAU I mean there's a difference between private konscriptovich selling his rifle on black market vs disassembling a rocket booster or thermo-nuclear warhead (without glowing in the dark in the process), the latter simply requires specialized training and very careful handling procedures (you gotta know wtf you are actually doing every step of the way, and are very cumbersome pieces of equipment)
The water may very well be part of a test process, possibly ballast in a test. SpaceX recently noted that the primary reason for the booster failure in the second Starship test flight was that they had no, or insufficient, payload/ballast. This was also part of the reason they launched the roadster on the first Falcon heavy launch. They had to have sufficient ballast so instead of using concrete they made a publicity statement and proved that Tesla's, the roadster in particular, are out of this world.
Five Congressmen and two Governors convicted each year, eh? Sounds about right.
Baby steps 😂
It’s not as good as you think. Recall, in China, these efforts are centralized and top down. So basically it’s the party leadership controlling who is punished and removed. In the end it serves to centralize power in the governments hands. It’s not about justice here it’s about control. They remove people who could be a problem. Ideally no one would be convicted because no one can commit any crimes. But that’s a bit idealistic.
Yup its a purge not a anti corruption measure
Guess someone here didn't get the meaning of the OP
@@randomriku6774 watch the video agein. Its not always a purge sometimes its genuine
"灌水" ("filling with water") is a Chinese slang meaning substituting original ingredients or products with inferior alternatives. It could be a case of lost in translation, but the big picutre of heavy corruption is certainly there to support that. +1 for mentioning it in the video.
Regarding the potential use of rocket fuel for cooking hot pot, there's loose precedent for that. In WW2, the infamous Mark 14 torpedo in US Navy service used ethanol as fuel. It was denatured with methanol to prevent sailors from drinking it. The US Navy didn't have a rum ration like the Royal Navy so they correctly thought that some sailors might try. It turns out that adding poison to alcohol isn't a very strong deterrent as some sailors tried to filter out the methanol or just distill the fuel mixture, to varying degrees of success. There were enough cases of methanol-induced blindness from insufficient distillation that the navy switched from methanol to something less harmful to denature the ethanol.
This is pure speculation with absolutely no evidence backing it, but it's not too hard to imagine some scenarios where rocket fuel is used as a cooking fuel. If the amount of bureaucracy needed to order some gas stoves and propane tanks from Alibaba is high enough, some people might not want to bother. Plenty of people pay extra for fast shipping on deliveries that are not time sensitive simply because they don't want to wait an extra couple days. Efforts to crack down on corruption might even backfire; going through the requisition process leaves a digital trail while the five finger discount doesn't.
The PLA is large enough that I'd be quite surprised if it never happened at all. Even in a force that has a low level of corruption overall, there's still going to be a little bit here and there. And a military is always going to have at least some hot-headed young men who do stupid shit and some older, jaded, and possibly fatalistic ones as well. In the end, it's just an anecdote and I'm sure anyone who's spent any significant amount of time in a large organization is going to have stories of people doing stupid shit. The bigger question is how representative that anecdote is of the bigger picture. Is it the sort of thing that happens every day or is it something that's so memorable because it doesn't happen very often?
Solid rocket fuel burns at temperatures exceeding 2000K. You can't use it to cook hot pot. There's something lost in translation here or the defector is just technically deficient and thought he was getting fuel pellets when he'd been burning regular paraffin.
No. Because the description "little round blocks of solid fuel" suspiciously matches the widely used civil soild fuel blocks in China, which are unsurprisingly actually commonly used to cook hot pots. And PLA has million tons of them in reserve, which sole purpose is for hot pot rather than launching rockets. Those blocks have a wax like texture, are mostly made from ethanol, a much cleaner and stonger fuel comparing to charcoal or firewood.
@@henrywang3977exactly bruh
either that or they were using kerosene-based fuel from cruise missile to run oil-burning cooking stoves ?
Damn, the "metric ton of money" reminds me of a line from The New Jedi Order: Destiny's Way written by Walter Jon Williams (part of the Star Wars Expanded Universe, since 2014 rebranded Star Wars Legends, discontinued and removed from SW timeline):
" 'Boras's bribe weighs twenty-five tons.' Lando smiled. 'It's going to be hard for him to claim it doesn't exist.' "
Perun and Asianometry are probably the only people on TH-cam I trust to cover China. "China Bad" videos are a dime a dozen on this platform, but the actual ins and outs of China's predicament are genuinely interesting and useful to learn from.
