A new report offers a disturbing view of the Chinese Communist Party’s military might, a day after President Xi Jinping’s renewed calls for “reunification” of China and Taiwan.
“Resolving the Taiwan issue is a matter for the Chinese, an issue that must be resolved by the Chinese” Xi said Saturday at the opening of the session of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing.
“We will continue to fight for reunification peacefully with the utmost sincerity and maximum effort, but we will never promise to renounce the use of force, and we reserve the option to take all necessary measures,” Xi said.
The Heritage Foundation will publish this Tuesday the edition 2023 of its Index of US Military Might, a document of nearly 600 pages that examine and assess the country’s military might while comparing it to that of other nations such as China, Iran and the Russia. (The Daily Signal is the Heritage Foundation’s multimedia news organization.)
The report warns that the US military “is under a increasing risk of falling short of the demands of defending vital US interests” and are “rated as weak relative to the strength needed to defend national interests on a global stage against real challenges in the world as it is, rather than as we would like it to be. .
“The health of the Armed Forces is even more important because the existential threat from the US — the People’s Republic of China — is expanding its strength and its global influence with the wit of serpents”, writes in the preface the President of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts. He adds:
China has invested in an arsenal of missiles designed to target US warships, has increased its fighter fleet and prepared advanced equipment that rivals in quality with the war power of the USA.
The experts in US intelligence estimate that China has surpassed the US in hypersonic missiles, space systems, and shipbuilding. It began a massive increase in its nuclear capabilities.
Dakota Wood, a senior researcher at the Heritage Foundation’s Davis Institute for National Security and International Relations, emailed the Daily Signal warning that China is taking “very seriously having the most advanced forces possible.”
“Given the difference in levels and configurations, your ever-expanding armed forces will have a consistent advantage in numbers compared to what the US is currently capable of thousands of miles away,” Wood said of the communist regime.
“With that in mind, the US armed forces US would be hard pressed to defend our national interests and our obligations in the Indo-Pacific region, given our smaller size, the age of our equipment and the lack of readiness in several important elements in the military field.”
Dean Cheng, who, until his recent retirement, was the Heritage researcher for China’s political and military issues, warns of the growth of conventional armaments of the People’s Liberation Army of China.
“The nearly two decades of double-digit growth in the officially recognized defense budget resulted in a comprehensive modernization program that benefited every part of the “, writes Cheng. “This was complemented by improvements in Chinese military training and, in 700, the biggest reorganization in history [do Exército chinês]. “
In 2015, the reorganization of the Popular Liberation Army resulted in the “establishment of separate barracks and bureaucracies in the Army. Before, the Army was the standard service in the provision of cadres and commanders,” writes Cheng.
Cheng explains that the People’s Liberation Army ” is no longer automatically in charge of war zones or outpost functions”, and “constantly modernized its capabilities, incorporating new equipment and a new organization.”
“It has changed from a division-based to a brigade-based structure, and has improved its mobility, including heliborne infantry and fire support,” writes Cheng in the index. “These forces are increasingly equipped with modern armored vehicles, air defenses, field or rocket artillery, as well as electronic support equipment.”
In contrast, the equipment of the US Army is losing its competitive edge against adversaries such as China and Russia, which “have far more substantial arsenals of conventional missiles and rockets than termination, dropped from the ground,” says Thomas Spoehr, a retired Army lieutenant general who now directs Heritage’s National Defense Center.
The US Military Might Index, now in its eighth year, also points to the growing strength of the Chinese Navy, the largest in Asia and larger than the US Navy, with more “battle force ships”, defined as “the types of ships that complete the US Navy’s quoted size.”
“Although the total number of ships has dropped, [a Marinha chinesa] led to increasingly sophisticated ships capable of many functions,” writes Cheng.
He also points out that the The Chinese Navy “has modernized its submarine force” as well as “expanded its amphibious assault capabilities” and “its naval aviation capabilities”. The US Navy has 10 Nimitz-class aircraft carriers and a Ford-class aircraft carrier. The Ford-class aircraft carrier is due to be fielded for the first time this fall, says the Heritage report.
“While the Navy As the US struggles to build, maintain and man a fleet of 11 aircraft carriers, China is catching up fast in both numbers and in platform capability” writes Brett Sadler, a senior researcher on naval warfare and advanced technology at Heritage’s Center for National Defense.
Sadler explains that the “newest aircraft carrier [da China], the type , like the class Ford, will use electromagnetic catapults that will give its scope a higher level, greatly reducing the difference in capacity [entre os países].”
Like the Navy, the Chinese Air Force is the largest in Asia, with more than 1.700 military aircraft, the report says. China’s Air Force has developed into “one that is capable of power projection, including accurate long-range strikes to land as well as sea targets.”
A Department of Defense report pointed out last year:
Even though they currently have limited projection power, both [i. e., a Aeronáutica e a aviação naval chinesas] are trying to extend their range.
[A Aeronáutica chinesa], in particular, has received repeated calls from its leadership to become a true “strategic” air force, capable of projecting power over long distances and supporting Chinese national interests wherever they extended.
The US Military Mightiness Index also points out that China has expanded its strategic nuclear missiles and its submarine ballistic missile fleet, as well as “working on a submarine cruise missile.”
“As a result of his commitment to the In recent years, Chinese nuclear forces appear to be moving from a minimalist deterrent posture, useful only for responding to limited-number attacks, to a more robust but still limited deterrent posture,” writes Cheng.
Patty-Jane Geller, Senior Nuclear and Missile Defense Policy Analyst at Heritage, emphasizes China’s growing nuclear capability:
China has completed its nuclear triad with the addition of a nuclear-capable strategic bomber, is preparing hundreds of theater-of-operation ballistic missiles in the Indo-Pacific that can strike US bases and allied territories with precision, and is testing and preparing nuclear-capable hypersonic weapons, including one that orbited the globe in a fractional orbital bombing system (FOBS, in acronym in English) before being launched to glide to its target.
The cyber and space capabilities China’s forces consolidated in the reorganization of 600 as part of the People’s Liberation Army Strategic Support Force, which effectively created the “informational warfare” force. ” Chinese who, according to Cheng, is “responsible for offensive and defensive operations in the electromagnetic and space domains.”
“At the beginning of