Teasle: Are you saying that 200 of our men are no match for your boy?!
Trautman: You send that many you better remember one thing.
Teasle: What?!
Trautman: A good supply of body bags!!
Posted on 02/08/2005 8:39:43 PM PST by Flavius
China is modernizing its military forces faster than anyone expected only a few years ago.
The build-up is escalating the potential danger to the island of Taiwan, to American forces and bases in Asia, and to the overall balance of power in the region.
'China adheres to the military strategy of active defense and works to speed up the revolution of military affairs with Chinese characteristics,' says the white paper Beijing issued in December. It points to 'leapfrog development' in high-tech weapons for its missile units, navy and air force.
Where many American and Asian analysts said before that China would be able to mount a credible threat between 2010 and 2015, now they are saying it will come earlier, perhaps by 2006 and certainly by 2012.
China seems driven by the perception that Taiwan, over which Beijing claims sovereignty, is drifting toward formal independence, that the United States is becoming a greater menace as it realigns and strengthens its forces in Asia, and that, more distantly, Japan has begun to assert itself militarily.
Behind this military progress has been the rapid growth of the Chinese economy that pays for the military power. China's defense budget is estimated to have ballooned to $80 billion, the world's third-largest after the U.S. and Russia, and almost double that of Japan, which has Asia's second-largest defense budget.
The Chinese, insisting on self-sufficiency, have bought weapons and technology from abroad, notably from Russia. China could afford those purchases because Beijing's foreign exchange reserves, the world's largest, rose to $610 billion by the end of 2004, more than 10 times their holdings of $53 billion 10 years ago.
To buy even more, the Chinese have been urging the European Union to lift the arms embargo imposed after the uprising in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989 in which unknown hundreds of advocates of democracy were killed by Chinese soldiers. The U.S. and Taiwan adamantly oppose easing the restriction.
The Chinese, ironically, have learned much from the U.S. armed forces, having intensely studied the lessons learned in the Persian Gulf War of 1991, U.S. deployments to the Balkans in the late 1990s, and most recently by the swift destruction of Saddam Hussein's forces in Iraq.
Even so, American military officers contend that the U.S. has sufficient combat power -- notably at sea, in the sky, and with nuclear weapons -- to defeat China if hostilities broke out. Said one, however, 'it sure complicates our planning.'
This assessment of Chinese military power was drawn from the Chinese white paper, a recent defense report published in Taiwan, a Pentagon report to Congress and conversations with American and Asian analysts with access to intelligence reports.
The vanguard of China's military advance has been hardware. Military education and training have improved as has logistics, while the integration of forces to invade Taiwan or to challenge the U.S. has lagged.
China's missile force, called the Second Artillery, had been deploying 50 to 75 short-range missiles a year. That has increased to more than 100, and in 2006 Second Artillery will have 800 aimed at Taiwan. Accuracy has doubled, meaning that most missiles are expected to hit within 20 to 30 meters of their targets. Moreover, the missiles have been made mobile to make them less of a target. In a training drill, a brigade moved 583 km and was ready to fire in two days.
Land-based and air-launched cruise missiles, which are flying torpedoes with stubby wings and advanced navigational devices, have been added to the Chinese inventory to improve their ability to stand off and fire at targets on Taiwan or at U.S. warships at sea.
In the Chinese Navy, long the stepchild of the People's Liberation Army, submarines are leading the way. In the event of hostilities, they would be tasked with gaining control of the Taiwan Strait between the island and the mainland, and fending off the U.S. Navy.
China has bought eight Kilo diesel-electric submarines from Russia and is planning to buy four more. Beijing is also building its own Song class of diesel-electric submarines. Although they lack the range of nuclear-powered submarines, they are quieter and more effective close to shore. For long range operations, China is building several nuclear-powered attack submarines.
China, which has become the world's third-largest shipbuilder, has produced about 100 amphibious ships, and four tank-landing ships are under construction -- thus belying the U.S. Navy joke that, because the Chinese lacked amphibious ships, the only way they could invade Taiwan is by swimming.
Pretty lame article. Hardly a balanced analysis of the PRC military.
That the only military experience the entire Chinese Military currently has is running over unarmed college students with tanks is something to consider. And more important than any conceivable equipment they might buy.
The cheapest solution would be rapid nuclearization of Taiwan, coupled with some advanced rocketry in 2500 miles range.
It's really tough to estimate budget items in Communist countries......I've seen a lot of estimates of their defense spending that are much lower.
And much of it is still wasted on fairly useless conscript infantry; the Chinese have been furiously trying to reduce the total size of their army for a while to cut back on that.
if memory serves, the Chinese military is mostly conscripts, not as many career soldiers. So maybe they can march, but can they fight?
'"""China is modernizing its military forces faster than anyone expected only a few years ago.
It points to 'leapfrog development' in high-tech weapons for its missile units, navy and air force. ""'
Guess we know where the next relly big one is coming from. They aren't building all of those weapons and systems just to look at them.
what they lack in training/experience, they make up in numbers...
I think maybe thats why they leveraged their bad loans with bad loans of ours.
I think they own substantial US debt load...
Teasle: Are you saying that 200 of our men are no match for your boy?!
Trautman: You send that many you better remember one thing.
Teasle: What?!
Trautman: A good supply of body bags!!
try like 379,524,688 body bags vs 200...
plus we would bring those body bags over however we would have to ask chicoms to make em for us, since our manufacturing is null and void..
Military branches:
Definition Field Listing
People's Liberation Army (PLA): comprises ground forces, Navy (including naval infantry and naval aviation), Air Force, and II Artillery Corps (strategic missile force), People's Armed Police Force (internal security troops, nominally a state security body but included by the Chinese as part of the "armed forces" and considered to be an adjunct to the PLA), militia
Military manpower - military age and obligation:
Definition Field Listing
18 years of age for compulsory military service, with 24-month service obligation; no minimum age for voluntary service; 17 years of age for women who meet requirements for specific military jobs (2004)
Military manpower - availability:
Definition Field Listing
males age 15-49: 379,524,688 (2004 est.)
Military manpower - fit for military service:
Definition Field Listing
males age 15-49: 208,143,352 (2004 est.)
Military manpower - reaching military age annually:
Definition Field Listing
males: 12,494,201 (2004 est.)
Military expenditures - dollar figure:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
$60 billion (2003 est.)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
3.5-5.0% (FY03 est.)
not sure either but they are buying everything they can get their hands on
they are even converting their mig 17 to flying cruise missles...
they wants to bombard someone bad... hmmm
they can dump all their want id love to see them trying to collect
cause i am broke...
Tom Clancy's "Executive Orders" book involves this scenario.
This reminds me of 9/11, the CIA, FBI,Pentagon, Coast Guard
all of them were caught flatfooted. I remember Condi Rice stating "We never imagined that anyone would use planes for suicide missions" despite the obvious use of planes for suicide missions during the conflict with Japan. Its just a slow motion review of the governments cluelessness the chicoms are obviously getting ready for something and the
administration is worried about maintaining a favorable trading atmosphere for Walmart!
"Clancy"
Well off to Amazon I go.
(FReeping isn't cheap)
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