China Signals Dominance in Stealth Jet Test Flight

A far more likely scenario than Pomfret's musings is that Hu is playing a cagey game. By hinting that the People's Liberation Army made the decision without civilian knowledge, Hu is showing he is reasonable and not warlike but the test underscores China will no longer be bullied by America.

This carries monetary implications going forward.

Washington Post columnist John Pomfret argues the recent test flight of the J-20 stealth fighter just hours before U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates met with Chinese President Hu Jintao was a blunt challenge by the military establishment to Hu's power. (Click here for Youtube video of the fighter jet) Pomfret surmises there is chaos within China's political circles because it appeared to Gates that Hu did not know of the test. Pomfret's hypothesis would certainly be a scary if true.

But is Pomfret right? Is the military really taking on President Hu in a power struggle? Is China about to crack?

Far from it. The opposite is true. President Hu is undoubtedly quite in control of China and displayed his power to Gates by employing a plausible deniability ploy.

A far more likely scenario than Pomfret's musings is that Hu is playing a cagey game. By hinting that the People's Liberation Army made the decision without civilian knowledge, Hu is showing he is reasonable and not warlike but the test underscores China will no longer be bullied by America. Hu's ploy of plausible deniability is in fact a common negotiating technique by the Chinese and it is surprising that Pomfret and other pundits missed that.

Source: finance.yahoo.com