Asianometry definitely is a wonderful repository of modern industrial history, though alas as underrepresented in viewership as Perun, Wendover Productions and Greg's Automobiles and Aviation.
@@johanmetreus1268 - Hadn't heard of Greg's before. A cursory glance gives me an "early Drachinifel, but planes" vibe.
Looking forward to digging into that channel!
@@SeamusCameron Greg digs into the archives for the lesser known details regarding various WWII aircraft, showing just how oversimplified the common understanding of warbird performance is.
The best introduction to the channel would be his series (eight parts if I recall correctly) about the P-47 Republic Thunderbolt.
I have a low confidence in the Bloomberg article. Bloomberg seems to be all over the map when it comes to assessing China. A few years ago, they were busily touting investing in Chinese markets. My personal take on the Chinese military is that their equipment is not quite up to US technical or quality levels, but the biggest defect of the PLA is the lack of combat experience on the part of PLA leadership.
China is a third world country.... The USA is not afraid ...
The article about the missile came from a completely unreliable source and came off as more china hating fluff you see on social media. Also funny how it came out at the same time a very real article about the deterioration of the U.S. minute man system due to lack of technicians and engineers who even understand how the damn things work
Anecdotally, US troops would cook over blocks of burning C4 in the field in Vietnam... even if that is safer than it sounds, it's less cost effective than just supplying troops with Hexamine fuel blocks... is that corruption? Or just failure to make something soldier proof or to supply fuel for cooking rations in the field...
Per my uncle, the C4 was primarily supposed to be used to knock down enough trees for helicopters to land. They very rarely had to do that, so some either burned the C4 for cooking/heating, or outright dumped it rather than carry it. Of course, when they DID need a clearing and didn't have enough, pointed questions would be asked.
Reminder: when burning C4 do NOT step on it to put it out or your new nickname will be Stumps.
U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War era would sometimes use small amounts of C-4 as a fuel for heating rations, as it will burn unless detonated with a primary explosive. However, burning C-4 produces poisonous fumes, and soldiers are warned of the dangers of personal injury when using the plastic explosive
I remember talking to a guy who claimed they'd disassemble claymore mines to get C-4 for heating field rations. Presumably it was some kind of field expedient and this was a piece of kit distributed in large volumes. My personal military experience suggests that when you give servicemen something, they'll often find ... alternative uses than the one you had in mind. For example, repurposing citric acid for general purpose cleaning rather than cleaning the equipment it was intended for. In the end, nobody's gonna notice a few pounds of something missing when it comes in like 40+ pound bags. That kind of accounting just isn't done, generally.
Did I mention citric acid is delicious? In any case, this kind of thing was hardly even the worst sort of waste I saw. Funnily enough, none of it came from any malicious intent. There was little theft. Just bad management or organization.
Fortunately we don't have to worry about troops using bizarre fuels specifically for heating rations anymore, as modern MREs come with heaters.
The comparison is not quite one to one, since the PLA is not currently deployed for combat operations, but it does point to the wider degradation of the US military at the time. If not necessarily corruption, it’s both, like you said, a sign that soldiers aren’t getting what they need, and that of a general breakdown of discipline and morale.
In China, it's common to cook outdoors with something like a coal puck, which is essentially "solid fuel," though not rocket fuel. I wonder if this story was just another misinterpretation of something innocuous. Cooking with actual solid rocket fuel sounds like a bad idea given that it's basically plasticized toxic stuff. That's going to seriously ruin the flavor of your meat.
The water in missiles may be in reference to the Post-Boost Vehicles. On ICBMs the warheads are carried on the PBV (aka MIRV bus) which performs final adjustments in space to properly aim the warheads. Each PBV has a small amount of liquid fuel as propellant.
Critically the fuel is a non-serviced component. It is sealed, installed and the replaced every 7 to 8 years. Furthermore part of the manufacturing process is to fill the PBV with water and then shake it, to ensure it does not leak - and thus explode- on launch. The fraud would be to simply not replace the test water with fuel and pocket the fee for doing so.
A clever, low risk scam that only gets detected after 7+ years when the PBV gets replaced.
It just means cutting corners, it's pretty difficult to find that much water to fill a PBV in the middle of the desert.
And it won't be detected in 7 years if you still have the contract.
@@lolasdm6959China is notorious for dams. Get a water truck, fill up at dam, fill water into rocket. Probably would still come up profitable .
@@fmo94jos8v3 No, it would cost more than the fuel to transport that much water into the middle of the desert. It's clearly just an expression meaning cut corners.
