1 (edited by lmperial 21-Nov-2008 22:29:02)

Topic: China

I want to clear up some misunderstandings in regards to China's Ability to compete on the Global Power level, in comparison to the U.S.

No doubt the Chinese Economy is Growing, and the U.S's has hit a snag, but lets look at the current numbers, and not talk speculation based off of personal opinions and bias ideologies.


Military
===============

China

-----------------------------
Active personnel       2,250,000 (Standing Military) (Ranked 1st in largest standing Army[size].)
Reserve personnel     800,000[
Deployed personnel     Overseas: None
Paramilitary:                3,969,000 (Contract Forces, and nationalized Police Forces, ect.)
Total:                           7,024,000 (3rd Overall In global size)
-----------------------------

The United States
Active personnel       1,436,642 (Standing) (Ranked 2nd in size)
Reserve personnel     848,056
Paramilitary                 453,000 (Contracted Security Forces)
Total:                          3,349,213 (Ranked 8th in Overall size)
-----------------------------


As it can be seen, China's Military is over twice is large as the U.S. - But to assume size indicates power, is WRONG, and archaic this is not Rome, and the amount of spears your command are NOT a proper indication of Military power.

It's actually quite contrastic, considering the Logistical and Finical requirements to even sustain a force of that size is HUGE, thats aside from OPERATIONAL COSTS, Military Analysts Globally Agree, the Chinese Military BARELY has the Logistics to support Operations, they can not effectually mobilize more then a short distance from their own borders.

Now, comparing a Military(China) to the U.S, lets take in the SIZE in ratio to money spent.

China
----------------------------
Annual Spending :          $59 billion - In 2008, ranked 4th largest spending Global on military.
----------------------------
U.S.A
Annual Spending :          $583 billion - In 2008, ranked 1st largest spending Global on military.

That is NEARLY 10x the spending for a military the is less then 1/2 the size... what does this mean?

That means the U.S.'s Sustainment money is being put into factors of Warfare that the Chinese Government CAN NOT invest in, in turn that is a HUGE Advantage on combat effectiveness's.
As seen with the First Persian Gulf War - Iraq, was the 4th Largest Military in the world, and they were defeated in comparison to other wars, - Effortlessly -, in Turn is as follows.


FIRST Persian Gulf War*

Troops ON THE GROUND (does NOT include Mechanized or Aerial Figures)
Iraq : Approx 1,000,000
U.S. Approx 550,000
---------------------------
Iraq KiA : 20,000 - 200,000 (As low as 20k, or as high as 200k, noone knows for sure )
Iraq POW : 80,000
Iraq WiA : 75,000
---------------------------
U.S. KIA : 358 ( 181 contributed to Enemy fire )
U.S. POW : 41
U.S. WIA : 776
---------------------------

Interesting, no?


EDIT :

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War#Iraqi_deaths
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_total_troops
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_the_United_States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Liberation_Army

United States Marine Corps
-Providing the enemy with the opportunity to die for their country since 1775-

Re: China

Exactly. Our military has a lot more training, better equipment, and more important logistics.

But you forgot about their economy. Ours is twice their size, and while they are growing at a rate of 11% year and ours at 2% a year, China's growth is going to slow down.

Re: China

Exactly, they have a much larger population, growing economies will always run into the problems we have ran into several times, but they will feel the effects harder due to the huge population.

Personally, based off of history, i see China's growth economically slowing down allot, and possible should the conditions present themselves, collapsing.

United States Marine Corps
-Providing the enemy with the opportunity to die for their country since 1775-

Re: China

> Iraq, was the 4th Largest Military in the world

Bahaha, that was an interesting note. You mean in number of personnel right?

But anyway Iraq was no indication of a real war. China or Russia could have wiped them off the map, just as quickly. Unlike Iran is today, Iraq then was a broken down hell-hole with few friends and plenty of corruption.

