Well, howdy there, Internet people, it's Bell again.

So today, we're going to talk about the U.S. defense establishment, spilling the tea on China,

and causing an international defense establishment version of Mean Girls.

So, the U.S. Department of Defense released a report titled Military and Security Development

involving the PRC.

And it was a little more gossipy than most DOD reports.

The short version is that DOD indicated its belief that China is moving along with its military development,

but that it could be doing much better, and that the real thing holding back China's military

is corruption within the Chinese military establishment.

The report, which isn't secret, was of course seen by DOD's Chinese counterparts. They were predictably

and understandably unhappy. Via statements, China responded to the bulk of the 166-page report

in normal foreign policy fashion. The U.S. talked about China's desire for more influence globally.

China was like, really? Your middle name is regime change. The U.S. talked about China's

nuclear modernization programs. China just kind of shrugged and pointed to U.S. modernization programs. This is all

normal back and forth that is just standard foreign policy posturing. The U.S. says China is

adversarial. China says the U.S. is engaged in zero-sum Cold War-style thinking. Cutting through the rhetoric,

they're both right. It's foreign policy and their competitor nations. The point of the report

is to discuss the quote, pacing challenge, which is a nice way to say arms race. It wasn't going to be friendly. But that bit

about corruption touched a nerve. China's defense minister is reportedly being investigated for

corruption. If that turns out to be true, he'll be the third defense minister in a row

to be brought down by corruption charges.

In 2023, China had more than a dozen top officials brought down by a long-running corruption

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