Chinese Military: Foreign Assistance Hidding Significant Military Industrial Complex Deficiencies

摘要

The Chinese military is viewed by many military and civilian strategists as an emerging superpower and military rival. Years of economic surplus have provided China with the means to significantly improve and modernize its armed forces through procurement of foreign weapons systems, primarily from Russia. The purchasing of these systems demonstrates a profound operational weakness within the PLA - the inability of its military industrial complex to design, develop and produce indigenous state-of-the-art military equipment. Operationally, the U.S. can take advantage of China's military industrial complex weaknesses through both domestic and foreign measures. Domestically, by analyzing the weapons purchases, we can ensure that our own weapons technologies are superior and retain our advantage in the battle space. Internationally, we can apply political pressure to dissuade countries from selling advanced weapons systems to China, we can provide financial incentives to install tracking devices on weapons sold, and we can increase the human intelligence presence in Asia to ensure that the weapons purchases are not a deception measure to mask indigenous Chinese production of cutting-edge weapons technology. By understanding the direction and strategy that China is heading in arming its forces, the U.S. will be better prepared to confront this transforming and dangerous potential adversary.