fredag 13. august 2021

Updated Report: Chinese Strategy and Military Forces in 2021

There is no simple way to introduce the challenges that China’s strategic presence and growing civil and military capabilities pose in competing with the United States. China’s capability to compete at given levels has increased radically since 1980 in virtually every civil and military area, and China has set broad goals for achieving strategic parity and superiority, although the timeframes for such goals are vague – and neither China nor the United States has published anything like a credible unclassified net assessment of current and future capabilities or provided details as to how each country’s broad statements about strategic goals would actually be implemented.

The Burke Chair is now presenting a regularly updated summary briefing on key developments in Chinese capabilities to compete with the United States and other powers. This briefing is supported by a wide range of graphs, maps, and tables that provide a diverse view of the summary data on a wide range of China’s strategic and military capabilities where these can be summarized in quantitative form or by using maps and selected quotes. It has added summary comparisons of China and the U.S. where possible, recognizing that the estimates are often different and controversial.