Bloomberg: US authorities frustrated by lack of intelligence about Chinese President Xi Jinping This was reported by Bloomberg, citing sources.
The US administration is said to be disappointed by the lack of information about the inner circle of Chinese President Xi Jinping. At the same time, the need for intelligence on China and its top leadership is only growing, since understanding of Beijing's next steps is necessary for Washington to make political decisions, the sources say. This is especially true against the background of tensions between the two countries in various areas, from the problem of Taiwan to high technologies.
In particular, the administrations of Donald Trump and Joe Biden were surprised by the decisive “actions of China to consolidate power in Hong Kong, demonstrations of military force in the South China Sea, limiting the possibility of investigating the origin of COVID-19, pressure on companies that were going to place shares in the United States. ” The Pentagon also stated that China's nuclear arsenal is growing at a faster rate than predicted.
Earlier, the Pentagon published a report on the military power of the PRC. The document notes that “the current pace of development of the Chinese nuclear program exceeds the forecasts of the US Department of Defense made in 2020.”