@lolasdm6959 The filling happens at the factory.
Again, filling the PBV with water is part of the normal production process. It is supposed to then be drained and filled with propellant but the buyer does not check, as liquid fuels are best left alone.
I find the SRB fuel-for-food-cooking story to be highly implausible because while the propellant grains used in modern rocket motors do deflagrate (burn) rather than detonate (explode) when ignited, they still burn with a much greater speed and intensity than say, LNG, propane, or other aerosolized cooking fuels would. SRB fuel isn't just a mixture of fuel and oxidizer powders bound in some kind of resin or plastic, it also contains additives such as iron, magnesium or aluminum powder which act as both fuel and burn accelerant.
I don't know off the top of my head but assuming that like many US missiles, the Chinese SRB grains are Ammonium Perchlorate based, then one of the major burning byproducts will be hydrogen chloride, which dissolves on contact with air to form hydrochloric acid.
If you used this stuff to cook food, and assuming it didn't burn through whatever your cooking surface was like the thermite it sort-of is, you'd be gassing yourself and anyone around you with a combination of metal oxide and acid vapors, I think any cooking experiment with solid rocket propellant would only end in serious chemical burns and hospitalizations, not a well-done meal.
Addendum: even the tiniest bit of fuel theft would render the missile dangerously unsafe to launch if not noticed immediately. Uneven distribution of propellant in the grain (say if someone ripped a chunk out of the inner wall) would cause an uneven burn which would either result in a "burn-through" event where the uneven flame actually cuts through the side of the nozzle like a cutting torch, or result in uneven thrust which would cause the missile to rapidly go off course or lose control in flight.
i am imagining it could be not solid rocket fuel that was siphoned from the storage (its more likely from storage or from a factory; like it was stated in the video, disassembling a missile is quite a chore),
but a common, non-toxic liquid fuel like aviation jet fuel, which is mostly kerosene by weight
@@quoccuongtran724 If any Chinese missiles use RP1 that could be true as well, although RP1 is still extremely volatile compared to even JP1 or common fuel grade kerosene due to it's extreme near-100% purity. That being said, I wouldn't think any of their ballistic missile fleet would use RP-1 because it's both very expensive (many more cycles of purification needed compared to JP1) and doesn't store well for ballistic missile purposes, it evaporates over time meaning it needs to be vented and refilled regularly, and decomposes at a rapid rate compared to hypergolic propellants or solid propellants.
Dunno, I'm fairly knowledgeable as a hobbyist/layman about rocketry in general but not well versed at all in the specifics of Chinese ballistic missiles.
So what you're saying is the hotpot was extra spicy.
@@youtubeisapublisher6407 i forgot to add that the kerosene-based jet fuel i mentioned would be used more in cruise missiles, which uses turbofan (or turbojet, or ramjet) engine rather than liquid-fuel rocket engine
or aviation fuel in the PLA air force, even
Perun has an almost unique gift in making the numbers and graphs of his presentations on vital geopolitical topics fascinating. The throwaway joke about the emu is just typical of the wonderful quips that keep us focused throughout topics which are anything but simple.
Another excellent level-headed analysis. This is easily one of the best channels on TH-cam ever.
This video contains a perfect example of possible misinterpretation:
I heard about the Damascus Tutan incident as a young Airman but was a Sergeant before I met someone with first-hand knowledge of it.
I had assumed that the socket was... a socket. Maybe a 14mm. I thought it was weird that something so trivial was able to damage a nuke.
Turns out it was roughly 4kg (8 or 9 lbs).
The story seems pretty different then.
MSgt USAF (Retired)
this is a problem with almost all western views about what happens in asia. Japan, china, korea, etc. A lot of western info is subtly distorted by poor translations and lack of care to fact check.
@@nanonano2595 No it might be intentional, I find it difficult to believe that Bloomberg doesn't hire one or two Chinese speakers to verify the sources. It's intentionally sensational for an ignorant western audience.
@@nanonano2595 you do realize he is talking about the event that happened in US around 32:00
@@nanonano2595replace "all western views about what happens in Asia" to all views about what happens anywhere, as evidenced by a reply to you earlier.
The problem is not with the story. The problem is with the assumptions you made. A 4 Kg socket is still a socket.
Mentioning GuanXi 关系 shows Perun really did his research. Well done, as per usual.
It is almost like Xi noticed the effect of corruption in the Russian military, and thought “hmmm, I wonder if that could happen here?”
