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The military spending global scale to its maximum, by the impulse of the US to Djibouti, an enclave for control of the world China defies their neighbors with his ‘great wall’, of man-made islands
When China launched in 1974 its first nuclear submarine —the 091— more that of concern, triggered ridicule in the West. Commissioned by Mao 16 years before, in addition to inefficient, emitting noises unbearable and high levels of radiation. Some analysts claimed that it was more dangerous to its crew than to the rest of the planet. Less than a half-century later, the giant steps of the chinese Army and the ambition of Beijing to dominate the Pacific posed a headache in Washington.
The country has spent years immersed in a process of transformation of its Armed Forces. Coinciding with its economic take-off, the increase in military spending in recent years —almost ten times higher than in the mid-nineties, according to data from the Institute of Stockholm International Peace Research (SIPRI)— has allowed an exponential development of their capacities, primarily focused in the Air force and the Navy. For a long time, the Pentagon does not hide its concern about the vulnerability faced by american troops in the Pacific or by the growing threat with allies such as Japan and Taiwan. Figures gathered by Reuters show that since 2014, China —according to data of the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), headquartered in London, has an Army of 2.035.000 effective in active, of which 250,000 to belong to the Navy— has launched more warships, submarines, support ships, or amphibian that the total of the british fleet. However, experts point out that this strength is relative. Beijing is countered even by their lack of experience, and a nuclear capacity is less than that of the rest of the major powers (U.S., Russia, the United Kingdom and France).
military Expenditure
USA
China
800.000 (us $ million)
648.798
249.997
0
90
05
10
15
20
95
00
Source: SIPRI.
THE COUNTRY
With the goal of completing the modernization of the people’s Liberation Army (PLA) to 2035, and turn it into “the power of world class” for 2049 —a commitment made by president Xi Jinping at the XIX congress of the Chinese Communist Party held in 2017—, the military expenditure of the country in 2018 reached almost 250,000 million dollars (about 226.065 million euros), more than France, Russia and the United Kingdom together, and surpassed only by the USA, with 649.000 millions of dollars. Data from SIPRI show that China’s investment in defense has increased 130% in the last decade. Despite an increase over the previous year, USA remained in 2018, still below the levels of ten years ago, when the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, rising the expense.
The question of naval occupies the bulk of the last report of the Department of Defense of the US about the military strength chinese. The document emphasizes that Beijing is able to destroy with missiles DF-21 any boat —including aircraft carriers— which navigate less than 1500 kilometres from its shores. The report also assumes that the new position of hegemony of China poses a threat to american troops in the region, mainly in key points such as the strait of Taiwan. The text recognizes that the use of military power chinese is reflecting on that, from 2016, nearly a third of the allies with which it had Taiwan have preferred to betray Taipei, and to establish relations with Beijing. Japan, another chief ally of Washington, also feels increasingly the breath of China, with whom it disputes the sovereignty of the Senkaku islands, patrolled with increasing frequency by the PLA.
The creation of islets artificial in the Pacific was a turning point. In 2013, China began to build in waters surrounding the islands of Spratly and Paracelsus, an area that, in addition to being a major thoroughfare of international maritime commerce, it has important reserves of oil and gas. Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines and Brunei also claim to have rights over these waters. The islets artificial —The Great Wall of Sand, as it was coined in the 2015 commander-in-chief of the united STATES in the Pacific— are used by Beijing as military bases, shuttles, and deposits of weapons.
“Traditionally, the Navy of the PLA has been focused on the operations on the coast of China, defending claims of sovereignty in the South China sea and around Taiwan. The military strategy of 2015 now directs the Navy to gradually change your approach to defense of coastal waters to develop the capacities of projection of power with the greatest scope to defend the political and economic interests China’s international”, explains by e-mail Henry Boyd, a researcher for defence analysis and military IISS.
Now, “the strengths of the Navy of the PLA are mainly quantitative, and technological: they have commissioned an impressive number of large modern warships with advanced systems of missiles, anti-ship and surface to air missiles in the last decade,” says Boyd. Based on the updated data of the Military Balance, published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the expert points out that the chinese Navy has in service four submarines from ballistic missiles, 54 attack submarines (of which six are nuclear-powered), an aircraft carrier, 81 cruise ships, destroyers and frigates, as well as six large ships amphibians. The U.S. Navy, for its part, has 14 submarines of ballistic missiles, 53 attack submarines (all nuclear-powered), 11 aircraft carriers —more than all other countries together—, 110 cruisers, destroyers and frigates, and 32 large ships amphibians in service.
