China’s military might already matches Russia’s. Discounting nuclear
weapons, we must face the truth: China is ahead of us from the military
point of view. The People’s Liberation Army has 280 fighters of the fourth
generation, mostly SU-27s and SU-30s. These aircraft will number almost 400
two years from now. By 2005, the Chinese Navy will have almost two dozens
quiet Kilo submarines of Russian manufacture and at least two squadrons of
powerful surface combatants, mostly Sovremenny class destroyers built in
Russia. Chinese antiaircraft defense includes a dozen S-300 divisions and
three dozen TOR-M1 complexes and is known as the best in Asia. As for the
Russian Armed Forces, they include only about 400 MIG-27 and SU-27 fighters
of the fourth generation, only 50% of them airworthy. The Pacific Fleet is
rotting at the piers, and the antiaircraft defense has “too many holes and
dead zones”, to quote Air Force ex-commander Anatoly Kornukov.
This is just rubbish. Firstly, China has the tiniest fraction of Tor-M1s and S-300Ps that Russia has- Russia has *1,300* S-300P launchers and 350 Tor-M1s. What the author has done is a bait and switch- made a specific claim as to the amount of S-300s (export) that China has, and then instead of stating how many Russia has, he just says its “full of holes”- well, of course it is- everyon’e is, including Chinas. The Russians scrapped thousands of obsolete radars and missile units (SA-2, SA-3) after the end of the Cold War, because they weren’t needed, and replaced them with S-300s and more sophisticated radars (in fewer amounts).
China refuses to recognize Russia in its existing borders. Official Beijing
demands that Moscow invalidates “all treaties signed by the imperial Russia
with the Tsing Dynasty.” Den Siaoping said in 1989 that “using this treaties
Russia seized the territory of China exceeding 1.5 million square
kilometers. It’s pay time now.” The matter concerns Primorie, Tuva,
Sakhalin, and territories to the north of the Amur where Vladivostok and
Khabarovsk are located. Siaoping’s words were never denounced. They remain a
major factor of local politics.
Sacrifice every major Chinese city over 1.5 million square km of territory? Yeah- right. The Chinese aren’t crazy.
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