Morbo: Morbo can't understand his teleprompter. He forgot how you say that letter that looks like a man with a hat.
Linda: It's a 't'. It goes "tuh".
Morbo: Hello, little man. I will destroy you!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpP7b2lUxVE

Re: China

> Personally, based off of history, i see China's growth economically slowing down allot,
> and possible should the conditions present themselves, collapsing.

Also, this is the only part of the thread i actually disagree with.

China's foreign policy means that it is pretty much just focusing on itself. The Chinese government isn't stupid, and they wont let a collapse happen. War, yes (over Taiwan or Tibet), but not an unprovoked collapse economically like the soviets did.

Morbo: Morbo can't understand his teleprompter. He forgot how you say that letter that looks like a man with a hat.
Linda: It's a 't'. It goes "tuh".
Morbo: Hello, little man. I will destroy you!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpP7b2lUxVE

Re: China

> sad sKoE )= wrote:

> > Iraq, was the 4th Largest Military in the world

Bahaha, that was an interesting note. You mean in number of personnel right?

But anyway Iraq was no indication of a real war. China or Russia could have wiped them off the map, just as quickly. Unlike Iran is today, Iraq then was a broken down hell-hole with few friends and plenty of corruption.


Yes Personnel, but understand the Iraq Army also had a large amount of Soviet Tanks and MIGS purchased with Oil money for the Iran-Iraq.


"Unlike Iran is today, Iraq then was a broken down hell-hole with few friends and plenty of corruption"


Correct, and WRONG - No, Iraq had a huge military for 2 reasons,
1. Just like N.Korea Iraq spent all the riches they made from Oil on the Military while the people starved, the Iraqis had some decent Logistics UNLIKE the Chinese, they were able to rage a war with an Equally matched Iran, for many years (They operated inside the Iranian borders.), as well as the seizure, and invasion of Kuwait -

The logistics the Iraqis used, proved to be the undoing to the massive military, they moved in HUGE convoys, during an event on what is known as the Hi way of Hell or death, U.S. Forces wipes out retreating Iraq forces that were trying to re-enter Iraq through back tracking up their supply lines.

The Russians COULD NOT beat Iraq - Example, Afghanistan, a less organized Military Repealed the Russians.

China, doesn't have the logistics to fight a Pre-Gulf War Iraqi Army, the army's are roughly the same size.

It's the Air Superiority, combines with our Naval armaments, and observation Technology that made it easy for us to wipe out the Iraqi Army - They had no Navy and while they had an Air Force, luckily our Fighters at the time were designed to counter Russian Migs, and basically The U.S. Has one of the few Air Forces DESIGNED to destroy such a craft.

Russian Tech VRS Russian Tech.... (Russia Invading Iraq, a larger scale of a Afghan invasion that they failed at)
Russian Tech VRS Russian Tech.... (China has limited maintenance capabilities for their Aerial and mechanized divisions making flying, and operation of sorties impossible.)

People need to learn THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR of a military invasion IS logistics, Alexander wasn't THAT great, but he knew his Logistics were key, as did Napoleon.

And DO not underrate nations like Iraq's Military, while far inferior to Superpowers, and world great powers, they are battle hardened, and well funded with oil, just because the civilians starve, doesn't mean the military does..

United States Marine Corps
-Providing the enemy with the opportunity to die for their country since 1775-

7 (edited by =( sKoE )= 22-Nov-2008 09:44:52)

Re: China

"Iraq Army also had a large amount of Soviet Tanks and MIGS purchased with Oil money..."

Iraq was funded by the Americans though too. Actually, they were funded by half the great powers of the time.


"they were able to rage a war with an Equally matched Iran, for many years"

lol...Iran had just undergone a revolution and 'no one' was supporting them. They had no tech research as they do now. Not to mention the Iraqis were using chemical warfare...


"The Russians COULD NOT beat Iraq - Example, Afghanistan, a less organized Military Repealed the Russians."

Completely different. The Russians made so many mistakes in that war it isn't funny. No really, it isn't.


