News Analysis Bureaucracy and waste are hamstringing U.S. military development and adversely affecting the nation’s military readiness, according to the former chief software officer of the Air Force. That means the United States is less prepared for a potential conflict with China. “Any bureaucracy which slows down outcomes for the sake of bureaucracy is going to ensure we get behind China,” Nicolas Chaillan, who resigned in September, said in a recent interview. “China doesn’t let complacency or bureaucracy get in the way of [its military],” he told The Epoch Times. He made the comments amid increasing tensions between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) concerning the de facto independence of Taiwan, mass intellectual property theft, and human rights abuses in Xinjiang and elsewhere. As that competition becomes more adversarial, the CCP has focused on technological development in sectors that its leadership considers vital, such as artificial intelligence (AI) …