US DoD Report on Chinese Military Power 2014

[Unknown Pleasures]

Very simple.

Design a military that is good enough to defend your borders. Don't worry about attacking others with a military. The expansive wars are to be won through economics, not bullets and bombs.

 

[JonnyRingo84]

China can't fuck with us right now and they know it, but in 20 years or so they will be caught up.

a communist economy is not innovative. in 20 years they may be caught up with 2014 us.

we will have new shit by then, though, and they will not. just copying everyone else. theyll make a lot of them, though.

 

[Orgasmo]

The A-12 was suppose to be that plane, that flopped. Northrop and lockheed pitched a F-22N and a YF-23N which never happened. i find it really stupid that we cut the one plane that gave us that advantage at sea. And i see it as a necessary need for blue water defense.

Flying Doritos was a low observable attack plane, not designed for fleet air defence. I don't entirely blame the US Congress for the decision to retire the Tomcat. At the time USSR just collapsed, and they saw no opponents capable of challenging US militarily at sea. From a cost saving perspective it was the right choice. The problem was that people grossly underestimated the speed of China's rise to power. They weren't predicted to surpass Japan until 2030 and US until 2040 economically. They sped past Japan in 2011 and could overtake US by the end of the decade, 2 decades ahead of prediction. In another words, the threat grew way faster than Washington could estimate or adapt.

 

[Orgasmo]

a communist economy is not innovative. in 20 years they may be caught up with 2014 us.

we will have new shit by then, though, and they will not. just copying everyone else. theyll make a lot of them, though.

I disagree on both of your points. A key element of Communism is a command economy, which China haven't had since 1990. Today China is an authoritarian country with state capitalism at its core. There is nothing Communist about it except the name. In fact, US has more social welfare and workers' rights than the average Chinese could dream of. North Korea calling itself a democratic socialist republic doesn't mask the fact that it's an absolute monarchy, so same thing applies to China.

Second, China currently produces second largest number of research and R&D budget in the world behind US. It is also the world's largest industrial power. As manufacturing is the driving engine of innovation, they will eventually catch up. I suspect sooner rather than later if the last 20 years was any indication.

 

[JonnyRingo84]

I disagree on both of your points. A key element of Communism is a command economy, which China haven't had since 1990. Today China is an authoritarian country with state capitalism at its core. There is nothing Communist about it except the name. In fact, US has more social welfare and workers' rights than the average Chinese could dream of. North Korea calling itself a democratic socialist republic doesn't make the fact that it's an absolute monarchy, so same thing applies to China.

Second, China currently produces second largest number of research and R&D budget in the world behind US. It is also the world's largest industrial power. As manufacturing is the driving engine of innovation, they will eventually catch up. I suspect sooner rather than later if the last 20 years was any indication.

yea youre right about all of that actually.

i dont think that their future is set in stone, though. lots of things could still go wrong for them.

 

[Orgasmo]

yea youre right about all of that actually.

i dont think that their future is set in stone, though. lots of things could still go wrong for them.

That's true. I had questions about their internal stability, which could make they collapse spectacularly in the near future. However, if they manage to hold it together for the next 20 years, they will be the top dog in the Pacific.