"Russian Tech VRS Russian Tech.... (Russia Invading Iraq, a larger scale of a Afghan invasion that they failed at)"

Afghanistan and Iraq would have been two different terrains...two different fighting styles. For one thing, the Iraqis had an actual army.


"People need to learn THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR of a military invasion IS logistics"

Having a clear goal is always a good start...


"and well funded with oil, just because the civilians starve, doesn't mean the military does."

Just because a military is getting money, doesn't mean the grunts are...

Morbo: Morbo can't understand his teleprompter. He forgot how you say that letter that looks like a man with a hat.
Linda: It's a 't'. It goes "tuh".
Morbo: Hello, little man. I will destroy you!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpP7b2lUxVE

Re: China

Much of the money the US spends on defence is put into the lavish lifestyle of  their troops instead of weapons.And for their protection because the american public doesn

The inmates are running the asylum

9 (edited by East 22-Nov-2008 16:29:24)

Re: China

protecting your own troops and keeping their morale high is not pampering them and it makes much sense for the military to protect the investments it puts into its human capital, I mean seriously what age do you live in... the 1800's?

qsudifhkqsdhfmsklfhjqmlsdfhjqkmsldfhjmqklsfhmqlsfhjqmsklfhqmskjdfhqsfq
sdffdgjfhjdfhgjhsfsdfqgsbsthzgflqkcgjhkgfjnbkmzghkmqrghqmskdghqkmsghnvhdf
qmkjghqmksdjqlskhqkmsdhqmskfhjqmskjdfhqkmsdfjhqmskfhjqkmsjdfhqkm
sjfhqkmsjfhqkmsjfhkqmjsfhqksdjmfhqksjfhqskjdfhnbwfjgqreutyhaerithgfqsd
kjnqsdfqsdfqsdfmkjqhgmkjnqsgkjmhzdflmghjsmdlghjsmdkghmqksdjghq

10 (edited by The Yell 22-Nov-2008 19:48:12)

Re: China

> esa wrote:

> Much of the money the US spends on defence is put into the lavish lifestyle of  their troops instead of weapons.And for their protection because the american public doesn

United States Marine Corps
-Providing the enemy with the opportunity to die for their country since 1775-

11 (edited by Zarf BeebleBrix 22-Nov-2008 17:31:09)

Re: China

> lmperial wrote:

> > esa wrote:

> Much of the money the US spends on defence is put into the lavish lifestyle of  their troops instead of weapons.And for their protection because the american public doesn

Make Eyes Great Again!

The Great Eye is watching you... when there's nothing good on TV...

12 (edited by Selur Ku 22-Nov-2008 18:45:50)

Re: China

Regardless of whether or not the Us military personnel have a "lavish" lifestyle, the fact remains that a large portion of US military spending is on staff salaries.

Obviously China Pays far lower salaries.

Also, the 59bn figure for Chinese military spending is more likely than not a huge understimate, the real figure is probably much higher.

"In 2008, the US published estimates that showed China's military spending exceeding 139 billion USD. This is a point of contention between the US-China relations. Former United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has accused China several times of hiding its real military spending"

Re: China

> Selur Ku wrote:

> Regardless of whether or not the Us military personnel have a "lavish" lifestyle, the fact remains that a large portion of US military spending is on staff salaries.

Obviously China Pays far lower salaries.

Also, the 59bn figure for Chinese military spending is more likely than not a huge understimate, the real figure is probably much higher.

"In 2008, the US published estimates that showed China's military spending exceeding 139 billion USD. This is a point of contention between the US-China relations. Former United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has accused China several times of hiding its real military spending"


Source on that excerpt you pulled?


Spending aside, even if you could make a point, it fails in the over all respects of how foolish people can be comparing the 2 militarys, maybe in 20 years china can compare, but not today.

United States Marine Corps
-Providing the enemy with the opportunity to die for their country since 1775-

Re: China

Maybe in 10 years. Maybe less.

