Don’t Believe Those Who Say That The Chinese Military Is ‘Ten-Feet Tall’

Joyce Dong

April 10, 2015

How Powerful Is China’s Military Really?

Recent publications such as the RAND Corporation’s report “China’s Incomplete Military Transformation: Assessing the Weaknesses of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) [4]” and Dennis Blasko’s article “Ten Reasons Why China Will Have Trouble Fighting a Modern War [5]” mark a significant shift [6] away from the usual narrative that China’s economic rise has led to an increasingly militarized and powerful PLA. While the PLA’s military budget continues to grow at double-digit rates, these reports suggest that the “China threat” has been overhyped. The PLA suffers from institutional weaknesses and vulnerabilities, including a lack of professional human capital with adequate combat experience, rampant corruption, and underdevelopment of non-commissioned officers. As a result, the PLA will face difficulties “fight[ing] a modern war against an advanced enemy.”

Commissioned by the U.S.–China Economic and Security Review Commission, the RAND report aims to help the United States better “understand where the PLA falls short of its aspirations” so that “U.S. planners and policymakers [can] respond more effectively to the challenges China’s impressive, but incomplete, military transformation poses.” Blasko’s article on the other hand aims to highlight ten challenges identified by PLA commanders themselves “that raise serious questions about the PLA’s current ability to fight a modern war against an advanced enemy.” While the primary audience for both reports is an American one, at least as interesting is what China might take away from the reports’ findings.