Is China in control of its own military?

In interviews over the past two days, American officials with access to the intelligence on the test said the United States kept mum about it in hopes that China would come forth with an explanation.

It was more than a week before the intelligence leaked out: a Chinese missile had been launched and an aging weather satellite in its path, more than 500 miles above the earth, had been reduced to rubble. But protests filed by the United States, Japan, Canada and Australia, among others, were met with silence — and quizzical looks from officials in The Chinese Foreign Ministry, who seemed to be caught unaware.

Or maybe the folks in charge didn't think that the foreign ministry needed to know.

I had dinner with a China expert two weeks ago, before the test and he said that China is much like 80 years ago with regional commanders in charge of their own forces and the central authority often lacks any meaninful control over them. Its like the old days with the warlords.

This is why power plants get built without the approval of the government in Bejing and all sorts of other things that go on.

Dennis