Made in China (failed in Iran)

By Abdul Masih —

EXACTLY when the first cruise missiles hit Iran, China suddenly stopped ALL of the constant hostile flights — usually about 30 or so fighter jets, drones and surveillance aircraft– buzzing Taiwan, intimidating and violating its airspace.

“The moment the U.S. launched a major strike, Beijing pulled back,” says Lei of Lei’s Real Talk. “A switch was flipped, a kill switch.”

It was very strange for the world’s most militarized airspace around the Taiwan Strait, a critical shipping lane, to suddenly go quiet and stay quiet for nearly eight days. Theories were proposed (a good will gesture before Trump-Xi talks, pilot fatigue, worries about fuel supplies) but these don’t pass the acid test of believability.

Most likely, Xi Jinping was shocked by the catastrophic failure of their sophisticated radars in Iran — just as they flopped in Venezuela — and ordered a re-evaluation of China’s military readiness.

Supposedly, China was a super-power with systems designed to counter American technology. But the Americans easily evaded the high-powered radars — either by jamming, interrupting or eluding them. Neither the U.S. nor Israel has lost a single plane due to Chinese air defense systems.

“If the US can blind navigation systems over Tehran, it can do the same over Taipei,” Lei says. For Xi Jiping that realization will be terrifying because the moment those missiles lose their navigation signals, the entire doctrine of missile saturation collapses.”

Why does Chinese military hardware suck? The reason is inherent to the communist system; generals and underlings are asked to sacrifice everything for the regime — all basically for the man at the top, Xi Jinping. He is the only benefactor.

Seeing the high life of Xi Jinping, generals are little motivated by the struggle for communism. So they exploit the system to benefit themselves, awarding contracts to cronies with kickbacks. Either they’re faking test data or building with cheaper parts. Corruption is raft in the People’s Liberation Army, just like it is in Russia.

The international defense community has caught on to the ruse. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, orders for Chinese weapons dropped 10% in 2024-25 at a time when nations were building arsenals at record pace.

“What explains such a dramatic decline?” Lei asks. “One very likely possibility is that China’s military modernization has increasingly being shaped by a corrupt system. It’s a system dominated by kickbacks, patronage networks and political connections.”

At the same time, China may be wanting to influence the debate in the Taiwan’s legislature over a $1.25T version of Israel’s Iron Dome and modernize its army in preparation against a Chinese attack. China has been saying for years that the island to which Chiang Kai-shek‘s forces fled belongs to the mainland just 81 miles away.

By dialing down, they may influence the vote to not splash so much cash, to not get so much military capabilities, to make it easier for China’s eventual invasion.

On Feb. 28, Beijing halted flights around Taiwan. They were resumed March 7.

“China exported these systems to Iran, effectively turning the Middle East into a proving ground for its technology. Then the storm arrived. Within just 12 hours, wave after wave of precision strikes hit Iranian targets and suddenly,” Lei says.

“The systems that were supposed to stop them simply failed. Anti-stealth radar systems were supposed to act like high-tech flashlights in the sky capable of exposing advanced aircraft. US electronic warfare aircraft reportedly flooded those networks with digital interference.” she adds. “Billion dollar radar systems were effectively blinded.”