The Perfect Soldier: Special Operations, Commandos, and the Future of Us Warfare by James F. Dunnigan
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Dirty Little Secrets
Chinese Generals and Their Fatal Distractions
by James Dunnigan
November 10, 2005
Discussion Board on this DLS topic
In China, the armed forces are rather more independent of the government
than in most Western countries. Sort of like a special interest group that,
technically, is part of the government, but has to be treated with deference
and care. The government has tried, with some success over the last decade, to
curb the independence of the armed forces. This is difficult to do, as you have
to be careful when arguing with a lot of heavily armed people. The government
stuck a particularly telling blow in the late 1990s when they forced the
military to sell off the many commercial enterprises they had long operated.
These enterprises began as farms, so the troops could eat, and factories for
making uniforms and weapons. But as the Chinese economy boomed over the last
two decades, many officers were more concerned with getting a piece of the
growing economic action, than in preparing for war.
Corruption in the military has always been a Chinese problem, long before the
Communists took over, and the economic boom was threatening to destroy the
ability of the armed forces to become a modern, effective fighting force. While
most of the commercial enterprises were sold off by the military, some
remained, and so did the corruption. Completely cleaning up the military is
going to take a while, if it is ever going to be accomplished at all.
So for the next decade or so, expect to see
some strange things going on between the government and the generals. For
example, it was recently revealed that the military is using several hundred
million dollars of its own money to buy back Chinese art, and artifacts, that
are in foreign hands. Over the last century or so, billions of dollars (in
current valuations) worth of Chinese art and cultural artifacts have left the
country (via plunder or purchase). Over the last few years, it has become
something of a national obsession to get a lot of this stuff back. This is
being done by encouraging companies, and wealthy individuals, to pony up the
cash to buy these objects (paintings, statues, books, and so on) back. Each
notable item that is returned to the motherland is greeted with a barrage of
positive publicity for the buyer. The military likes good press, and good art.
So money that might otherwise go for equipment or training, is being used to
buy back bits of Chinas heritage.
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