China's Dirty Big Secret -- Strategy Page
April 27, 2012: China's leaders are not happy with the state of their armed forces. The critics include many irate generals and admirals. These complaints tend to be made in private meetings. But so many people attend these meetings that details do eventually get out to the general public. Since these leaks do not represent official policy they do not get repeated in the Chinese media, and foreign media tends to ignore it as well. It's more profitable for the foreign media to portray the Chinese military as scary. The truth, as Chinese leaders describe it, is more depressing. It's all about corruption among the military leadership and low standards for training and discipline. In short, Chinese military power is more fraud than fact.
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My Comment: On paper the Chinese military appears to be a formidable force .... in reality .... who knows. And while China does have a culture of corruption (what country does not?) .... I do not think that it will be wise to test this proposition.
I seem to recall people thinking the Chinese military was a 'paper tiger' composed of 'peasants' with no navy and no air force in mid-October of 1950.
ReplyDeleteCertainly no threat to the rampaging high-tech and highly experienced UN troops.
Nothing to worry about at all. I'm sure it's pretty much the same now. It's not like they've spent the last 60 years figuring out how to deal with the US military specifically, nor I'm sure, do they have complete penetration of all our computer networks and an immense and highly active espionage presence.
Carry on! Nothing to see here.
Orion
Thank you Orion for your comment.
ReplyDeleteI lived in China's Fujian Province in 1988. (Fujian is across from Taiwan), and because of their neighbor there was always a heavy military presence in the area. But the soldiers that I saw then wore old khaki uniforms, sandals, and rode around in old trucks and/or their own sad looking bicycles.
Was back at the old stumping ground a year and a half ago for a visit .... and the soldiers that I saw then reminded me of US and Canadian soldiers of today.
I am not worried about China today. The U.S. and its NATO/Asian partners are the dominant military power in the world by far .... and China does not come even close to what the US is capable of.
But that is today.
What concerns me is tomorrow .... and there .... the Chinese are overwhelmingly confident that they will be world's dominant military power in 20-30 years .... and they are probably right .... a prospect that should concern all of us.
I agree with you.
ReplyDeleteThe West is in the process of gutting it's militaries - China is growing theirs.
The Western nations think in small chunks of times - a Decade at most. The Chinese think in terms of centuries.
Orion