How strong is the Chinese Military?

[Cruelbreed]

Cumulatively how strong is the Chinese military. You always hear about chinese military prowress and rise these days, most likely because of its recent short term economic success. China is building its military, but how close are they to U.S. strength? What are their strengths and weaknesses?

[blath]

Every year, usually in late May, the annual report to Congress of the Military Power of the People's Republic of China goes out and is free for people to download and read.

Here is the 2008 Military Power of the People's Republic of China
http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/pdfs/China_Military_Report_08.pdf

Also if you'd like to see past assessments, all the way back to 2002 you can see them here.
http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/china.html

Something else if you can find it, though it's more.. fyi/curiosity is a book on Chinese Intelligence. Which I think came out in the 90s. This is outdated as Chinese Intelligence has definitely changed in regards to focus. Where before it was probably mostly for basic building block industrial and now more military high tech/ maybe even more intensity.

But it gives you an interesting look on their past concentrations and the almost laissez faire attitude the West gave them. Again focus has changed and heightened and on occasion one will see FBI press updates (you can do searches) of people caught spying for them, and what they may have already passed to them.

Oddly enough history wise, they were our allies in WW2. US Army (during WW2 of course) mostly assisted what would be the Communist side, US Navy mostly the other side that later had to flee to Taiwan. I'm not sure if it's still going on.. but in Communist China they have a scholarship named after I think a U.S. General, where they send someone to the U.S. to basically learn. Pretty wild huh. :D Even after Taiwan & the Korean War (which is still going on / just been a long cease fire) (fortunately the N. Koreans probably have even annoyed the Chinese) they still did this.

Another source to check are free online vids from PBS for some look at parts of the country's culture.
Wide Angle's work
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episodes/china-prep/introduction/810/

Frontline's work
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/red/

Though this doesn't show full videos it has an interesting brief on different cultures.
http://www.pbs.org/kqed/chinainside/soundmap/index.html

Anyway despite what might exist at various moments, including our strong tight relation with Taiwan and the question of will we be able to defend them (be kind of cool if we could just take them and their high tech to the US ;-) , and who would stand with us depending on how it starts. Some of our best allies who have followed us despite world unpopularity, may have non-aggression pacts with China. Something to ponder.

[Cruelbreed]

Every year, usually in late May, the annual report to Congress of the Military Power of the People's Republic of China goes out and is free for people to download and read.

Here is the 2008 Military Power of the People's Republic of China
http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/pdfs/China_Military_Report_08.pdf

Also if you'd like to see past assessments, all the way back to 2002 you can see them here.
http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/china.html

Something else if you can find it, though it's more.. fyi/curiosity is a book on Chinese Intelligence. Which I think came out in the 90s. This is outdated as Chinese Intelligence has definitely changed in regards to focus. Where before it was probably mostly for basic building block industrial and now more military high tech/ maybe even more intensity.

But it gives you an interesting look on their past concentrations and the almost laissez faire attitude the West gave them. Again focus has changed and heightened and on occasion one will see FBI press updates (you can do searches) of people caught spying for them, and what they may have already passed to them.

Oddly enough history wise, they were our allies in WW2. US Army (during WW2 of course) mostly assisted what would be the Communist side, US Navy mostly the other side that later had to flee to Taiwan. I'm not sure if it's still going on.. but in Communist China they have a scholarship named after I think a U.S. General, where they send someone to the U.S. to basically learn. Pretty wild huh. :D Even after Taiwan & the Korean War (which is still going on / just been a long cease fire) (fortunately the N. Koreans probably have even annoyed the Chinese) they still did this.

Another source to check are free online vids from PBS for some look at parts of the country's culture.
Wide Angle's work
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episodes/china-prep/introduction/810/

Frontline's work
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/red/

Though this doesn't show full videos it has an interesting brief on different cultures.
http://www.pbs.org/kqed/chinainside/soundmap/index.html

Anyway despite what might exist at various moments, including our strong tight relation with Taiwan and the question of will we be able to defend them (be kind of cool if we could just take them and their high tech to the US ;-) , and who would stand with us depending on how it starts. Some of our best allies who have followed us despite world unpopularity, may have non-aggression pacts with China. Something to ponder.

Wow thanks Blath, going to read the first .PDF as it's definetly worth printing out.

[sr338]

They are the fastest growing military in the world, and they have millions more military age men than women. If the U.S. were to engage China in a military conflict, it would be lose lose for everybody involved. Bad news.

Plus their olympic divers aren't even 16!

[ghost]

They may have an extremely large military, but keep in mind that they are also lacking(terribly) in terms of force projection capabilities and logistics efficiency. With logistics being as much of a pain in the ass as it already is, and then they're also lagging behind in it, there is no way in hell that you can feed and equip a military of that size effectively, especially at the pace with which modern wars are fought. Also take into consideration that they have little to no military experience, to speak of(from the past 20/30 years). And if we were facing off against China, it would probably have to be over something quite substantial(due to our strong economic ties), so I'm sure we wouldn't be the only ones in the fight.... That's my 2 cents.

[WarGen]

They're growing just as quickly as they're pissing off the entire world.

[EXCONservative]

is growing yes but it's far from a threat to the U.S.
It's military is only a threat if we decide to invade China and I think we can all agree that's not going to happen.
Look at the Chinese Military as a regional stabilizer. It counters any threat in the region (N.Korea included) and has much sway over potential rogue regimes.
East Asia would actually be less stable if China's military was weak.
We outspend China in military hardware about 20 to 1. There budget is tiny compared to ours and their navy is completely incapable of operating with success against ours.

Take a deep breathe...drink a cold beer...and worry about the REAL problems facing this country.

[Cruelbreed]

is growing yes but it's far from a threat to the U.S.
It's military is only a threat if we decide to invade China and I think we can all agree that's not going to happen.
Look at the Chinese Military as a regional stabilizer. It counters any threat in the region (N.Korea included) and has much sway over potential rogue regimes.
East Asia would actually be less stable if China's military was weak.
We outspend China in military hardware about 20 to 1. There budget is tiny compared to ours and their navy is completely incapable of operating with success against ours.

Take a deep breathe...drink a cold beer...and worry about the REAL problems facing this country.

Sorry to be asking so many questions, but in your view what are the real problems?

[ghost]

Sorry to be asking so many questions, but in your view what are the real problems?


Iran, eventually.

[EXCONservative]

How about the financial crisis, millions of unemployed, tanking house prices, tanking new home sales, outsourcing of jobs to China, Illegal immigration, Skyrocketing health care, trade deficit, federal deficit, to name a few. Care to add to the ever growing list?

[sr338]

Are you sure you're an ex conservative? Because you sounds about as conservative as it gets.

Politics aren't my strong point, so I could be confused.

[EXCONservative]

I would consider myself a fiscal conservative and a social liberal if that makes any sense?
I really don't care if pot is legalized or the drinking age is lowered to 18.
I don't care if two men want get married and I believe that all races and sexes are entitled to the same rights.
I like guns and own a few but I think it's pretty pathetic that it's far easier to get a gun than a drivers license if you know what I mean.
We all need to stop generalizing as it's apparent that politics is as diverse as the people living in this country.

My user name is just to get under peoples skin. It shouldn't offend anyone and yet some people think I'm the enemy simply because of a word.
I thought it was amusing...so I used it. I didn't use Republitard or Republiturd as that I think would come across as very offensive and unneeded.
Yes, I used to be a die hard conservative but I now find that I am much more of a liberal than I used to be.