Overall, this extent of addressing the Bloomberg article reminds me of being about 10 years old, witnessing an event that got Washington Post coverage, reading the news story, and wondering how the reporter(s) screwed up the facts as I saw them interview multiple witnesses. That may have been my gateway into a life of skepticism.
Its almost if you started paying attention to Chinese internal politics very recently and know nothing about Xi and how he actually gained power.
@@volvo245 And it is almost like you can’t tell a joke when you read one.
@@jaymacpherson8167being funny is a requirement for it to be called a joke.
@@Mistshock sarcasm doesn’t work for everyone
ALMOST HALF WAY TO THE GOLD PLAY BUTTON, EVERYONE THAT WATCHES YET HAS NOT SUBSCRIBED... LET'S HELP HIM OUT AND SHOW HIM THANKS FOR HIS HARD WORK!
I AGREE, BUT WHY ARE WE YELLING?
The fact that they are cleaning up corruption does make them more dangerous.
They are always cleaning corruption. Somehow it never actually gets cleaned.
They are simply shuffling the positions which allow corruption around. Just because you have a single party, does not mean everyone in politics agree. As is touched upon in the video, removing a political opponent allows his position to be filled by a loyal underling. But that doesn't mean the loyal underling will not be corrupt. At best the loyal guy will at least not be malicious about it, whereas a member of an opposing faction could deliberately act against you.
There has been some rumors and indications of this. Where some speculate that certain leaks coming out of China are deliberately engineered to discredit Xi Jinping.
Exactly what I feel as well. But then I remember the musical chairs that happened for the position of "PLA Western Theater Commander" during the India-China standoff in 2020-22, and I begin to wonder if Xi is just perpetually paranoid, uncertain and unsatisfied about the state of PLA readiness.
In any case, one shouldn't underestimate the enemy.
@@death_parade Xi sucks for the US, but is great for the Chinese. What's good for US, will suck for China and vice versa.
The issue is how much “anti-corruption campaigns” are actually anti-corruption campaigns and not just a cover for political purges.
Thank you for that episode. I hope that at some time there would be an episode on Taiwan. Its strengths, weaknesses, challenges, alliances, etc...
I get the feeling that video will be the first of Perun's slideshows to feature. The music being Souls boss music of course.
The scary thing is that it's still very Pro-western view. The chinese can do the same for $5 what the US take $20 in military hardware. They flew 500 sorties a month, and not a single reported incident. Where is the inefficiency?
im so proud of you Perun; many of these talking heads keep blabbing about the "filled with water" thing. and lol when they expand on the topic.
Perun always surprises me with a video about the subject i didn't know i needed
I ask the impossible, an accurate assessment of North Korea. Thanks Perun for your time and videos!
perun doesn't do accurate assessments, look at ukraine...
Rissia is doing a massive tech transfer to nk in exchange for support.
🤣🤣🤣
@user-ot3wq2ru5d if he doesnt why do you have "+100 comments on this channel"
Easy. . . . . . . . . . . CRAZY!
No other channel has become a) a fixture of my entire week b) the first source I yearn for whenever big news breaks.
Love the way you were able to jump on this current topic so quick. Keep up the great work Aussie. #StandWithKiwiland #StopEmuAggression
Man I’ve been waiting on you to make this video, thanks Perun!
I appreciate the "audible" (to use an American rules football term) for the video this week. I saw the headlines regarding this report from China earlier and was a bit skeptical. Nice to see a logical breakdown of what it all could mean.
As always, I love the clarity and balanced analysis you bring to complex topic which are difficult to understand properly in such a clouded infosphere.
Super timely. I love it. Thanks for another great entry!
33:00 Picture of a US Titan Ii launch silo and rocket. Liquid fuel, 9 Megaton warhead. Designed in the 1950s and in service until the 70s. Almost all airframes ultimately used to launch orbital payloads for the USAF, and also used for the manned Gemini, 2 man orbital missions. A great technical achievement and full use of taxpayer dollars.
Hold up.... So the Chinese have developed a zero emission Rocket Fuel Cell that can be premixed as 2 Parts Fuel, 1 Part Oxidiser & stored at 1 atmosphere anywhere in nature with no impact on the environment?!
That may be the finest piece of Government spec-speak ever penned.
Dihydrogen monoxide mate. It's pretty dangerous stuff. Google it.😉
Great diversionary discussion. Very timely and quite informative. I appreciate the grounded and realistic discussion of the issue and its likely minimal impact on the much larger picture in the region.