Four decades to transform an Army
The transformation of the chinese Armed Forces began four decades ago.Siemon T. Wezeman, a senior researcher with the program of armament and military expenditure SIPRI, points to its beginning in the eighties, being one of the triggers for the defeat in the 1979 war with Vietnam. At the beginning it was a slow process, “the economy had not yet taken off and the western countries were reluctant to provide equipment. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, relations with Russia had improved and China’s economy accelerated”, explains the experirto.
Another cause was the crisis between 1995 and 1996 in the Taiwan strait —which separates the mainland from the island of Taiwan. When president Bill Clinton sent two aircraft carriers as a response to the launch of ballistic missiles over the strait, “Beijing realized that its capabilities were non-existent or almost non-existent,” points out Fernando Delage, professor of international relations at Loyola University.
The nuclear submarine “is one of the strategic weapons of greater importance within the chinese Navy,” explains Tong Zhao, an expert on nuclear security from the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy. Currently, the six submarines have the capacity to 12 ballistic missiles and belong to the second generation of nuclear submarines, the so-called class 094. “It is believed that China is developing the third generation, the 096, and according to the information in the public domain, is testing its third generation of ballistic missiles launched from submarines, the JL-3, a type of projectile that could fly farther than existing, and to be able to release a heavier load”. However, the expert admits that these submarines “can’t compare” with the americans. “The united states, Russia, the United Kingdom and France have developed them long before. The ability of China is not yet as good as the other four powers, and in this field the US has the most advanced technologies. But the gap is reducing by the amount of resources that continues to invest Beijing”, he warns.
“Although the chinese Navy produces more ships for the navy of the USA every year, the chinese ships are generally smaller and less capable,” says Siemon T. Wezeman, a senior researcher with the program of armament and military expenditure from the SIPRI. “An example, China is just entering its second aircraft carrier and is half in size than the american. ”
Among its advantages, China has a large fleet of ships by coastal, says Wezeman. For Fernando Delage, professor of international relations, Loyola University, another of the strengths lies in the development of a series of ports, which, under the appearance of civil, may serve as an installation logistical support to the chinese Navy. “That means Burma [current Myanmar], Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Djibouti [in the Horn of Africa], where it already has for two years a base”, the first in the foreign.
The weaknesses of the Navy, by contrast, “focus on the human capital, organization, and doctrine,” says Boyd. “The Navy of the PLA has an operational experience and institutional relatively limited in naval operations of complex large scale”, he explains. According to Siemon T. Wezeman, the chinese Navy “is not used to operating out of the first chain of islands [islands southern-the Kuril, the japanese archipelago, Taiwan, the northern Philippines and the island of Borneo], and hence, works very close to the chinese coast”. You do not have experience either in operations with other branches of the Army, ” says the expert.
however, although the u.s. Navy is still, by far, the most powerful, China will not need to have eleven aircraft carriers and the US to prevent access to the South China Sea, says Delage. “Today it’s enough to have missiles antibarco, which are infinitely cheaper than an aircraft carrier and that have the capacity to destroy, in the event of a conflict, an american vessel,” he says.
“the U.S. is concerned that the modernization efforts of the Navy of the PLA may have closed the gap in quality between the two forces to the point that, in a scenario of conflict, the u.s. Navy’s fight to operate in a timely and effective manner in the coastal waters around China without incurring losses are very high in ships and personnel,” concludes Henry Boyd.
maritime Claims
seven nations
300 km
China
JAPAN
Taiwan
Islands
Paracelsus
Philippines
Islands
Spratly
Vietnam
Malaysia
Brunei
Source: The Military Balance.
THE COUNTRY
maritime Claims
seven nations
300 km
China
JAPAN
Taiwan
Islands
Paracelsus
Philippines
Islands
Spratly
Vietnam
Malaysia
Brunei
Source: The Military Balance.
THE COUNTRY
maritime Claims of seven nations
300 km
JAPAN
China
Taiwan
Islands
Paracelsus
Philippines
Sea of
South China
Islands
Spratly
Vietnam
Malaysia
Brunei
Source: The Military Balance.
THE COUNTRY
