"China’s Military Power: The Capability Forest Beyond Corruption Trees" - by CWP alum Andrew Erickson

This week, the Department of Defense released its twenty-fourth annual China Military Power Report (CMPR). Here are the most important revelations from its 182 pages that informed professionals need to know.

China’s Military Might, Explained 

China’s armed forces are massive, well-funded, and modernizing rapidly. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is the world’s largest military force, with 2.035 million active, 510,000 reserve, and 500,000 paramilitary personnel. It is funded by the world’s second largest defense budget, which the Pentagon estimates at $330-450 billion in actuality, and further supported by the world’s fourth greatest arms sales. Two things are true at once: China’s military remains riddled with corruption, but is nevertheless engaged under Xi in the most dramatic military buildup seen since World War II. If Xi and his Party Army were as discombobulated as some preoccupied with the latest PLA “palace intrigue” imagine, there’s no way they could be building, deploying, exercising, and preparing the way they clearly are. The report documents numerous elements of that tremendous progress, allowing readers to see for themselves the lush capabilities rainforest flourishing feverishly despite widespread putrefaction and some rotten corruption trees.

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

China’s Military Power: The Capability Forest Beyond Corruption Trees

Dr. Andrew S. Erickson (艾立信) is Professor of Strategy (tenured full professor) in NWC’s China Maritime Studies Institute. A core founding member, he helped establish CMSI and stand it up officially in 2006 and has played an integral role in its development; from 2021–23 he served as Research Director. CMSI inspired the creation of other research centers, which he has advised and supported; he is a China Aerospace Studies Institute Associate. Since 2008 he has been an Associate in Research at Harvard’s Fairbank Center. Erickson has taught courses at NWC and Yonsei University, advises NWC student research and curricula and supports NWC’s scholarly research relations with Japanese counterparts.

Photo Credit: https://www.19fortyfive.com/2024/12/chinas-military-power-the-capability-forest-beyond-corruption-trees/