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China’s Deceptively Weak (and Dangerous) Military

thediplomat.com

21–30 of 109 posts

Re: China’s Deceptively Weak (and Dangerous) Military

#22
post #7

This is the most interesting part, for me: > The PLA, unlike the armed forces of the United States, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and other regional heavyweights, is by definition not a professional fighting force. Rather, it is a “party army,” the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Indeed, all career officers in the PLA are members of the CCP and all units at the company level and above have political off…

I am given to understand that British soldiers entering the army swear their allegiance to the Queen, not to the constitution nor the population. So?

How exactly does the UK clinging to a backward tradition justify the Chinese clinging to a backward tradition?

Re: China’s Deceptively Weak (and Dangerous) Military

#23
post #9

Hmm. The Sino-Indian war dismissed as a minor border skirmish? It only went for a month, but it was in the Himalayas. Also, it only took the Chinese a month to get what they wanted[2]. Not to be outdone by the conventional army, China’s powerful strategic rocket troops, the Second Artillery Force, still uses cavalry units to patrol its sprawling missile bases deep within China’s vast interior. Is there any evidence a…

yes good point. The Indo-China War of 1962 was rather strategic, then brute.

As someone obliviously said that Indian Air Force was superior, is true partly. But they are forgetting the batter terrain was the himalayas. Unless you are flying over, its suicidal to even fly in Himalayas.

In short, A axe can't do a toothpick's job. Thus, nor Navy/Air Force was deployed.

Also, China/India are both relatively young sovereign nations.. 1962 was barely 10 years into independance for both ravaged nations. Economically/Politically it was a bad choice to continue it.

Re: China’s Deceptively Weak (and Dangerous) Military

#24
post #9

Hmm. The Sino-Indian war dismissed as a minor border skirmish? It only went for a month, but it was in the Himalayas. Also, it only took the Chinese a month to get what they wanted[2]. Not to be outdone by the conventional army, China’s powerful strategic rocket troops, the Second Artillery Force, still uses cavalry units to patrol its sprawling missile bases deep within China’s vast interior. Is there any evidence a…

The (C)C-130J, which is what's used today, has little in common with the C-130A other than appearance. These aren't 50+ year old aircraft.

Re: China’s Deceptively Weak (and Dangerous) Military

#25
The United States Department of Defense should take a look at this article and stop asking for more military expenditures. They are wasting Americans taxes actually. Just let Japan release its military power, such as Gundam or Ultraman, then China will be scared. Just let Indian do a military parade. Imagine many HAL repaired fighter aircraft flying across the sky and China will be scared again. China will show its real weakness. This is a perfect strategy. I thought the United States Department of Defense should give me a BIG GOLDEN MEDAL as a reward. \^o^/

Re: China’s Deceptively Weak (and Dangerous) Military

#26

I bet you could say all or nearly all of these bad-sounding things about the US military or any randomly selected Western military. There is surely some crank out there patrolling a SAC installation on horseback. The US certainly has capital ships that don't work and have to go right back to the shipyard. The US still operates 1950s-era aircraft that have been repurposed from airlift to bombers to mine layers to sign…

Are you serious? The U.S. has successfully fought wars in the recent past. High ranking officers are routinely sacked when they lose touch of soldiering and their mission fails. The U.S. version of party political indoctrination is just a little silliness like lesbian sensitivity training.

Things like the Rifleman's Creed aren't political indoctrination?

Every army has political indoctrination - it's how you motivate people to put their lives on the line for your goals.

Re: China’s Deceptively Weak (and Dangerous) Military

#27
post #7

This is the most interesting part, for me: > The PLA, unlike the armed forces of the United States, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and other regional heavyweights, is by definition not a professional fighting force. Rather, it is a “party army,” the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Indeed, all career officers in the PLA are members of the CCP and all units at the company level and above have political off…

>> For that reason, the PLA has to engage in constant “political work” at the expense of training for combat. This means that 30 to 40 percent of an officer’s career (or roughly 15 hours per 40-hour work week) is wasted studying CCP propaganda, singing patriotic songs, and conducting small group discussions on Marxist-Leninist theory.

I very much doubt the conduct "small group discussions on Marxist-Leninist theory" the last 20+ years. When was the article written?

Re: China’s Deceptively Weak (and Dangerous) Military

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am given to understand that British soldiers entering the army swear their allegiance to the Queen, not to the constitution nor the population. So?

How exactly does the UK clinging to a backward tradition justify the Chinese clinging to a backward tradition?

What does exactly make it a "backward tradition"? That you have other ideas about how things should be?

Re: China’s Deceptively Weak (and Dangerous) Military

#29
post #18

One of the most important aspects of modern warfare is the asymmetry. It's best to pursue small efforts that can have stupidly large and devastating effect on your opponent. China is investing in sophisticated information attacks to steal military and industry capabilities, disable infrastructure and remove a communications advantage from an invader. Their heavy submarine focus threatens to obliterate trade routes an…

>what a great asset horses would be when both sides have used their precision missiles to take out all of the supporting infrastructure. No maintenance or fuel supply line needed, they even double as their own horse manufacturing line.

Think about what you're saying for a second. It takes years and plenty of manpower and supplies to raise a horse for riding. Riding horses most definitely do not self replicate in any useful fashion or time-frame.

Horses are in no way useful, at scale, in modern warfare. They require far more training, manpower, and time per-mile-covered than a motorized vehicle. If both sides have obliterated their respective infrastructures to the point that they rely on horses, each would have long since lost the capability to wage a modern war.

Re: China’s Deceptively Weak (and Dangerous) Military

#30
> Take a Taiwan invasion scenario, which is the PLA’s top operational planning priority. While much hand-wringing has been done in recent years about the shifting military balance in the Taiwan Strait, so far no one has been able to explain how any invading PLA force would be able to cross over 100 nautical miles of exceedingly rough water and successfully land on the world’s most inhospitable beaches, let alone capture the capital and pacify the rest of the rugged island.

I've no idea where the author gets the idea that Taiwan's beaches are the world's most inhospitable. China has continually increased it's stockade of short range missiles located along the coast by the Taiwan Strait. Their strategy most likely would be to decapitate the command and control structure and probably much of the military hardware along with power generation and infrastructure in Taiwan first. It would be a relatively relaxed "invasion" across the Taiwan Strait after that - assuming no retaliation or retribution from the US or Japan first.

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