James Kynge

The PLA Navy has the world's largest navy with over 780 ships and vessels.

And the Chinese military has around 600 nuclear missiles, including those that are launched by land, sea, and air.

And some of these missiles are powerful enough to reach the entire territory of the United States.

So like I say, I don't want to exceed what we know, but what it seems to be the case here is that we have one man in charge of the world's largest military.

And this military is obviously a rival to the US and to other countries in the West.

So I'd leave it at there, Alison, throw it back to you for your take on this.

I mean, you know, it is complex, obviously, and it's delicate as well.

What would you say?

Yes, I would agree with that last point.

And just coming back to the Taiwan question, I mean, I have also read the idea that this could make China less likely to launch some kind of military adventure against Taiwan, you know, in the near term horizon.

And yeah, I mean, you know, that seems to be fair as an analysis, but I just feel that we know so little about

about how decisions are really made in the Central Military Commission and at the top levels of the Chinese Communist Party, that it's a bit of a leap even to have an interpretation like that.

I mean, it could equally well be, it seems to me, that if Xi Jinping is the only man in charge, and he wants to launch a military adventure against Taiwan, then maybe he gets his way.

So

So I think you could read that both ways.

I think the only takeaway that I have from this whole thing that I'm sure of is that the opacity of the system is the risk.

The opacity of China's political system and particularly the military decision-making system, it being a complete black box,

is a great risk for us in the West because we just have no way of tapping into it.

I don't think any government around the world, including the US, has regular high-level contacts with the People's Liberation Army or any other military body in China.

And so...