China’s Army Seen As Lacking in Soft Strength
For the past two decades, China has seen a speedy increase
In it’s military budget and development of military hardware.
An Australian media has commented that
the expansion in new military equipment shows that
China is no longer backward on military hard power.
The article indicates that growing doubts still exist
around China's actual fighting capabilities.
China’s army is seen as lacking in soft strength.
Observers are quoted:“They are nowhere near
as effective as they think they are.”
The Sydney Morning Herald recently reported that
“China has been surprising the US and shocking its
neighbors with the speedy development of new hardware.”
The article stated that“Top US intelligence analysts
and generals have admitted to being caught out
by the2011 flight-testing of China's new
J-20 stealth fighter.”
“They were dumbfounded by China's subsequent
deployment of the East Wind21D, the world’s first anti-ship ballistic missile.”
The SMH article said, according to the US Congressional
Research Service that“China is on track to
triple its fleet of maritime strike aircraft by2020.”
In September2012, China launched its first aircraft carrier.
Also, it is developing and producing
seven types of submarine and surface warships,
this includes production of newly developed
nuclear submarines.
The Second Artillery Force of the People's Liberation Army
owns a large number of conventional ballistic missiles,
capable of destroying satellites in space,
and owns hundreds of nuclear weapons.
The report cited a US expert on PLA technology.
He said that“No other great power today enjoys
China's ability to dedicate such vast amounts of capital
and personnel to such a wide range of new programs.''
The report states that“the PLA is gaining in terms of
hardware but there are growing doubts about China's actual fighting capabilities.”
(Critic) Wu Fan:“Nowadays there’re no one who
truly believes in communism.
China’s military have internal calls for nationalization,
for not being affiliated to the Party or politicized.
The army is no longer willing to follow the CCP’s orders.
This will undoubtedly weaken it’s effectiveness in battle."
Wu Fan adds that20 years ago in the period of the Iraq War,
the Chinese Communist Party(CCP) authorities were
stunned at the powerful military capabilities of the USA.
It thus began to pour huge money into
a huge military build-up.
It has now partially caught up with the US.
Yet all-pervasive military corruption has seriously
undermined fighting capacity, he says.
Wu Fan:“The CCP has always been infamous for corruption.
But corruption in the military is even more rampant and
more serious than that among local authorities.
It has been unchecked, as the military is not
under the administration of local authorities, even the CCP cannot stop it.”
According to Wu Fan, China’s army officers
have no righteous faith.
They only think of seeking official rank and wealth,
This lack of faith results in a weak fighting force.
Wu Fan says that China’s families have commonly
only one child,
children have grown up to be unmanly.
This is also contributing to weak combat capabilities.
The SMH article comments that it is not rational
for the CCP to show a tough stance,
and that this behavior risks sparking off a war externally.
It is in fact the CCP’s own manipulation,
to divert attention from the domestic political threat.
(Professor, City Univ. of Hong Kong) Joseph Yu-shek Cheng:
“There exists an‘ideological vacuum’ in today’s China.
So nationalist fervor is being used to fill this vacuum.”
Cheng remarks that the CCP leaders,
in agitating“nationalism”,
would naturally seek to take a tough position
on the territorial dispute with Japan.
Political observer, Hua Po, says that the CCP has
used“patriotism” to fraudulently gain public support.
He thinks that this tactic has become increasingly
difficult to accomplish.
Hua Po:“Today, Chinese people
are very smart and can think critically.
This can be seen in their attitude towards
the recent Lushan earthquake.
Compared to the Wenchuan quake five years ago,
Chinese civilians have reacted in the opposite manner.”
Hua Po adds that after the Lushan earthquake,
the CCP authorities have kept on grandstanding, trying to gain public support.
But the public just won’t buy it, he says,
the authorities’ dull show has fallen flat.
