United States Navy via Wikimedia Commons

A lot has changed since the Pentagon’s Report on China’s military twenty years ago naively dismissed the rise of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The latest report by the Office of the Defense Secretary released yesterday, details how America’s most serious existential threat has grown to equal, and in some areas surpass, the U.S. military in just two decades.

China is on track to become what Supreme Leader Xi Jinping has described as a “world-class military” before the middle of this century. The year 2049 is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Xi’s long proclaimed date for China to become the world’s biggest superpower.

The 2020 Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) report to Congress alarmingly shows how “China is already ahead of the United States in certain areas” such as shipbuilding, size of their Navy, land-based conventional ballistic and cruise missiles, and integrated air defense systems.

According to the report, China’s PLA Navy (PLAN) has already grown to become the world’s largest navy with about 350 ships and submarines. Over 130 of those vessels are major surface combatants, compared to a total U.S. battle fleet of less than 300 ships. The U.S. has made plans for a 350 ship Navy, but even if that goal is reached, the PLAN is expected to continue growing beyond that.

This year alone, the PLAN is expected to add ten major ships to its fleet. Since China can focus most of its sea power near its shores to threaten U.S. allies such as Taiwan and Japan, and the South China Sea, this puts considerable pressure on the U.S. Navy which has more major global commitments.

Adding to the severe weapons disparity, the report notes that China also now has more than 1,250 offensive intermediate and medium-range ground-launched ballistic missiles (GLBMs) and ground-launched cruise missiles (GLCMs), some able to strike targets up to 3,400 miles away. As Newsweek explained, the U.S. was restricted from producing these such weapons by its 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia.

President Trump had the U.S. leave the INF Treaty in August of last year, partly due to Russian cheating, but mostly to allow the U.S. to counter this massive Chinese missile superiority. Since then the U.S. has tested both a medium-range GLCM and GLBM, but it is now in a game of catch up.

In addition to this massive offensive missile capability, Newsweek notes that:

China has also invested in defense, establishing what the Pentagon report called ‘one of the world’s largest forces of advanced long-range surface-to-air systems.’ These include state-of-the-art Russian S-400s, S-300s and domestically-produced systems ‘that constitute part of its robust and redundant integrated air defense system architecture.’

Also worrisome is China’s plans to double its nuclear stockpile by 2030, which I have reported on earlier. In this report, the Pentagon released an estimate of China’s nuclear stockpile for the first time. It estimates that it is still relatively small, in “the low-200s,” but “is projected to at least double in size” to 500 weapons over the next decade.

This latest Pentagon report shows how serious the Chinese military threat is, and the immense effort required by the U.S. going forward just to keep pace with the Chinese Dragon.

The “PRC has marshalled the resources, technology, and political will over the past two decades to strengthen and modernize the PLA in nearly every respect,” the report assessed. If the U.S. is unable to do the same over the next decade, it will pay a very heavy price.

READ NEXT: Former Pentagon Official on How U.S. Can Win War With China Over Taiwan >>

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Comments

  1. I didn’t notice in the article any discussion of the major reduction in military spending during the Obama administration, as Democrats were quick to do to advance their domestic agenda (what I refer to as vote buying with our money). We have been playing catch up since President Trump was elected. I believe it is important for our citizens to understand how we got into this situation. Why would we expect anything different if Democrats are successful in November?

    1. You also didn’t notice any mention of the decimation of our military during the Carter fiasco nor the Clinton years of pandering to the Chinese and providing them with missile technology to aim and stage rockets. I believe I read during Madelyn Albright’s Kosovo War, Bill Clinton insisted the Air Force be used F117s as fighters which they weren’t designed to do. If my memory is right, this might be why one was shot down in 1999.

    2. yeah well get ready for more of the same if BIDEN HARRIS is victorious , and they just might be with the democrats doing all they can to steal the election !

  2. anybody that really thinks that the USA or the Russians are going to let this happen is as crazy as Biden is Neither the USA or the Russians are going to let there top of the line weapons’ out to anybody else

    1. at this point in time the Chinese have spies imbedded in American business and universities so they will have our technology as soon as we do , and lets not forget that with all the advancement AMERICA has given China in the past , they are up to developing things without our help .

  3. And Hiden Biden says “China’s not a threat,They’re nice guys !” So I wonder who they are building up their military Forces to either defend against or Attack ? A worthy Adversary requiring a military buildup such as they are implementing
    And that would be America the only Adversary !Truth or Fact Mr. Cellar Dweller ?
    Things that make you go Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

  4. why is ANYONE SURPRISED ?Pres.Clinton Gave away the farm while in office the Democrats have been giving China everything it wants , even a job for one of their spies driving Diane Feinstein around for 20 years before she realize there was something about her driver .While Obama played patty cake with Russia , cuba Venezuela and Iran Joe Biden assisted China with access to the white house planting his son in a communist china Business where he invested a billion Chinese dollars in unknown American enterprises and with that kind of Chinese money in play you know they were told what their money was invested in . And lets not forget wall street and silicon valley’s interests in China , oh think of the money we’ll make and all we have to do is sell out America . Yeah RIGHT

    1. Do you really think Feinstein had a Chinese spy on her staff for 20 years and didn’t know it? All this while she and her husband became billionaires off their Chinese investments. He wasn’t just her driver. He was her Handler!

  5. All jobs outsourced to china need to come back to the USA immediately! They need our $$$, so starve them & keep our dollars and jobs home, for AMERICANS!!!!

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