China’s Military is Broken! We Have Nothing to Worry About!

There’s a new Pentagon report about 
China’s military. And it’s pretty bad.

Welcome to China Uncensored. I’m Chris Chappell.

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China’s military is a rapidly growing menace.

Not even the chill guy can stay 
chill when it comes to China. 

Last month, the Pentagon released its 
latest China Military Power Report,  

and it does not paint a pretty picture.

The Chinese Communist Party has been making 
huge strides in building up its arsenal.

There’s a lot of alarming things in this 
report, but I want to focus on what is clearly 

the most important to Xi Jinping

The PLA Rocket Force.

Yes, they’re so cartoonishly evil they 
actually have their own Team Rocket.  

Between 2023 and 2024, there’s been a big 
build up of missiles and missile launchers,  

from short range all the way up to ICBMs. 

Sure, China’s economy is going down 
and Chinese people can’t find work,  

but at least they’ve got a lot more missiles now.

The spike in medium-range ballistic 
missiles is especially concerning.  

This is a thirty percent 
increase in just one year.

To give you perspective, the Center for a 
New American Security estimated back in 2017 

that China had the capability to strike 
every US base in Japan—cratering runways,  

hitting ships in port, and destroying 
command centers and aircraft on the ground.

And in 2017, China had just 200 to 
300 medium range ballistic missiles.

Things are a *lot* worse now.

This build up happened fast. 

Just 2 years ago, the Pentagon 
reported that there were only  

around 500-plus medium-range ballistic missiles.

Which means they’ve more than doubled 
their arsenal in just two years.

Why is the PLA Rocket Force rapidly 
building up its missile arsenal?

Well, let me throw this on 
top. The PLA Rocket Force  

also oversees China’s nuclear arsenal. 
And they’ve been building that up too. 

By mid-2024, China already had more 
than 600 operational nuclear warheads.

Last year it was 500. While the US tries to reduce 
its nuclear arsenal, China built 100 in a year. 

At this rate, China will likely have more 
than 1,000 operational warheads by 2030,

most of which will be fielded on systems 
capable of striking the US mainland.

Remember, we’re only about 5 years away 
from 2030. Feeling old yet? Actually,  

this news makes me feel less “old” 
and more “I’m too young to die!”

This is assuming the rate stays constant. 
It’ll actually probably be more. Because  

the CCP is *also* ramping up its 
ability to *make* nuclear weapons.

The Pentagon report notes that China has 
“probably” completed constructing one of  

its two fast breeder nuclear reactors to 
produce plutonium for nuclear weapons.

But guess what?

According to Pavel Podvig at the 
Russian Nuclear Forces Project,

that reactor has already 
been operational since 2023.

However, there’s something very 
strange about this Pentagon report.

Clearly China has been able to 
rapidly increase the size and  

sophistication of its missile and 
nuclear arsenal in a short time. 

But the Pentagon basically says, 
nawww, don’t worry about it. 

Because this report has a new section called 
special topics. The first one is corruption. 

I should be celebrating that the US is talking 
more about CCP corruption, but this isn’t it.

The report makes it clear China’s 
military is plagued by corruption

Including the Rocket Force.

Looks like Team Rocket is blasting off again.

The report also talks about how the 
Chinese defense industry lacks competition 

and has "little incentive to 
improve efficiency or reduce costs"

The report also mentions how the PLA's 
dependence on foreign technologies and  

components likely increases 
long-term production costs.

But China is not alone in that 
regard. As far as I’m aware,  

the US still heavily relies on China 
for military component materials.

Even materials for ammo.

The impression you get from reading 
the Pentagon report is that China’s  

military is so plagued by inefficiency 
and corruption that it can’t and won’t  

do something like a military invasion of Taiwan.

But if that were really the case, then how do you 
explain how quickly it developed and expanded? 

Captain James Fanell , the former Director 
of Intelligence and Information Operations  

for the US Pacific Fleet and friend of 
China Uncensored, warns that this way of  

seeing Chinese corruption feeds into what 
he calls a “threat deflation mentality”.

Basically, thinking that China 
isn’t that big of a threat. Like  

that new mole you’ve got. I’m sure 
it’ll be fine to just ignore it. 

According to Fanell, the US has been 
plagued with threat deflation for decades. 

It’s because of threat deflation that the US 
hasn’t taken the necessary steps to counter China.

Instead, it has allowed China’s military to 
grow at an alarming rate, as seen in these  

infographics of Chinese capabilities between 
2000 and 2022 that Captain Fanell made. 

The US is playing a major game of 
catch-up when it comes to China,  

and it’s *still* not doing as much as it should.

As Captain Fanell points out, 
China’s leaders, like Xi Jinping,  

use corruption as a tool to purge enemies 
and bend the military to their will.

Corruption in China under the 
CCP is a feature, not a bug.

In fact, corruption can feed into 
Chinese aggression and make China  

even more dangerous and determined, not less.

"The issue is not how 'corruption' 
impacts military effectiveness but  

whether it will have a critical impact 
on war and Xi’s decision-making."

The last thing we need is for 
people to conclude that corruption  

can somehow magically stop the CCP in its tracks. 

US Naval War College professor Andrew Erickson 
likewise warns against getting complacent,  

pointing out that some of Xi’s reforms have 
enabled China to be a much more lethal force.

According to him, “[N]othing 
revealed in the report suggests  

problems sufficient to frustrate Xi’s 
pursuit of his top-priority target:  

military modernization to help assert 
control over Taiwan first and foremost”

China is in the midst of the most dramatic 
military buildup we’ve seen since World War II.

It’s about time the US and likeminded countries 
react accordingly and stop acting like

The Chill Guy.

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Once again, I'm Chris Chappell. See you next time.