China's military parade: Some cause for concern, but mostly show

China held a massive military parade featuring all sorts of new weaponry now in the hands of the People's Liberation Army

Sure, it was a flashy event, but was it enough to keep members of the U.S. intelligence community up at night

I talked to one to find out. All right, I'm joined now by John Mollick

You are a war and intelligence officer in the United States military. First question I have for you, John

Initial impressions from the Chinese military parade. Well, I would say it's this year is just as good as any other year in terms of them putting on a show

I think they did a great job with that. If you spend the amount of time and resources that the CCP does to showcase to the world, really the world is really secondary

It's their own people first and then their neighbors second and then kind of the world as a third

But if they're going to put all that time and resources in that, then listen, they put on a great show

And it looks good and everyone can can march in step and they look very professional

And, you know, kudos to them if that's the goal. You know, certainly the comparison would be the popular comparison would be, well, the United States Army just put out a parade a few months ago down in D.C

And holy cow, there's this one picture of one soldier with a drone

And, you know, if you compare that to the Chinese display, then holy cow, the Chinese would win a war

You know, I hate to sound like I'm mocking because really, really, I'm not

It was a very professional display. But again, at the end of the day, it's a display

And it's the ability to use that equipment, that equipment to operate efficiently as it was designed

based on whatever capabilities and technologies the Chinese are pretending to have or do have

depending on the system, is really what matters at the end of the day

So it's great that it looks pretty, but it looks pretty. Right, right

Right. Yeah. And to your point, you know, the Chinese, the modern Chinese military hasn't really been in a conflict to be battle tested and improve these systems in combat

To your point, John, you said there is it was it was a display. It seemed like there was three kind of categories of items that got more attention than others Just kind of want to go through these things and pepper you for some questions on it The first category was kind of the Chinese nuclear triad

We saw some new ICBMs that were claimed to be capable of hitting continental United States

There were some new submarines that were displayed and some new jets

along with nuclear-capable missiles. So obviously, you know, the Chinese military is trying to present their nuclear triad as powerful

They don't have as many warheads as the U.S. and as Russia does. They're building that capacity up

What was your thoughts on the on the Chinese nuclear triad? Yeah, so the the other half of the coin, the other side of the coin from what we were talking about earlier in terms of a display

You know, we have to give our respect, if you will. we have to note that the Chinese really are putting time, effort, and energy on top of their

display to the equipment that is important, let's say. They are trying to mirror the United States

and some of the other countries like Russia and the more powerful militaries in the world

Britain, Australia, and others, and investing in the equipment that really is going to matter

and matter for their strategic purposes. So if you want to be a regional power that wants to be

left alone, which is ultimately the CCP's goal, left alone in the Eastern Hemisphere

the first and second island chain, then you want to be able to have a nuclear triad. And if you

can have that capability, then great that you can match the United States and Russia. And when I say

match, I mean, at least from strategic purpose, I don't mean necessarily their ultimate capability

or as you mentioned, the number of warheads. So yes, it is a very different perspective when a

country has the the ability to conduct a potential nuclear attack against the united states homeland

from air sea or um or land base then yeah then that that's that's a problem that the united states

would rather not deal with if as opposed to dealing with it so they're upgrading those

weapon systems they're they're trying to increase the the the ultimate range of their icbms it's

It's good on them to do that. And again, from their perspective

And so yes, and it's something that we should pay attention to They underwater vehicles that you had mentioned There this one 35 I believe or underground or underwater rather uncrewed drone they call it

And yeah, that's an advancement. In particular, if you notice in that piece of equipment

there wasn't any fins at all. There aren't any fins at all. So they're trying to reduce their

acoustic signature. That's really how you are able to identify submarines and other vessels

like that underwater is based on the acoustic signature. There's other technologies too, but nonetheless, so they're making advancements in that

Sure. Yeah, some of the other categories that I saw were the, you mentioned the unmanned systems

They had, you know, helicopters, fixed-wing assets, obviously the unmanned underwater assets, and then also there was a heavy display of missiles, right, to back up the Chinese

strategy of the anti-access area denial, which is the strategy to keep the U.S. at bay

To that end, John, was there anything that you saw that kind of kept you up

Is there anything that you saw that maybe isn't getting the attention or wasn't getting

the attention it deserves, but you saw it and you're like, man, the U.S. really needs

to pay attention to this? Yeah, I would say no, and only because the United States has put a lot of focus on

on determining what exactly China is building. We've been doing it for a few decades now. This

isn't anything that's new to us or any of our allies. And there wasn't any particular piece

of equipment we didn't know about or some technology that they released that we thought

was like, oh man, we didn't know that they had that now that they proved that they've had that. That's just not the case. The IC is pretty good at what they do

Well, that's good to hear as an American citizen. The last question I had for you, John

And we kind of talked about this at the beginning. Obviously, the message of of the parade itself is one of deterrence

You know, China is saying, hey, America, back off. But they also welcomed in the leaders of let's call it Team Hate America

You have leaders of Russia, North Korea, Iran, about two dozen other countries there

What kind of message does that send to the United States Chinese neighbors rest of the world to have so many adversarial administrations to the United States all gathered in one place It messaging and it effective messaging

And there's multiple layers to this stuff. There's a political message. There's a strategic message

There's a tactical military message. It's all combined into this big thing. It's all a showcase

And I would say that really the relationship between those, you could say, potential adversaries of the United States coming together and shaking hands and being all lovey, that is important. It really is

The fact that North Korean soldiers are fighting in Ukraine and North Korea is gathering a bunch of information on what drone and counter drone warfare is like today, right now, in the trenches, and then sharing that information with the Chinese, sharing that information with the Russians, and then demonstrating that over dinner and shaking hands

Yeah, it sends a message to the United States that you're not the only world superpower

And if we have enough friends, then we could be formidable in our own right

Again, everything needs to be kept into perspective. If you gather those, the GDPs of those countries that are together, if you take out China, it's quite literally nothing, right? The Russian economy is the size of Texas. So there's perspective everywhere

But it used to be the size of Texas. I don't know if it still is. Sure. Sure. Sure. Good point. Good point. No, nonetheless. I mean, again, from a strategic messaging standpoint, if you want to get under the skin of any POTUS, regardless of it's this one or not, and to showcase solidarity, then yeah, you do that

And it's something we pay attention to. And we add it to the calculus when we're doing our discussions with the State Department

And what does this ultimately mean? Is the relationship really real? You know, what's the depth to that relationship

It's one thing to invite Kim Jong Un and his train to come down and hang out and have dinner

But what does that what does it mean behind the scenes? What are they really talking about at dinner

Is Russia just saying this and bringing him in to say, this is going to be a great show

But, you know, I'm never really going to do anything Kim Jong Un at the end of the day. So we'll see. But sure, it certainly sends a message

all right sir john really appreciate your time as always uh look forward to talking

to you again down the road anytime right thanks