[John H K]

Not a particularly balanced portrayal of the PLAN.

Some key aspects:

1) Chinese Naval forces are utterly devoid of ANY combat experience, whatsoever, since they were crushed by the Japanese in the late 1800s.

Too often people spend too much time counting beans and technology and ignore things like experience and training, which is far more important than ANYTHING else.

2) The overwhelming majority of the PLAN is comprised of old, worthless crap.

The desire to bash Bill Clinton seems to get in the way of objective analysis of the Chinese Navy around here, for some reason.

[ought-six]

"The desire to bash Bill Clinton seems to get in the way of objective analysis of the Chinese Navy around here, for some reason."

Well, gee, it was Bill Clinton who almost singlehandedly allowed China to become the threat it is. It was Bill Clinton who gave the go-ahead for the Chinese Navy to establish facilities in Long Beach, California.

[Jeff Head]

From the full article, where I address the very point you mention:

While the Chinese experience level with this equipment will be very much inferior to the decades and decades of practical experience the United States Navy has, there is no doubt that the Chinese are embarked on a path to challenge that experience and heretofore dominance of the U.S. Navy in the region at some point.

Everything presented is factual and this very pertinent fact about experience is also pointed out clearly.

Wouldn't be the first time a relatively unexperienced navy tried to challenge one with much more experience.

[liberty or death]

As my brother who is a strike eagle pilot says," They have 10 fighters to our one and I can kill 8 from miles away. That leaves 2 that I have to dogfight and even if we are the best, eventually the odds begin to get much worse each time we lose one.