Chinese Navy a Threat?
The PLA navy was founded in Taizhou, Jiangsu, on April 23, 1949, bringing together vessels acquired from the Kuomintang and left behind by the Japanese after World War II.
China’s state of the art nuclear submarine the Type 094, also known as Jin Class kicked off the PLA Navy’s three day 60th anniversary party celebration in the northeastern coastal city of Qingdao last month. Naval vessels from 14 countries, including the U.S., and naval representatives from 25 countries, joined in the celebration. Conspicuously absent was the Japanese navy. Japan was not invited for fear it might anger the Chinese public, still deeply scarred by the military invasion in the 1930s and its attendant atrocities.
The idea of inviting an international array of naval personnel was to build foundations for further exchanges and the PLA Navy’s integration with the international community.
Chinese nuclear submarines cruise the western Pacific and share the waters with the U.S. Pacific Fleet. China still has a long way to go as a naval power, but it is only a matter of time before Chinese warships routinely deploy to the Middle East and Africa, where over 75 percent of China’s vital oil imports come from.
China’s first aircraft carrier doesn’t even begin to match the 12 carriers the U.S. has. The U.S. carriers do not operate by themselves, but with powerful and capable escort ships in carrier battle groups.
China needs a reliable infrastructure for projecting and sustaining naval and air power. The U.S. is the pre-eminent exponent of this strategy. It has a long head-start over China. Its 5th Fleet is based in Bahrain, in the Persian Gulf, drawing ships on rotation from both the U.S. Pacific and Atlantic fleets.
U.S. defense spending equals the defense budgets of the next 15 countries combined and will soon exceed all other countries combined. In 2008 the General Accounting Office said cost overruns for the Pentagon’s 95 biggest weapons programs ─ just the overruns! ─ added up to $300 billion, more than double that of China’s $70 billion and Russia’s $50 billion combined military budgets.
With an overall military budget of more than $655 billion in 2009 – almost 10 times that of China’s, not counting the overruns – the U.S. is unmatchable.
China’s state of the art nuclear submarine the Type 094, also known as Jin Class kicked off the PLA Navy’s three day 60th anniversary party celebration in the northeastern coastal city of Qingdao last month. Naval vessels from 14 countries, including the U.S., and naval representatives from 25 countries, joined in the celebration. Conspicuously absent was the Japanese navy. Japan was not invited for fear it might anger the Chinese public, still deeply scarred by the military invasion in the 1930s and its attendant atrocities.
The idea of inviting an international array of naval personnel was to build foundations for further exchanges and the PLA Navy’s integration with the international community.
Chinese nuclear submarines cruise the western Pacific and share the waters with the U.S. Pacific Fleet. China still has a long way to go as a naval power, but it is only a matter of time before Chinese warships routinely deploy to the Middle East and Africa, where over 75 percent of China’s vital oil imports come from.
China’s first aircraft carrier doesn’t even begin to match the 12 carriers the U.S. has. The U.S. carriers do not operate by themselves, but with powerful and capable escort ships in carrier battle groups.
China needs a reliable infrastructure for projecting and sustaining naval and air power. The U.S. is the pre-eminent exponent of this strategy. It has a long head-start over China. Its 5th Fleet is based in Bahrain, in the Persian Gulf, drawing ships on rotation from both the U.S. Pacific and Atlantic fleets.
U.S. defense spending equals the defense budgets of the next 15 countries combined and will soon exceed all other countries combined. In 2008 the General Accounting Office said cost overruns for the Pentagon’s 95 biggest weapons programs ─ just the overruns! ─ added up to $300 billion, more than double that of China’s $70 billion and Russia’s $50 billion combined military budgets.
With an overall military budget of more than $655 billion in 2009 – almost 10 times that of China’s, not counting the overruns – the U.S. is unmatchable.
posted by Peter de Krassel's Custom Maid Politics at 7:05 PM
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