Every country, every organization dances to the same rotten tune. The planners at the top decree what will be “good” and “great,” and the underlings obey. Testing reveals flaws? No one dares speak—because exposing failure is making your superior look stupid, and he won’t thank you for saving him. He’ll hate you for it, with the special venom bureaucrats reserve for truth-tellers.
So the silence holds. Add in graft, theft, and corner-cutting at every rung of the ladder, and the result is predictable: everything is built as cheaply and shoddily as possible. Sometimes that gamble doesn’t matter. Often it does.
Ask Thailand, where a tower fell that should have stood. Look now at a string of client states, discovering the same bitter lesson in real time. And adversaries who’ve wisely avoided China’s bargain-bin gear? They’re watching. They’re taking notes.