Chinese Military Rising

A just-concluded meeting of the top echelon of China’s Communist Party has reportedly dispensed with the so-called “collective leadership” of the past. The party plenum approved an apparently sweeping consolidation of power by China’s new president, Xi Jinping.

We’re told that Xi will now enjoy absolute control of the military and the ability to intensify internal security. Past objections from the People’s Liberation Army denied his two predecessors such an arrangement.

So why is the military going along now, when its power is greater than ever? Perhaps because, in practice, China’s army actually will call the shots.

If so, America and her allies in the Western Pacific may face in the days ahead the unchecked Chinese ambition for supremacy and control.

Heaven help us all if that’s the case.