At the press of a button, the lids of the missile silos in western China should open to launch nuclear weapons capable of reaching the United States.
But according to US intelligence released in 2024, the materials used to construct them were too heavy. Not only that, some of the missiles were filled with water rather than fuel.
The scandal – or some form of it – appears to have driven Xi Jinping, China’s president, to remove the entire leadership of Rocket Forces, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) division responsible for Beijing’s nuclear deterrent, in the months before the leak was published.
