Fan art of the Type-055 (courtesy Freeper Jeff Head)
China's entire air force includes about 3000 planes.
Thanks for posting this I’ve been very concerned about China’s rise for quite sometime.
Free trade has proven to the world we are not a serious power anymore. No country in their "right mind" does the things we do.
“As society ages faster than expected, Chinas future demographics need to be reassessed. Sustained low fertility means that the number of young workers will decline more sharply than projected. In 2010, there were 116m people aged 20 to 24; by 2020, the number will fall by 20% to 94m. But the actual number of workers will be considerably lower than 94m, thanks to rising participation in higher education. Annual higher-education enrollments tripled from 2.2m to 6.6m in 2001-10, while the number of college students (mostly aged 18 to 21) rose from 5.6m to 22.3m. Declining fertility levels reduced the availability of young workers, but this was exacerbated by the expansion of higher education. Sustained low fertility and rising college enrollments mean that the supply of young workers will continue to decline beyond 2020. The size of the young population aged 20-24 will only be 67m by 2030, less than 60% of the figure in 2010.
“As the share of young people falls and the share of elderly people rises, Chinese society will age rapidly. China already has 180m people aged over 60, and this is set to reach around 240m by 2020 and 360m by 2030. These are minimum numbers, which will only increase with rising life expectancy. Less certain are how fertility rates will affect the population age structure. Should Chinas currently low fertility of 1.4 children per couple be sustained, the population share of people aged over 60 could reach 20% by 2020 and 27% by 2030. Using the more conservative international definition of elderlypeople aged 65 plusone in five Chinese citizens will be elderly by 2030.”
Chinese PLA Submarine Database (note: about 1-1/2 years out of date)
http://strategicstudyindia.blogspot.com/2013/07/chinese-pla-submarine-database.html
This system, by nature, requires outside guidance to hit the target. They would only be effective in a Pearl Harbor-like surprise attack on battle groups within that range. Once hostilities began, satellite and land based support elements would be immediately destroyed.
What’s scary about this is not that China could produce 300 ships by 2020.
What’s scary is that they could produce 2500 ships by 2023.