Honest Look at China's Military

There has been a lot of talk in the news lately about China's advanced military capabilities, and its push into the South Pacific has caused some worldwide concerns, but is China's military anything to be worried about? Don't miss this in-depth look at China's actual military capabilities, from the submarines to their new aircraft carriers. Find out how China's military stacks up against the other top military countries o the world.

The videos are made by the same team that brings you The Infographics Show.

All videos are based on publicly available information unless otherwise noted.

[hughjass]

As a retired soldier, I often get asked (for some unknown reason) about China's military capability. My answer has always been - "nobody really knows." The Chinese military has never really been tested in a modern war.

We can count ships, tanks, troops and such and that, as any professional knows, is only of limited value. How they will all perform when the chips are down is anyone's guess. They could be world class or a complete shit show or something in between. If I were the allied planners though, I'd be assuming the former and heading into theater expecting that.

[travisparker]

If the US could just manage to stop leaking technological IP, then China would not be advancing nearly as fast as they have been. ITAR violations should be prosecuted as treason.

[pezpengy]

i actually purchased a home in china before everything went wonky and havent been back in 5 years, but here is an experience i had with their military.... we were out shopping at a popular farmer's market and i saw a military gaz variant jeep parked out front. being something of a fan of military gear i was geeking out over it with my chinese wife when the driver and occupant returned and through my wife as a translator i was expressing my admiration for a pretty neat little utv i'd never seen before. they offered to sell it to me. :(

[giovanniFresca]

I work on a GM vehicle assembly line. You remember during Covid when one of our plants switched from parts to building ventilators? Well all our vehicle plants can switch to war production in astounding speed. My plant has ran us 6 days a week 3 shifts 24 hours a day for 7 years. We can dump out anything they ask us to as long as you give us a week to learn the tasks assigned to our job station. Most of us in here can learn a job in a few hours so we can make some vehicles or munitions

[XGenKaneShiroX]

The long and short of it is that the U.S. vs China would be a brutal war of attrition, with the war being decided by combat efficiency and economic endurance.

And China absolutely flattens the U.S. in both categories.

The US economy would be strangled into submission until it imploded.

[waffle_burger]

China is about to find out that building a huge navy is a shitload easier than maintaining one, they have yet to fully comprehend this.

[ronaldvoigt]

What makes America’s military better is experience. We’ve been doing war constantly to some degree or another since before our declaration was signed.

[strix]

China appears to have Russia's problems, that of building a huge military but on the backbone of an extremely corrupt system, failing to build the logistics capabilities to support it in the event of actual combat, and not having any clue about the sheer scale and importance of maintaining a large modern military. They may have lots of stuff but they don't train and have no idea how to actually implement tactics on the battlefield.

[wagrhodes]

Remember, China has been operating aircraft carriers for 10 years or so. The US has been operating aircraft Carriers for 100 years now.

[ex-navyspook]

Perhaps the biggest thing we have to remember is that, while the the Chinese Navy and Air forces are expanding, they're expanding at a rapid pace, and their quality control is dismal. While the CCP HAS been able to steal some key components and technologies from the West, they've so far been unable to mass produce most of them because the manufacturing tolerances in the West are so exact, and so small. Case in point: for metalworking, the length of time it's taken you to read this, your fingernails have grown by an infinitesimal amount, which is the same tolerance Western manufacturers utilize on a daily basis; Chinese companies are simply unable to match this at the moment.

Another point is that China doesn't, and can't, own the night. Their night vision technologies lag twenty years -- or more -- behind the US military's, where every soldier is issued night-vision, and an integrated sighting system.

While I wouldn't make the mistake of underestimating China, the US military typically trains for the HARDEST mission it could fight against a potential adversary, whereas China...

[ThePlanetIndia]

The thing is they exaggerate their real numbers but hide their failures.

[bismuth]

The long and short of it is that the U.S. vs China would be a brutal war of attrition, with the war being decided by combat efficiency and economic endurance.

And the U.S. absolutely flattens China in both categories.

China's economy would be strangled into submission until it imploded.

[michaeldobson]

China says a lot of things.

But if their economy depresses (or crashes - signs of which are already being seen), then they will likely end up like the Soviet Union in the end, and they have DECADES to go to match the capabilities of US military.

Also, as far as the "quantity" argument goes, China only has about2.4 million tons of military shipping versus America's 4.8 million tons, and most of China's ships are littoral vessels that are not considered by anyone to be blue water capable. US Naval shipping is far, far heavier and far-ranging.

And ALL the PLA's military vehicles, ships and tanks, etc. are reversed engineered copies, so variables such as quality and reliability come into play here. If the US blockades shipping INTO China, spare parts used to keep the Chinese military machine will quickly disappear.

Meanwhile, the government is incredibly corrupt, and we all saw how well that worked out for the Russians in Ukraine. I see the same thing happening should the PLA ever truly engage another military in actual combat and not simply hold more military parades they are so fond of or continue to bully smaller vessels and countries off their coast.

This looks to be the formation of the Cold War 2.0, with China doing a lot of saber rattling like the Soviets did.

And cracks are already starting to show in her banking system, real estate sector, manufacturing sector and the rise in unemployment in the manufacturing sector related to Western companies fleeing to other Asian countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and India, etc.

Nor can China claim to have the cheapest labor available in the world, as Mexico and India, among others, are now cheaper and thus more attractive to rich Western companies. The list of Western (and not JUST American) companies that have, or are planning to, re-shore their manufacturing bases to other Asian countries is lengthy and growing daily.

Nor does China have the domestic companies or products to fill the vacuum. China is a net importer of most of their food and energy, and the vast majority of their large companies are "state owned" (i.e. personal bank accounts for the Chinese Communist Standing Committee members.)

Shades of the old Soviet Union.

In the end, Xi's return to hardline Maoist communism (authoritarianism), as opposed to Deng's softening to capitalism, has sealed China's fate.

Now all we have left to do is watch and wait and hope he doesn't do something incredibly stupid - like invade Taiwan.

[youngzo]

I have a feeling, China will turn out just like Russia long term. A subpar but large defense force and belligerent with little to no allies that will slowly degrade overtime due to a lack of resources

I've heard from an acquaintance from mainland China that during his time in the PLA. They aren't really doing much combat training, they spend time more on training doing that synchronised marching and reading CCP literature.

[mingmuyiyang]

In the early stages of the Korean War, General MacArthur's evaluation of the Chinese Volunteer Army was now seen as a joke.

[coreysanders]

Pictures show that the Fujian flight deck has a large crack.

[JAAB]

Chinas Navy is an absolute joke. They have 3 WWII type aircraft carriers all 3 are diesel powered, not much to worry about and good luck when those aircraft carriers have to refuel, they are sitting ducks. The Shenyang J-15 is the only fighter used on their aircraft carriers as well and those birds are "junk", not only junk, but absolute junk. A 60s era F-4 Phantom with 2 Top Gun pilots could take out a J-15, not that those F-4s are in service, just making a point.
The majority of their submarines are diesel/battery "electric" are also absolute junk and are very noisy in today's world. They do have a few nuke powered subs but are very easy to detect.
I could rant for hours about China's military but there is no need for that.

[malav_patel]

very informative video....should do a similar one on the US, Indian and Japanese military 😃

[markusskram]

Well, a big army means nothing if you don’t have the tactics or know how to use your army