The Impact of China’s Accelerated Military Modernization
- chinadaily.com.cn
VIVA – President Xi Jinping in his speech on October 16, 2022, expressed his determination to accelerate the military transformation process. So, by the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army (TPR) in August 2021, China's armed forces will have become a world-class military.
"Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia, need to be aware of the increasing military power of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the next five years. This is because President Xi Jinping, who has just been re-elected as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for the period 2022-2027, is considered to have the ambition to make the Chinese military a world-class military faster than the original target," Chairman of the Forum Sinologi Indonesia, Johanes Herlijanto remarked.
Chairman of the Forum Sinologi Indonesia, Johanes Herlijanto
- Press Release
In the speech, Xi Jinping expressed his determination to accelerate the process of transforming China's military, so that by the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army (TPR) in August 2027, China's armed forces will have become a world-class military.
It means that China's military modernization project is set to take place much faster than the one launched by Xi at the 19th CCP congress in 2017.
At that time, President Xi Jinping expressed his mission to fundamentally complete the modernization process of China's armed forces by 2035, so that by the middle of the 21st century, the Chinese military is predicted to have fully transformed into a world-class armed force.
In Johanes' point of view, Xi's determination seems very likely given the rapid development of the Chinese military lately, especially in terms of modernizing their defense equipment.
For example, their third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, was just inaugurated on June 22, 2022. The number of ships owned by the Chinese navy is equal to, if not exceeding, those owned by the United States Navy.
"A study published last September by a Washington-based research institute estimated that by the end of the 2020s, China's naval power will have increased by 40 percent. This does not include other forces," Johanes remarked.
