China has just passed an inflection point that could have dire global ramifications, warned Gordon Chang, author and China expert, at AFA’s Pacific Air & Space Symposium in Los Angeles. The nation’s economic growth is coming to an end, and the country is mired in debt and may be slipping backward into a new “cultural revolution,” he told the symposium audience in his Nov. 21 speech. These internal developments may drive the Chinese government to engage in an increasingly belligerent and irrational foreign policy, said Chang. “We have to be concerned that Beijing, not out of strength, but out of weakness, will lash out and shake the world,” he said. Already, China is using rough tactics in border disputes with neighbors like India, Japan, and the Philippines, he said. This may indicate that China is no longer content with being a status quo power, said Chang. He urged the United States to make clear its resolve to defend its Asia-Pacific allies; otherwise, China’s neighbors may decide to resist China’s aggression with force, he said.
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.