FuzzyLumpkins
05-14-2016, 01:08 PM
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/05/13/pentagon-chinese-military-modernization-enters-new-phase/
China’s decades-long military modernization “entered a new phase” last year under the aggressive leadership of President Xi Jinping, a new Pentagon report on Beijing’s military capabilities said today. The “sweeping transformation” includes making the formerly mass army a nimbler, more balanced force that is acquiring the kind of expeditionary capabilities the U.S. military already enjoys.
“China’s military modernization is producing capabilities that have the potential to reduce core U.S. military technological advantages” on the sea and in the air, the report found.
The most visible outward sign of China’s military muscle-flexing can be seen in the 3,200 acres it has reclaimed on reefs and rocks in the South China Sea. Three of those sites in the Spratly Islands now have port facilities and 10,000-foot runways that can handle any plane in the Chinese arsenal, the report found. Those territorial claims, which clash with rival claims from other states in the region, are backed up with coast guard and civilian ships.
“It seems to us that these activities are designed to stay below the threshold of conflict,” but demonstrate that China is willing to defend its territorial claims, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia Abraham Denmark said while unveiling the report at the Pentagon.
The report, an annual update mandated by Congress, notes that the Chinese moves “have caused countries in the region to enhance their ties to the United States.” Given the still-growing Chinese defense budget, the report found, “these concerns are likely to intensify as the PLA continues to modernize, especially in the absence of greater transparency.”
But the potentially more significant, long-term developments are found closer to home. Xi is pushing through a series of deep reforms in the People’s Liberation Army, including a massive reorganization of the historically unwieldy institution, moving it from a collection of distinct regional units to a more rigidly top-down organization. The Chinese leader is also purging the military’s officer corps, arresting dozens on charges of corruption over the past year while cutting some 300,000 troops from the army’s bloated ranks.
China’s decades-long military modernization “entered a new phase” last year under the aggressive leadership of President Xi Jinping, a new Pentagon report on Beijing’s military capabilities said today. The “sweeping transformation” includes making the formerly mass army a nimbler, more balanced force that is acquiring the kind of expeditionary capabilities the U.S. military already enjoys.
“China’s military modernization is producing capabilities that have the potential to reduce core U.S. military technological advantages” on the sea and in the air, the report found.
The most visible outward sign of China’s military muscle-flexing can be seen in the 3,200 acres it has reclaimed on reefs and rocks in the South China Sea. Three of those sites in the Spratly Islands now have port facilities and 10,000-foot runways that can handle any plane in the Chinese arsenal, the report found. Those territorial claims, which clash with rival claims from other states in the region, are backed up with coast guard and civilian ships.
“It seems to us that these activities are designed to stay below the threshold of conflict,” but demonstrate that China is willing to defend its territorial claims, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia Abraham Denmark said while unveiling the report at the Pentagon.
The report, an annual update mandated by Congress, notes that the Chinese moves “have caused countries in the region to enhance their ties to the United States.” Given the still-growing Chinese defense budget, the report found, “these concerns are likely to intensify as the PLA continues to modernize, especially in the absence of greater transparency.”
But the potentially more significant, long-term developments are found closer to home. Xi is pushing through a series of deep reforms in the People’s Liberation Army, including a massive reorganization of the historically unwieldy institution, moving it from a collection of distinct regional units to a more rigidly top-down organization. The Chinese leader is also purging the military’s officer corps, arresting dozens on charges of corruption over the past year while cutting some 300,000 troops from the army’s bloated ranks.