Recently the Chinese Military and Government have been the subject of intense scrutiny by the United States media, some pundits on the right of the political spectrum have claimed that the PLA operate without the control of the Chinese Government. People quote that the Chinese Premier seemed quite surprised when he was asked about the new stealth fighter the Chinese are currently developing. In my opinion these views are incorrect and can be solved quite easily with logic and a basic grasp of the facts.
China is currently and emerging economy, countless economic experts from various countries across the world agree that it's only a matter of time before the Chinese economy out-paces and overwhelms the United States economy and the Chinese become the worlds largest economic super-power, however one thing is missing from this picture. Military power and projection, currently the United States military has the largest and most advanced army, navy and air-force in the world it's military budget is far larger then all the current countries combined and it's naval fleet is larger in both size and displacement then the entire navy of every single country currently in the European Union. It's fact that the United States is the foremost military power currently in the world.
The Chinese Government knows this and it wishes to cement it's place as the dominant region power in South East Asia however it cannot do this. The PLA is underdeveloped, lacking major armour, artillery, naval and air-support relying on vast amounts of man-power and old artillery in an attempt to overwhelm the enemy in a tactic that was last tried by the Soviet Union during the Second World War.
The PLA was quite content with it's military doctrine until a few decades ago until several major events happened which quite violently shock the PLA to it's core and awakened it to the latest tactics in modern warefare. In the 90's the United States Air-Force managed to successfully defeat the defences of the Former Yugoslavia and Iraq without suffering major losses to enemy defences. The PLA then realized that their military would not last long in a defensive war against the United States unless they drastically modernized their military, so began a massive modernization scheme.
The modernization of the PLA came at quite a good time for the Chinese Government. The world economy was quite healthy and the world economy demanded cheap produce from China, the Chinese economy was booming. The Chinese Government could afford to spend vast fortunes on development programmes for aircraft, armour and naval vessels. At the same time Russia was still suffering from the collapse of the Soviet Union, worse effected was the Russian aircraft sector, the fall of communism had completely decimated the Russian economy and no money was left for researching new aircraft for the Russian air-force. Most effected is by the collapse of the Soviet Union was the company Mikoyan, after the Russian economy was saved from total collapse the Russian Air-Force sent out multiple contracts for new aircraft to modernize the new Russian Air-Force. Mikovan submitted several plans however all were rejected, finally after several attempts the company submitted an advanced fifth generation aircraft as part of a competition to decide the next fighter for the Russian air-force. The Mig 1.44 was created and developed with Mikovan placing a lot of effort into the plane however it was rejected and another plane now underdevelopment as the PAK FA was chosen. Mikovan at that time was deeply annoyed with the Russian Government and was in deep need of contracts. The Chinese Government was in need of advanced technology, the logical conclusion is that the Chinese Government requested and paid for the assistance of several highly skilled developers from Mikovan to help design a new fighter aircraft for the PLAAF. Milovan was quite desperate for contracts so supplied them with details from the Mig.144 and the J-20 was created.
The Chinese Military has undergone further modernization. Currently the PLAAF (Chinese Air-Force) have employed modern aircraft such as the J-10 aircraft into their inventory an aircraft that has the same capabilities as the American F-16 and similar aircraft in Taiwan. The Chinese Army has also undergone modernization with new Tanks, Infantry fighting vehicles, armoured personal carriers, artillery and small arms under production for use by the front line troops. The Navy has also undergone similar modernization with recent Chinese frigates and submarines catching up with the latest technology being used by NATO forces.
All this modernization has been focused towards one major goal. For decades the Chinese government has had it's foreign and economic policy be dictated by the United States. It's carrier groups and large amount of allies in the region have created a hostile environment in the eyes of the political elite in the Chinese Government, much like the Russian government see NATO as a force being used to surround and destroy the Russian Federation. China simply wants to ward the United States away from South East Asia and replace the United States as the dominant regional super-power both economically and militarily and the Chinese have some good reason to.
Currently the United States government patrols the waters and skies of South East Asia. They have specially designed vessels that monitor movements by air and naval units in the vicinity. The United States navy has been caught several times snooping around several major PLA Naval bases including the base of operations from the Chinese Nuclear Submarine fleet when a spy ship was intercepted and several Chinese trawling vessels attempted to stop the vessel.
Imagine a scenario. The Chinese military send it's most advanced warships, submarines, aircraft and military units to Cuba. While in Cuba they perform naval, air and land exercises with the Cuban military and perform these drills quite close to the coast of the United States (although still within respected waters). How would the United States Government and Media react to this massive showing of force right outside it's doorstep?
That's what the Chinese Government feels every single time the United States Military perform a massive military exercise with Taiwan, a country with extremely poor relations with China (several incidents have occurred when sides have exchanged heavy weapons fire) .
Imagine if the Chinese 'decided to follow the same tactics of the United States Navy and gather some intel on the capabilities of several major facilities belonging to the United States Navy. Imagine of several Chinese 'fishing' vessel were caught outside several major United States naval bases and was found to be recording information on levels of security and levels of supplies and readiness in case of a sudden Pearl Harbour like attack. I
The Chinese Government face a lot of harassment from the United States Military. It's extremely active presence in South East Asia is seen as a risk to Chinese national security, in response to decades to harassment and the rise of the Chinese economy the Chinese Government has undergone a vast modernization programme for the PLA to improve it's power project in South East Asia, aiming to become the largest military power in the world and complete the Chinese take over from the United States as the worlds most powerful nation. The PLA is not out of control, in fact it's totally in control and on the path of becoming the most powerful armed forces in the world.
Imagine a scenario. The Chinese military send it's most advanced warships, submarines, aircraft and military units to Cuba. While in Cuba they perform naval, air and land exercises with the Cuban military and perform these drills quite close to the coast of the United States (although still within respected waters). How would the United States Government and Media react to this massive showing of force right outside it's doorstep?
That's what the Chinese Government feels every single time the United States Military perform a massive military exercise with Taiwan, a country with extremely poor relations with China (several incidents have occurred when sides have exchanged heavy weapons fire) .
Imagine if the Chinese 'decided to follow the same tactics of the United States Navy and gather some intel on the capabilities of several major facilities belonging to the United States Navy. Imagine of several Chinese 'fishing' vessel were caught outside several major United States naval bases and was found to be recording information on levels of security and levels of supplies and readiness in case of a sudden Pearl Harbour like attack. I
The Chinese Government face a lot of harassment from the United States Military. It's extremely active presence in South East Asia is seen as a risk to Chinese national security, in response to decades to harassment and the rise of the Chinese economy the Chinese Government has undergone a vast modernization programme for the PLA to improve it's power project in South East Asia, aiming to become the largest military power in the world and complete the Chinese take over from the United States as the worlds most powerful nation. The PLA is not out of control, in fact it's totally in control and on the path of becoming the most powerful armed forces in the world.
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