I mean, hotpot>strategic victory does sound like a trade most grunts would be willing to take.
Resentment. Russians show that it's not hard to sacrifice "your side", if you systematically resent/ don't appreciate the leadership decisions of "your side".
When the govt themselves say they are planning to catch up militarily in 10+ years, the people on the ground right now tend not to care about potential strategic issues that they are already assured will not be an actual issue until years later.
@@nanonano2595 but most importantly hotpot is pretty good.
You know something's going on when strategically important people start to fall out of the window (in any sense of the word).
This is what I have been waiting so long for. Usually I just listen to your vids but I’m gonna watch this one
Thank you again for making my Sunday morning informative and educational. Finding a calm and insightful perspective on current affairs is refreshing.
It was interesting to see you touch on Chinese doctrinal decisions in challenging the US and probably a point worth exploring one day. The historical lesson of the US navy itself is telling where in its early life the focus was on challenging the Royal Navy on the coast, then in the Caribbean and ultimately in the 1920s a strategy for overstretching it across the world. So far the PLANAF doesn't need to be everywhere, US and it's allies do.
The other example being how in WWI far-flung Kaiserliche Marine ships turned themselves into headaches for the Entente, in a similar way that Chinese ships in far-flung corners of the world would have their days numbered in a conflict but not before diverting resources. Or in just how annoying the HHMS Kaimiloa was for Germany.
"He made a ton of money! .....I don't mean that figuratively. [...] took the better part of a dozen trucks."
That guy was literally corrupt enough to stop a truck! 😆
Yuan comes in small denominations
Let's go again!! @perunau wonderful topic yet again. Thanks mate!
By the way @perunau sent an email to the address in the description a few weeks ago about smt interesting, not sure it you guys got it. Some acknowledgement (even if just automated) feels nice.
Well done. Half these comments below are answered or addressed in the video. Almost everytime I think to myself “ well maybe it means thi…” you pivot and address that exact thought
Waking up to see a Perun video has released, good morning podcast
If you have a free press and independent judiciary then corruption is more difficult. It doesn’t matter how many people Chi throws in prison, unless the system is changed it’s useless.
I mean lets hope for us he never does...let the corruption go rampant would be preferable. if a country like china is finding out and trying to fix their corruption means they are definitly preparing for something... (stalins purge???)
I mean, the Nazis conquered Europe without a free press. Napoleon wasn't exactly known for his journalisitic humility either.
In fact generally during wartime press censorship is most commonplace, in the US and UK (UK for example had Defence of the Realm Act from WWI onwards)
What's more important is perhaps not difficulty, but rather the quality of corruption. Take America for example, corruption takes the form of $250000 speaking appearances, congressional insider trading, and government to private sector career moves. At worst American corruption might force the MIC to build factories in the middle of nowhere so a senator can get more votes, whereas corruption in Russia and China would directly impact how well a missile work.
@@alphonser272 Thing is, the Nazi military was actually hilariously corrupt - it's actually a big part of the reason why they lost. Many of Hitler's top generals were receiving direct monthly payments from the Nazi Party in exchange for telling Hitler what he wanted to hear, rather than confronting him with the reality of the situation.
Really? You think American corruption doesn't affect rediness? Or quality? Do you think Boeing is only cutting corners on their civilian orders? You just have to see the terrible build quality of military housing or how badly vehicles can perform to prove that's wrong.
Great work as usual. Can't wait for next week.
this channel is 100% the best when it comes to maritime story telling. no stupid 10 min bullshit speech about barely related background info, just actually interesting stuff
I heard somebody say it's smart to cheat - and very dumb to get caught.
If 'somebody' wants to play stupid games, then everybody associated should be ready to receive stupid prizes collectively.
big problem is that's basically the whole Chinese mentality; that's why "chinesium" exists
In Amerika, foolish criminals get incarcerated. Clever criminals get elected.
As usual Perun being the voice of reason. Keep it up.
Thanks again Perun, it's always an informative pleasure every time you release a new vid. Keep up the good work Mate. Cheers from the current sauna that is Bris Vegas!
edit: speeling...
Really enjoyed this, you are such a wealth of information. And the fact that you seem to have put this together in such a short time is impressive. Thank you so much for doing this.
Was wondering why you hadn't done a China video yet. Right on time.
Great timing - Perun would have been working on this for months, and then they hit the mainstream news with the Rocket story.
