China’s military is currently undergoing clandestine “progress in modernization” under the leadership of Xi Jinping who wants to thrust his troops into 21st century warfare.
Xi previously announced that he would see to a significant overhaul of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to ensure they are prepared for modern combat, including in areas of space, cyber, intelligence, and electronic warfare.
Experts have begun warning of the secrecy with which this is being conducted and how it could become a “problem” for the US, which is unaware of its adversary’s “deficiencies.”
Alessio Patalano, an expert in East Asian warfare and author of Postwar Japan as a Seapower, said the PLA has a “transparency problem” as it conducts its “investment and modernization” in secret.
He told Daily Express US: “There is a transparency problem. There is far less transparency in China about its investment and progress in modernization than there is in the US, making it harder to place our deficiencies against theirs.”
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In January, it was reported that Xi had ousted a number of his top military generals in the most public display of the purge aimed at transforming the PLA into a “world-class” fighting force.
He also established a Rocket Force, an elite branch of the PLA created to oversee the rapidly expanding arsenal of nuclear and ballistic missiles.
Xi called it the “core of strategic deterrence, a strategic buttress to the country’s position as a major power, and a cornerstone on which to build national security.”
In the US, this has been seen as a problem, especially in the wake of a recent report by the Pentagon that identified modernisation and innovation as two key areas of failure in the military.
Patalano echoed this, adding that there is “doubt as to the current debate in the US over the future innovation in maintaining cutting edge military capabilities.”
Apparent failings in the US military have previously been put down to a low defence budget, crippling any modernization efforts as the Department of Defence cannot afford to implement any effective strategies. This is despite the US spending more on defence than any other country in the world.
Patalano concluded: “The US military is one that has to innovate whilst maintaining significant global commitments, which means that innovation has to be pursued against operational demands; that is simply not the case in China.
“The Chinese modernization indicates that they are pursuing a finely polished sword, but how it may or may not perform against the battle-tested American one is something of a different story.”
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