ESSENTIAL BACKING: President Xi Jinping inspecting an honor guard in September. The armed forces are integral to his “China dream,” a rejuvenated nation that is both peace-loving and militarily powerful. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
David Tweed, Bloomberg: What's Wrong With China's Army?
(Bloomberg) --In the “century of humiliation” that President Xi Jinping often evokes for his goal of turning China into a great power, one particular episode resonates: The defeat of China’s navy by Japan in 1894.
The Battle of Yalu in the Yellow Sea was a mortifying defeat in the first Sino-Japanese war, a conflict that China’s leaders assumed they would win against a smaller, if recently modernized opponent.
China had better, newer guns. But its navy was furnished with shells that were either filled with cement or porcelain, or were simply the wrong caliber, S.C.M. Paine writes in “The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895: Perceptions, Power, and Primacy.” To blame? Ordnance officials on the take.
Now, Xi is seeking to transform the military into a modern outfit that can “fight and win wars,” acknowledging the effect of corruption on the People’s Liberation Army -- the world’s largest ground force -- alongside decades of patchy training and tolerance of underperformers. At an annual meeting of lawmakers this month, he said stamping out graft would make for better troops.
NWU Editor: A sobering assessment of the Chinese military. A must read.
2 comments:
And some think this is the second most powerful military in the world behind Russia....rolling my eyes.
The vast numbers, single minded determination of Chinese forces, vast network of allies, human intelligence gathering capabilities, cyber warfare capabilities, and industrial capabilities would seem to me to be more than enough to overcome the problems that the information WNU links to describes.
Yes, there are problems with the Chinese forces as there are with American forces. I've been doing some more` research on this and the Chinese forces may not be as powerful as I previously thought.
With that said the Russian military is the most powerful on earth. Russia has the largest and most advanced nuclear arsenal on earth that would make the survival of US conventional forces and the survival of the country itself problematic at best, they have the best cyber warfare capabilities, the best intelligence gathering services, the ability to shut down the economy of Western Europe by cutting off the oil supply, a vast network of reliable allies that far exceeds anything America has, the best information (propaganda) disseminating apparatus on earth, the best trained and most motivated troops the planet has ever seen, a populace steeled for hardship from prior experience, a single minded determination to oppose America, and I could go on but I think the picture becomes clear.
Based upon the situation Russia would be nearly impossible to beat in a military confrontation. Perhaps not impossible but VERY, VERY difficult. After all the US did manage to survive cold War I and then as now for most of the this conflict Russia had a more powerful military than America did.
As for China, they are allied with Russia and this is really helpful to them and enhances their position. Again, while recent research suggests China may not be as powerful as originally thought I still think it is the second most powerful military force on earth especially with its alliance with Russia.
Furthermore in Cold War I the US had the moral high ground, a vibrant economy, and a robust nuclear deterrent that could counter the conventional military superiority of the Soviet Union. Right now the US would not seem to have any of this. As for the moral high ground, perceptions are everything and right now the perception does not seem to be with America.
Whether or not we agree on the rankings of global power or not and I admit my analysis could be in error, I think we can both agree that US involvement in the Ukrainian situation is ill advised and not helpful to our national security.
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