Morbo: Morbo can't understand his teleprompter. He forgot how you say that letter that looks like a man with a hat.
Linda: It's a 't'. It goes "tuh".
Morbo: Hello, little man. I will destroy you!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpP7b2lUxVE

Re: China

> sad sKoE )= wrote:

> Maybe in 10 years. Maybe less.


Less?

The Chinese have no concept of Global Military power...

Let me explain, the Chinese recently purchased a squadron, of F-16's, a successful but now outdated and replaced by the F22 Raptor, and X22 Jet series of fighters.

A squadron is approx 24 Aircraft at 1.0 strength factor.

To make a squadron operational, you must have a large mainteniance and knowledge of the airframe.

The Chinese have almost no idea what to do with these Jets, the purchase deal DID not include parts or mainteniance training, these Jets which are approx 26 Million a piece are damn near useless.

I learned from my Deployment to Iraq, that to fly 1 sortie you can factor a ratio of 1:10, meaning for 1 hour of operational time spent on an aircraft, you must put in 10 hours of mainteniance, otherwise the bird is useless, we lose more Aircrafts to mainteniance mishaps, and poorly kept logs of what mainteniance was done on what...

You can consider 1 hour of flight time, translate to :
2 Hours of Avionic
2 Hours of Mech tune (Flightline maintenance)
2 Hours of Airframe Maintenance
2 Hours of Ordnance related maintaining.
2 Hours of "Ground turns, and fuel burn offs"

I know this because i spent 3 years in the 2nd Marine Air wing.

I've read plenty of articles about how the Chinese Military with this big toys, is just like a man with no mechanical expertise, who's SUV breaks down, - He pops the hood, and just stares at it, thinking staring at it will solve the problem.

There is much more to warfare then who has the biggest economy or standing Army.


Remember the U.S.'s greatest strength doesn't rely in Maritime conditions, we are an industrial nation who can out produce ANYONE in a war time environment.

Also...

- The Marine Corps has units known as MEUS (Marine Expo Units.)
They are Marine Corps task forces, with carrier striker groups that are constantly on patrol, and combined with Maritime prepositioning forces (Basically Armory's and warehouse on huge boats), they are a mobile fleet, always ready to strike, should we go to war with China, the U.S. can put a HUGE task force right into china TONIGHT, before the Chinese even got their pants on, it's why the USMC is Nick Named, U.S.'s 911 Force.

I'm not concerned with the Chinese Military a single bit.

United States Marine Corps
-Providing the enemy with the opportunity to die for their country since 1775-

Re: China

Sources please tongue.

Morbo: Morbo can't understand his teleprompter. He forgot how you say that letter that looks like a man with a hat.
Linda: It's a 't'. It goes "tuh".
Morbo: Hello, little man. I will destroy you!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpP7b2lUxVE

Re: China

> we are an industrial nation who can out produce ANYONE in a war time environment.

Are you sure this is still the case?

Morbo: Morbo can't understand his teleprompter. He forgot how you say that letter that looks like a man with a hat.
Linda: It's a 't'. It goes "tuh".
Morbo: Hello, little man. I will destroy you!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpP7b2lUxVE

Re: China

The economical crisis has not magically whisked away factories or factory workers..

Je maintiendrai

Re: China

yes but most factories are not located in the US anyway... the us economy is based mostly on services (i.e. restaurants, hair salon, transportation) I dont think we can outproduce anyone but we can produce the highest quality of war materials. The US has a lot ofprivate companies like lockheed martin that produce the military weapons for the US military. These weapons can only be produced in the US.

Re: China

> Red_Rooster wrote:

> yes but most factories are not located in the US anyway... the us economy is based mostly on services (i.e. restaurants, hair salon, transportation) I dont think we can outproduce anyone but we can produce the highest quality of war materials. The US has a lot ofprivate companies like lockheed martin that produce the military weapons for the US military. These weapons can only be produced in the US.


Exactly. USA, along with the better part of western Europe, has done it's best to outsource it's production, while focusing on said "Service".

