Growing Economy Doesn’t Always Buy Quality People

I discussed the rising Chinese military power earlier.

Here is a contra-indication of that trend (maybe Richardson was right about the personnel quality issues):

Three divisions, comprising about 50,000 troops, from the Shenyang military region took part in the four-stage exercises, in which the troops representing the PLA were defeated by the enemy Blue Army – believed to have simulated US battle techniques.

In the first stage, the Red Army was ordered to repel the attacking Blue Army. Despite its firepower being strengthened by the availability of six hi-tech aircraft, the Red Army troops were defeated because the army commander forgot to call in air support. The other three stages revealed the PLA officers were slow to respond and did not have a firm grasp of the advanced technologies needed to stage information warfare.

Or maybe this is all just disinformation warfare to lull us into complacency. So the PLA excercies with OPFOR and all that, huh? I guess Kerqin is their Mojave Desert.