Perun's amazing research ability and the work ethic that uses it, being watched by me that doesn't think to have a dictionary handy to play scrabble. lol. As always top notch, bar setting. Informative, relevant and an entertaining delivery.
Been waiting for this one. Thanks mate
Ja ne znam koliko je brat pametan ali pametaj je puno više od velikog broja ljudi. Samo napred Perun, legenda si.
Nadam se da ovo "j" umjesto "n" ne napravi grešku u prevodu.
@@1337LXDtranslated just fine!
@@andreahighsides7756 don't forget to wear your helmet. Safety is important.
To be honest, if anything has dampened Xi's willingness to escalate towards military action with Taiwan, it will have been things like evidence from the Russo-Ukraine War on how much damage a smaller but well-armed and determined nation and military can do to a much larger opponent and how politically embarrassing that actual is, and also how willing the West/NATO/US are to actually provide support to allied nations such as Ukraine and Israel when conflicts do occur. I still think Putin assumed the West would, just as in 2014, make a lot of noise in the UN, put out a lot of press releases but little else. If Xi was under the same impression with regards to Taiwan, that and Japan's constitutional changes have probably had a lot more impact than a general hording a literal ton of cash.
And China's effort to crack down on corruption means it's very different to Russia, where military corruption seems to form part of the economy at this point.
As always, I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated this video. You have a knack for putting things into context.
Awesome videos brother, informative and about as ubiased as possible these days, keepem coming! lets get this man to a million subs!
Always glad to see a perun upload
Very excited for this one
This channel has the most interesting comments section. The explanations of the watering down expression are fascinating
Happy to see regular sponsors on the channel!
I think, a bit "lost in translation". US version - Liquid fuel story mixed with story when soldier told they take fuel to heat food, meaning hard, smokeless sticks.
Liquid fuel is not used to cook, instead fuel with expired BBE is replaced (or not) with other, cheaper substances meanwhile it is named as freshly replaced with new BBE in the paperwork.
Degraded liquid fuel is compared to water rather than replaced with one.
I watched this at 2x speed and didn't even notice lol. I'm so glad you addressed this. I was banging my head listening to AdvChina talk about this
They're both civilians, I'd be a bit surprised if they knew much about ICBM technology
@@gherkinisgreat They don't know much about anything. I love listening to them and sympathise with them greatly but they're doofuses, one bigger than the other.
Thanks again for a weekly video. Always worth the time.
Yes! Finally! Ive been waiting for this one
The most dramatic upgrade of a nation's military in the 21th century, from 2014 to 2022, has to be Ukraine.
I think your last few points were most pertinent. The fact that Xi is finally getting serious about cleaning up his military means he, at least on the surface, is getting serious about military conflict by cleaning up its leadership, bringing in new blood, and exploring their (China's) weaknesses. Thanks for your assessment!
Great video! Thank you. It is nice to hear some real analysis of the latest news about the Chinese military.
The Bloomberg story seems to be a red herring for any actual news from China. Granted, most legacy media sources tend to fabricate things, like that famous example from CNN where the two reporters went down to their car park, turn the cameras to point in two different directions, and then acted like they were on scene for the story they were suppose to be reporting on. Still, the main points about China that I wanted to know more about is the Chinese recruitment issues, along with the haram scandals, because I find those to be more ironic.
I mean what nation isn't facing a shortage of fit men wanting serve, but somehow, the old general just happens to be surrounded by fit young women that wear all sorts of things you are not allowed to wear in uniform.
Perun Time!
Thank you Perun 💛. Your weekly podcasts are very enlightening and very helpful in understanding just what is going on in our world. You're an ensiclopedia of knowledge and very much appreciated. ❤
This channel should be included in the textbook of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee. Thumbs up from China.
Best time of the Sunday Perun video
If I were to take a weird lowly-informed prediction about where corruption in China is impacting their military force the most it's in the face saving coming from the fear of being purged from there being any problems. This results in everyone pretending things are working great when they don't work at all. Two big things are the amphibious vehicles that aren't and the absolute state of the martial arts training. For the latter, there's a mid-tier aging MMA fighter that was going around absolutely destroying the professional masters that train the military, exposing them as frauds. The state response was the -50 social credit meme and to destroy the guy's life while not changing anything structurally.
A few years ago I trained a guy on dozer operation. Two weeks later he was training other people on dozers in a different department. Now, while this guy was a qualified trainer assesor ( you can only really train /assess in areas of expertise) and, given time, would have become a competant dozer operator two weeks is probably cutting it a little bit thin. Bullshit happens in every country.