Admiral Dong Jun, China's defense minister, is also under investigation. Both of his predecessors were removed from office for corruption, and there are other high-ranking military officers currently under scrutiny. And corruption in this context often means officers taking bribes and in exchange promoting their underlings. Since taking power in 2012, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has been trying to purge corruption from the armed forces. But the fact that more than 10 years later, China is still dealing with corruption among its most senior military officers suggests that this program might not be going very well. And a new report in The Economist looks at how U.S. officials are reacting to these developments. I have a quote, the turmoil in China's high command reinforces a belief among several senior American officials that China will not be ready to invade Taiwan in this decade, as some had feared, end quote. Previously, U.S. officials had worried that in the period between 2027 and 2030, China would have this window of opportunity to invade Taiwan. Xi has ordered the military to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027, at least according to the CIA. And there's new American bombers and submarines that won't get to Taiwan or won't be ready for use until the 2030s. So that's why they're looking at this window. But The Economist says at least some high-ranking US officials are less pessimistic now. They don't think that she's going to be able to invade Taiwan in that time, in part due to these corruption issues in China's armed forces that I mentioned, which have compromised military readiness. In this week's issue of the Earthling, we have four U.S.-China Cold War updates. This was just one of them. So if listeners want to learn more about that subject, they should go to the newsletter. But now I want to turn to our more in-depth analytical discussion of what's been going on lately in Romania and Georgia and how the Biden White House has responded to these developments. First, I'll kind of lay out the facts and then I'll toss it to you for some analysis and then I'll have something to say, I'm sure.