is China's military rise a myth or not?

Question

China's economy is the third largest in the world. A popular belief seems to be that China's economic growth has been commensurate with its military development, which I think is quite true. However, I can't help being skeptical of the opinion that China's military power ranks as high as its economic power.
The reason for my being skeptical is that during WW2, countries like Japan and America already boasted aircraft carrier fleets. China though, doesn't have one aircraft carrier now. The news says its first aircraft carrier is still being made.
I wonder given the fact I mentioned above, why China is still seen as the top military power in the world?
I know I'm probably wrong on this point. I welcome your correction.

Answer 1

Right now China's military power comes shearly from the amount of people they can call on to do battle. Refer back to the Korean War when millions of Chinese soldiers poured across the Yalu (sp) River and drove the Americans nearly out of Korea. Both America and Japan owe China so much money from loans, if China called in those loans, they could buy out America and Japan including all of their military assets. As I see it, China will become the #1 World Power within the next 20 years.

Answer 2

I don't think they are much of a threat. Many people point out their size, but the truth of the matter is that wars are no longer fought by having rows of infantrymen line up in a field and trade musket shots at each other. The Chinese are not capable of waging a successful conventional war against the U.S. because: They don't have the economy for it. They don't have the technology for it. And they don't have the training for it.





Once they have to shift a huge part of their economy into warfare, they will no longer have such a large economy, especially since so much of their economy is tied in to the U.S. Imagine if Walmart decided to go to war with country folk. A lot of country folk shop at Walmart, so their profits will plummet making it harder to sustain the initial level of spending.



America has third generation stealth aircraft. We're still the only country that has first generation stealth technology. If anyone else has it, we haven't seen it. We also have all the best night vision, clothing, vehicles, tanks, fighter jets, and yes... aircraft carriers. Our Navy and Air Force are practically unopposed.



U.S. has one of the most combat hardened forces that we have ever had. We go to fight numerous times, and then survive to come home. All the while we gain and preserve combat experience. We have learned much more about modern warfare in the last few years than we learned from previous conflicts.





You see, America is by far the most military powerful nation that the planet has ever seen, and it will take a lot to unseat us. That doesn't mean that they can't try to wage an unconventional war like the terrorists of the middle east. That a war of the will more than anything else though. As far as invading our shores and making us all have to learn to speak Mandarin.... Not going to happen. Don't believe the hype that people try to throw out about China. They are a threat, but not like people think.

Answer 3

people look at armies as purely a numbers game, I have more soldiers than you therefore I am more powerful.



and when you look at China's numbers its pretty dam impressive, millions of men in the army.



but if you look closer it's possible to see it isn't quite as impressive as first seen, the chinese include in their figures militia and home guard units, these make up a very large percentage of it's numbers and these men would not be considered soldiers in any other army on earth, most of them are little better than local villagers called up in times of need, none are issued with anything more than large sticks and none have any military training, in fact they don't even have uniforms just an armband identifying them as government employees. they are purely used as backup to police and army units in time of civil unrest. yet despite this they are classed as soldiers and are counted towards the total. stop counting these guys and the figures start coming down in a big way.

same if you cut off all their reserve and territorial units, half trained soldiers equipped with old junk mainly used in the event of war as 'meat shields'

what your left with is their front line top of the range troops trained to a good standard equipped with the most modern and best equipment being produced in China, if you count only these guys then they are no bigger than the US army.



What people do tend to over look is China massive potential to increase.



The argument used is that they don't have a navy or an air force worth talking about so they can be ignored.

this is short-sighted and also over looks a period from our own recent history.



In 1939 the US had the 40th largest army in the world, it had a respectable navy that was still far, far smaller that countries like the UK and France (US 3-4 aircraft carriers, France 10 aircraft carriers, UK 30+ Aircraft carriers) and the US air force was tiny and using obsolete planes that were no match for the planes fighting over Europe



yet by 1943 the US had a huge army, the largest navy in the world and the biggest air force equipped with some of the best planes of the period.



how did they do this? population, money and industrial capacity.



today China has all three of those things in excess, if they decide to they can also pump out aircraft ships and tanks and troops on massive scales.

Answer 4

They are the largest military, but they are not number 1 otherwise.



People always look at numbers and think that has something to do with power.



Military power really lies with logistics. You can have the biggest army in the world, but without logistics, you cannot field, move, or supply that army. China is very limited in logistics. Others have pointed out that they have crap for a navy for example. Not only do they not have combat ships, they do not really have transport ships as well. So with its huge army, China can defend itself, but if you do not share a border with them, there is very little they can do to you militarily.



Even if you do share a border with them, their record is not that great. They suprised the UN in Korea, but where then pushed back to the current border. When the ceasefire was signed, the UN had just broken through again.



Following the US withdraw from Vietnam, China attempted to invade Vietnam as a punishment for Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia. It did not go too well for China.



Their military is really built around two things, defence and internal population control and policing.



Also, they are actually down-sizing their military. They are modernizing it still, but the size has been slowly decreasing.



So you are correct in saying their military is overrated. Your reasoning is partially correct.



Where China actually has power is strategically. They have a handful of nukes, not enough to really do anything, but enough to keep off invaders. They also understand information warfare, meaning they can get their idea across better then a lot of countries as well as obtain information. As you already pointed out, they have a lot of economic power as well and they are not afriad to use that economic power to crush a 3rd world nation economy if it poses a local economic threat to one of their goals in Africa for example.



The idea they can buy out the USA is far fetched. If they tried it, they would just sabotage their own economy since thier currency is artificially pegged to the dollar. If they crush the dollar, they crush their currency too. If they tried to un-peg their currency from the dollar, their currency would collapse on its own.



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Paul,

I agree with most of what you said, but even mobilized, they would have a serious problem playing catch up in the naval department. On the land, they could do that, but China does not have the infrastructure to do a rapid build of a navy. Only the South East quarter of China is industrialized. The other 3/4th is much the same as it was 100 years ago.



Also, even if they did build or buy a navy, they have no real core of expertise on how to use a navy.

Answer 5

China is growing by leaps and bounds. IN many respects they are more advanced than us, but that is just because their stuff is all new, and they have made it a priority. They are building 700 miles of high speed rail. The U.S. does not have ANY high speed passenger rail lines. China has uninterrupted cell phone voice and data service in nearly every corner of the country. In the U.S., if you leave the big cities, you might be out of luck.



China is able to do this because they don't have to vote about doing these things. Their government mandates them, and it happens. It's a "centrally managed system."



But they just aren't pouring as much money and attention into their military. They couldn't come close to ours, even if they tried. Their military is well suited for their purposes - internal stability and border defense, with a limited capacity for foreign operations in neighboring territories.



If they ever do get into a confrontation with us, they are better off using asymmetric means like electronic warfare, economic pressure, and sabotage. They could really throw a wrench in our works by any of those strategies. THOSE are the threats we should be addressing. Not Chinese fighter jets and air craft carriers, which will not be better than ours for several decades. If ever.

Answer 6

China has been building their Navy faster then any Navy in the history of warefare. They have built up the arym almost as fast. The best part is we are paying for it will every dollor of goods we buy from china and allowing them to buy our debt.

The only advantage we have over them is technology. We went high tech and they still have the numbers.

Answer 7

China's military is basically like what the American military industrial complex was during the height of the cold war.



Even though they're on top they're still going at full-steam, lol.

Answer 8

They have a crap Navy and Air force. They are strictly ground pounders and are no threat to us. We could decimate China without even putting boots on the ground.

Answer 9

chinese military is big, but that doesn't matter.