China’s military is getting a lot of ink lately. They have developed an airplane that supposedly has stealth capabilities and bought an old tub of a boat from the Ukraine and will sail it sometime in July. But in reality, China knows that their military falls short of that of the USA and may never catch up. The US has incredible tech and is not afraid to spend when it comes to issues of the military. This may be due to all of the cash that defense contractors are making , with a smidgen of fear from the Reagan days and the Russia scare. The following is a good quote about how China views its and the US military
from The Beijing Consensus-new (Stefan Halper)
“Susan Shirk, a former deputy assistant secretary of state responsible for Sino-American relations, explains that the nature of Chinese military developments over the last decade demonstrates recognition that the United States will always have superior firepower. The Chinese government has focused accordingly on asymmetric capabilities that it calls its “assassin’s mace,” which specialize in informational warfare to exploit “Goliath’s” offensive capabilities in the theater around Chinese borders .16 China’s priority here is to disrupt U.S. command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, and reconnaissance in the requisite battle space. For these reasons, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has referred to Chinese military development as giving cause for concern about U.S. interests in the Taiwan Straits, but not for panic about expansive Chinese ambitions. 17”
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