I have no figures or sources to back me up at the moment, as I'm too lazy to find some, but it seems fairly obvious that every "civilized" nation has been globalizing, and thus outsourcing their 1st and 2nd-priority services (ie. production of any given merchandize / household appliance / instrument / whatever) to other countries, where the general salary-level is mere percentages of what we would have to pay our "own" workers for the same job.

Thus, any "wartime production", or warfare-economics as some like to call it, will take a lot of time, effort and resources to get up and running for any of these countries, who has taken such a great part in the outsourcing of their main production capabilities.

Bottom line is that the nations of the west (I am deliberately NOT only saying USA on this topic - Since a lot of Europe actually has just as much influence on the economical aspect.) could face serious troubles if they were cut off from their global economical sources and/or partners.

---

Asian countries (most... Not all), however, don't seem to have grasped the idea of globalizm, wherefore these could easily bring themselves into an independent warfare-economy.
There may be other factors that would slow these nations down in times of war, ie. politics, logistics, general economical standards etc. but I don't have the appropriate sources or the general knowledge to claim any such facts.

Re: China

> Asian countries (most... Not all), however, don't seem to have grasped the idea of globalizm,
> wherefore these could easily bring themselves into an independent warfare-economy.

These countries instead rely on the resources (and capital) of the global world to power their production. No resources, no output.

The joys of globalisation.

> The economical crisis has not magically whisked away factories or factory workers..

The last two posts more accurately depict my thoughts on the subject.

Morbo: Morbo can't understand his teleprompter. He forgot how you say that letter that looks like a man with a hat.
Linda: It's a 't'. It goes "tuh".
Morbo: Hello, little man. I will destroy you!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpP7b2lUxVE

Re: China

Although it would be wise to produce military things inside the country as it is being done, expansion would be hard.

Not many people know this, but I own the first radio in Springfield. Not much on the air then, just Edison reciting the alphabet over and over. "A" he'd say; then "B." "C" would usually follow...

Re: China

> sad sKoE )= wrote:

> Sources please tongue.


Sources?

3 Years in an HML/A Squadron in the U.S. Marine Corps, if your referring to the mainteniance statements.

United States Marine Corps
-Providing the enemy with the opportunity to die for their country since 1775-

24 (edited by lmperial 23-Nov-2008 16:07:29)

Re: China

> sad sKoE )= wrote:

> > we are an industrial nation who can out produce ANYONE in a war time environment.

Are you sure this is still the case?


Yes i think this is still the case, we still have huge nationalized industry, along with the American Steel industry, we can out produce anyone, Yes globalism does mean some things built by American companies are built overseas.

But in a Global large scale war (I.E. WWIII), factories can be build very quickly and put into action.

The purpose of what i said was to demonstrate that the U.S. UNLIKE China, isn't a Militaristic nation, it's an industrial nation, and we don't keep our standing force as large it we keep it during a large war.

During WWII, and Korea the U.S. had nearly 20,000,0000 men and women in uniform.

Example, the U.S. Marines currently have 3 Divisions, , 3 Combat Service Divisions, 3 Air Wings - That is active, and 1 of each reserves, so a total of 4 divisions, 4 Combat Services, and 4 Wings, during combat that number can expand to 9 ACTIVE.

United States Marine Corps
-Providing the enemy with the opportunity to die for their country since 1775-

Re: China

> Red_Rooster wrote:

> yes but most factories are not located in the US anyway... the us economy is based mostly on services (i.e. restaurants, hair salon, transportation) I dont think we can outproduce anyone but we can produce the highest quality of war materials. The US has a lot ofprivate companies like lockheed martin that produce the military weapons for the US military. These weapons can only be produced in the US.



Right and wrong at the same time.

We are service-based.  However, the government has established trade barriers that protect key industries from going overseas, such as the automobile industry (important in making tanks, jeeps, etc.), and the airline industry (planes!).

The industries that have been outsourced aren't of extreme consequence to a military conversion.  Seriously, how jeopardized will the US be if we can't produce military-grade bras?

Make Eyes Great Again!

The Great Eye is watching you... when there's nothing good on TV...