Quoted:
Quoted:
At any rate; China is working to eventually position itself as a world military power, and already having achieved status as a world economic power and a United States creditor, China is well on its way towards accomplishing that goal.
Since it furthers their ultimate goals; I wouldn't be surprised at all to see China, in the not so far off future, waging economic warfare on the United States, our trade relationship although extremely beneficial to them at this point in time, notwithstanding.
China's long term goals, both economic as well as military, are definitely global rather than regional in nature.
And the Chinese have the means as well as the desire to accomplish what they have set out to do.
Im wondering when they will start (further) developing / expanding (at a rapid rate ) their naval and air forces.
DoD reports say they'll have two conventional aircraft carriers by 2015, followed by two nuclear aircraft carriers a few years later. That is, unless they hit a snag.
Currently, they're having a dispute with the Russians because the Chinese started making unlicensed copies of the Su-27 (oh, the irony) so Russia isn't selling them the Su-33 they need to give them carrier-capable fighters. They're working it out. But, when all is said and done, they have a shitload of inferior aircraft and a handful of fighters that can take on the F-15 and F-16 on a fairly equal basis. Give them twenty years and they'll have numbers AND quality.
They're also producing a clone of the Eurocopter. Gee, wonder where they got THAT from? *glares at France*
Their army is basically as modernized as it needs to be. They've got 6,000 Type 59's and a couple hundred Type 88's as cannon fodder, with 2,500 Type 96's as the new mass-produced MBT and 500 Type 99's as the new MBT for elite forces (going the Soviet route of two tanks, one that's cheap and mass-produced like the T-72 and one that's expensive and better like the T-80.). All they need to do is continue producing their new MBT's to reach viable numbers for a war. Their small arms are all modernized and they have equivelents of US weapons like the Mk.19, SMAW, etc. plus ATGM's (which I doubt are anywhere near as good as the Javelin, but they're probably good enough to kill modern MBT's.).
Their main weakness is their navy, and they're correcting that rapidly. Their submarines are already trouble.
And of course, they have that new ballistic missile that supposedly can hit an aircraft carrier from 2,000 miles away and travels at mach 10. It wouldn't even need a warhead, just punch straight through the ship and out the bottom. Nail a reactor and you're golden. Add a shit-ton of conventional explosives or a tactical nuke...