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Chinese Lessons
How Russia’s inept invasion of Ukraine will inform China’s forthcoming invasion of Taiwan
Two months ago, Western analysts regarded Russia’s military as a near-peer force. Thanks to receiving over $1.6 trillion dollars in hydrocarbon revenues over the last few years, more than half of which came directly from the European Union, Putin was able to spend heavily on upgrading his post-Soviet military to the point where — on paper, at least — it looked very impressive.
Sadly for Putin’s dream of restoring the Russian Empire before incurable thyroid cancer carries him to his well-deserved grave, the kleptocracy he nurtured crippled his military ambitions. It’s clear much of the money that was supposed to purchase equipment and pay for training instead went into Swiss bank accounts, elaborate dacha, and a great many mansions in London, Wein, and the French Riviera. In consequence, Kyiv was not captured within fifteen days and a puppet regime was not installed. Now all that’s left is to reduce Ukraine’s remaining buildings to rubble and slaughter as many people as possible — a task for which even the rag-tag Russian military is more than capable.
Watching the events in Ukraine with great interest is the Chinese Politbureau and specifically China’s leader Xi Jinping. What Ukraine is to Putin, Taiwan is to Xi. Just…
