China's Modern Military | Animated History

Sources:
Army Headquarters, Department of the. Chinese Tactics. Fort Belvoir: Army Publishing Directorate, 2021.
Burke, Edmund J., Cortez A. Cooper, Mark Cozad, and Kristen Gunness. People’s Liberation Army Operational Concepts. Santa Monica: RAND Corporation, 2020.
Campbell, Caitlin. China Primer: The People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Washington DC: Congressional Research Service, 2022.
Campbell, Caitlin. China’s Military: The People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Washington DC: Congressional Research Service, 2021.
“Chapter Six: Asia,” The Military Balance 123, no. 1 (2023). 208-301.
Cliff, Roger. China’s Future Military Capabilities. Carlisle Barracks: United States Army War College Press, 2023.
Diamond, Larry, and James O. Ellis. “Deterring a Chinese Military Attack on Taiwan.” Bulletin of the atomic scientists 79, no. 2 (2023): 65–71.
Fravel, Taylor M. Active Defense: China’s Military Strategy Since 1949. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019.
Li. Xiaobing. A History of the Modern Chinese Army. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2007.
McCauley, Kevin N. People’s Liberation Army: Army Campaign Doctrine in Transition. Fort Leavenworth, Kan: Foreign Military Studies Office, 2020.
Secretary of Defense, Office of the. Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China. Washington DC: Department of Defense, 2022.
State Council Information Office, PRC. China’s National Defense in the New Era. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 2019.
Tijerina, Luis Lázaro and Muhammad Ali Baig. "China’s People’s Liberation Army: Restructuring and Modernization," Open Military Studies 2, no. 1 (2022). 84-95.
Wuthnow, Joel and Phillip C. Saunders, Chinese Military Reforms in the Age of Xi Jinping: Drivers, Challenges, and Implications. Washington DC: National Defense University Press, 2017.

Music:

Armchair Team Credits:

[schmidtytime]

I seriously don’t understand why YouTube continues to punish its most prominent creators that upload studio-level productions. This was another great video by you guys, I hope you’re all looking forward to the upcoming holidays! Wishing you the best from Canada.

Edit: Censoring the truth and our history is a mistake we have made as a species many times over.

This comment wasn’t supposed to be political, but it’s shameful YouTube and their advertisers prioritize profit, instead of propping up its creators who produce amazing educational/informative content on all subjects.

[Vincevans]

You forget to mention that PLA still has political commissars at every level.Which is quite unique now consider Soviet Union get rid of theirs and in the end couldn't control their own military.

[rsookchand]

Another installment in the modern military series. Hell yeah!

Can’t wait to see you cover the US

[frankhill]

If you’re China when it comes to military build up you’re stuck in a dilemma. If you build up your military of course your rivals aren’t going to like that.

But if China doesn’t build up its military then it can be exploited by others. This isn’t even speculation, just look at China during the 1800s and 1900s. Warlords took control of the country, foreign powers established their spheres of influence, British opium planted in India flooded their black markets, and then of course Japan invaded numerous times.

In other words, if China builds up its military it will be called a threat and if it doesn’t it will be threatened.

[Imbrojeff]

It's kind of ironic that the west both label China as aggressive but also laugh at China for not having enough combat experience since they haven't fight a war since 1979.

[jamesz]

Fun fact : The official name should be CPC (Communist Party of China），CCP was originally from western media, which they want people to relat it with CCCP, in UN they only use CPC, NOT CCP.

[brokenbridge]

Well I was expecting to see how uniforms from ancient China evolved into what they are today. But still this video was a good one to listen too. So nice job.

[stevenchan]

"Suffered heavy losses but were able to gain support from the Soviet Union" Is selling the chinese in the Korean War short. They had a lot of interesting tactics to counter superior US firepower and arguably a better grasp of the operations part of war.

[thomaszhang]

12:40 correction: 8 cruisers, or 0, depending on classification. PLAN classifies 055 as a destroyer by functionality, while the US classifies it as a cruiser by tonnage.

[dirtysniper]

I kinda hope for this series to expand with, u.k russia, france, and japan

[nateklein]

As soon as the notification pops up I stop what I’m doing and watch. Love y’all’s work!

[billpetrak]

3:00 "defending China and its neighbours"
North Korea - Yes
Pakistan - Ok
Albania - wtf?

[RynoG]

I would love to see you talk about China’s paramilitary agencies like the militia and the people's armed police.

[armedmage]

I've love to see you do videos on the 21st century wars in the Caucuses, like the South Ossetia war and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts.

[davidchang]

PLA actually didn't officially went into Korean war. It was the Chinese voluntary army, made by volunteers across the entire country at that time, including to farmers, workers, and active military personels, who went to the war.

[XiaolongHistories]

Great video! Is there going to be an evolution of Chinese uniforms coming soon too?

[AymanKhan]

5:33
Been a fan of yours from the start, never expected to see a Rajneekanth reference 😂😂

[ipernixi]

The quality of these videos keeps going up. Love to see it!

[ThingsThatIDo]

Excellent choice of subject! Excited about this one🎉

[codyshi]

Finally a video on the Chinese army. But why isn’t it an evolution army uniform video like that of the video on the Japanese, French, American, Russian, British, and German army videos?

Edit: China's modernization didn't just begin under the communist and after the Korean War, China's army modernization had begun since the Self-Strengthening Movement in 1861, under the Qing Dynasty (China's last imperial dynasty). Ever since the self-strengthening movement, China has adopted western weapons and tactics.