I keep hearing these days that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is a “paper tiger,” 

Thus there’s no need to worry about an attack on Taiwan. And anyway, the United States has plenty of time to get ready before the PLA is a real threat – rather than just a “near-peer competitor.”

The PLA’s problems? To name a few: no recent combat experience, corruption, too many “only children” in the ranks. The Chinese Navy can’t conduct combat operations in distant seas and is not able to master “amphibious operations” – supposedly the most complex and hardest of all military operations. 

Even China’s leaders complain about “peace disease.” The PLA hasn’t fought a war for decades. And too many senior officers can’t manage the demands of modern high-tech warfare.

Maybe so. But in the last 30 years, the People’s Republic of China has pulled off the biggest, fastest military build-up since World War II. China’s defense budgets are much greater than the roughly $220 billion USD it claims and possibly exceed US defense spending. 

The Chinese Navy is already larger than the US Navy and the gap will widen. China is launching five ships for every one the USN puts in the water. It has put more tonnage and missiles to sea as well. 

Beijing lavishes similar attention upon its air force, ground forces, cyber and electronic warfare. And its missile capabilities, including hypersonic weaponry, probably exceed US capabilities. Its nuclear weapons build-up has finally got even the China experts worried. They dismissed it for years.

‘Eyes Wide Open’

China knows its problems but it has clear objectives. Defeating US forces is objective number one. And it trains hard to achieve these goals. Its ships are not rust buckets. Nor do they collide with other ships or burn up pier side every so often.

Yes, the PLA would have a harder time attacking Des Moines, Iowa, but that’s not the point.

It’s true that Chinese conventional combat power – or “power projection” – drops off rapidly beyond, say, 1000 miles from the Chinese border. But…