Is China a paper tiger?
China's economic and military strength has been greatly exaggerated, argues Michael Beckley in a new book,
"Unrivaled: Why America Will Remain the World's Sole Superpower" and reviewed by Ryan McMaken at the Mises Institute. Too long to post here in it's entirety, but here's a snippet:
...China’s Military Strength
But perhaps in spite of all of this China is still more militarily powerful than the United States?
Extremely few key indicators point to such a reality. According to Beckley, "The United States has five to ten times the net military assets of China." American troops are better equipped, and better armed than Chinese troops. Beckley describes how American nuclear subs far outclass Chinese subs. There is no comparison in terms of military tech. The number of advanced aircraft and naval vessels available to the US—and which can be easily and frequently refueled and resupplied—is much larger.
Meanwhile, China faces many more geopolitical constraints in its own back yard than is the case for the US. China is partly hemmed in by wealthy and well-armed neighbors such as Taiwan and Japan. China’s attempts at annexing the South China Sea have earned the ire of the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia. Moreover, most of China’s neighbors have the ability to inflict real damage on China’s troops and other military resources.
Compared to the US, China must expend far more of its military in dealing with neighbors: "China must secure its land borders, which stretch fourteen thousand miles and include boundaries with fifteen countries…. China shares a bitterly contested fourteen-hundred-mile border with India." The border with Vietnam "remains tense." In 2014 and 2015, Chinese and Vietnamese forces exchanged fire. China borders North Korea, which is not exactly a source of serenity for the Chinese state.
The United States, meanwhile, borders two friendly nations, and is otherwise surrounded by huge oceans.
China is in no position to project power outside its own region at all, and thus Beckley concludes, China "cannot maintain sea or air control in its near seas; doing so in the Pacific Ocean or near the American cost is out of the question."...
Read the whole thing at the link.
Onward and upward,
airforce