Double-digit increases in defence spending alarm China’s neighbours but budgets and troop levels only tell half the story
China’s military made history practically every day last week. On Thursday it was the Lin Yi, a guided missile frigate, which spent 75 minutes moored in war-torn Yemen’s port of Aden before setting off to Djibouti with 225 evacuees.
Billed by Beijing as the navy’s first international maritime rescue evacuation, the mission helps show the rising ambitions of the People’s Liberation Army.
A few days earlier, state television showed a satellite photo of three submarines anchored at a top-secret base on China’s southern island of Hainan. The report identified them as the navy’s most advanced Type-093G nuclear powered attack submarines, which experts say will start China’s first patrol by nuclear powered subs later this year.
WNU Editor: The new Chinese president has been very clear since the first day that he assumed the office .... the People's Liberation Army must be prepared for war. My suggestion is that we should take him at his word.
1 comment:
I read this article the other day and some of my info may be off topic from what the article was saying and I apologize in advance for any confusion. It is my belief that this article leaves out a varialbe from its analysis process that is very crucial to understand. It is my belief that the Chinese government is preparing its military to war. Some of this sheds from my personal experience at school. I'm an American who attends a US boarding school where the Chinese students are very nationalistic and talk about the possibilities of an American Chinese war whenever politics are brought up. They believe that China has the ability to win in battle against the US. This should be taken seriously as it doesn't matter so much if they really have the ability to do so but to their brain they believe China can beat the US in a war which puts these people on a dangerous path towards confrontation.
Further I respectfully believe that this article lacks a true understanding as to the hardware and technologies that China has spent its defense budget on. It may only spend 2% of its GDP on defense but the budget still amounts to far surpassing that of the other major East Asian nations. Further China must use its national budget to support its whole population of 1.3 billion citizens. China has also budgeted it military finances well getting plenty of 'bang for their buck' compared to certain US military programs. They only need to spend enough to fend off the US and its allies in the region with area denial capability while building up its offensive power. China has bought an aircraft carrier and announced their building of another with some other analysis saying that they are building a third one as well. Aircraft carriers are offensive weapons that are a cornerstone to any blue water navy as a platform to project power beyond China's current sphere of influence. A nation not planning on expansion or placing their influence into the world would never procure these assets. Further their nuclear submarines give China the ability to covertly cover vast stretches of the ocean thousands of miles from home surpassing the range of any convention diesel submarine which would also only be needed for a nation wishing to project its power abroad. Beyond this the army has been vastly reorganized and top commanders are being hacked out to build a more leaner/effective fighting force. Steps like these prevent the troubles that nations like Ukraine are facing now after years of neglect to their defense. Further the air force and army are procuring more advanced equipment. The numbers China buys now may be smaller compared to the US but the trouble will truly arrive in the near future when an advanced Chinese military is able to take the fight abroad and effectively challenge the US. Further Chinese military drills that are similar to the Russian snap drills have proven China effective and competent enough to move masses of troops over thousands of kilometers and engage in combat operations. The world has only seen a glimpse of this in Yemen with its evacuation of civilians. The rise of China like this is something that should be watched. As one of my Chinese peers said the other day to me: he wishes to see China right the wrongs done to it by the international community starting from their defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War that then lead to its carving up by major European powers and the US.
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