Summary of China’s military buildup

Jeff J Brown – Radio Sinoland

25-point summary of China’s military buildup

1. In 2015, the PLA was considered roughly two decades behind the U.S. militarily; by 2026, that assessment is no longer credible.
2. China’s navy has grown from ~255 to ~395 combat vessels, making the PLAN the world’s largest navy by hull count.
3. The U.S. still holds a significant advantage in total naval tonnage, displacing roughly twice as much as the PLAN.
4. China went from 1 refurbished Soviet carrier to 3 operational carriers, with a 4th reportedly under construction.
5. The Fujian (Type 003) carrier features electromagnetic launch systems identical to the U.S. Navy’s newest Ford-class carriers.
6. China’s shipbuilding industrial capacity is estimated at roughly 230 times that of the United States in gross tonnage output.
7. The J-20 stealth fighter has grown from zero operational aircraft to 200+, making it the world’s second-largest 5th-generation fleet.
8. A next-generation aircraft, the J-36, was photographed in flight tests in late 2024, suggesting China is developing 6th-generation platforms on a timeline parallel to the U.S.
9. The Y-20 heavy transport and its tanker variant (YY-20) now give the PLAAF meaningful long-range power projection and aerial refueling capability.
10. China’s nuclear warhead count has grown from ~260 to ~600, with projections of 1,000+ by 2030 and 1,500 by 2035.
11. Satellite imagery revealed construction of 300+ new ICBM silos across three sites in western China, a dramatic departure from its previous “minimum deterrent” posture.
12. The DF-21D was the world’s first anti-ship ballistic missile, designed to threaten U.S. aircraft carriers operating near China.
13. The DF-26, with a ~4,000 km range, can strike U.S. bases on Guam with either conventional or nuclear warheads.
14. The DF-17 carries a hypersonic glide vehicle that maneuvers unpredictably, making it extremely difficult to intercept.
15. The DF-41 ICBM is road-mobile, MIRVed, and capable of striking any target in the continental United States.
16. Taiwan is the central driver of PLA modernization — every major capability investment is shaped around a potential Taiwan conflict.
17. China’s buildup is also a direct response to lessons learned from watching U.S. military operations in the Gulf War, Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
18. Xi Jinping restructured the entire PLA, replacing seven military regions with five theater commands and purging over 100 senior officers for corruption.
19. The PLA has not fought a war since 1979, meaning an entire generation of officers and soldiers lacks any combat experience.
20. Corruption remains a serious systemic problem — a wave of purges swept through the Rocket Force leadership in 2023–2024, raising questions about missile readiness.
21. China has only one overseas military base (Djibouti) and lacks the global logistics network needed to sustain prolonged blue-water naval operations.
22. The U.S. has responded with AUKUS (providing Australia with nuclear submarines), the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, and the Marine Corps’ Force Design 2030 restructuring.
23. China lacks the alliance network the U.S. enjoys — the U.S. has formal treaties with Japan, South Korea, Australia, and the Philippines, all flanking China’s maritime exit routes.
24. The “first island chain” of U.S.-allied territories creates geographic chokepoints that could severely constrain PLAN operations in any Pacific conflict.
25. The honest bottom line: China has built a formidable modern military, but its actual combat effectiveness remains untested and unknowable until — and hopefully unless — it faces a real war.

Twelve visuals that paint the picture

Above: China’s military expenditures are increasing, but with its rapid economic growth, as a percentage of GDP, it’s actually going down, currently 1.3%. It’s lean and mean, since the vast majority of the weapon sector is people-owned. In recent years, smallish, private-sector arms companies are joining into the mix.

Above: China only spends about one-fourth what Uncle Slaughter does for arms, and less than the rest of NATO. Again, being mostly publc-sector (like Russia) makes for greater efficiencies and more bang for the buck.

Above: China already had the biggest navy in the world in 2014 and since the Judeo-West’s ship building is a tiny fraction of China’s, the latter keeps pulling further ahead. Not to mention China’s massive merchant fleet in the South China Sea (Taiwan), is trained and equipped to join in any war scenario. As a result, Baba Beijing authoritatively owns all of the waters off its coasts, regardless of how much NATO keeps “making a presence”, by doing drive-byes around China’s island.

Above: military jets are some of the most technologically complex machines to manufacture, so what the Chinese have done in this category in only 15 years has never been repeated in human history. China now has sixth generation jets (J-36s) using 100% Chinese engines. No other country has such advanced avionics, neither Uncle Slaughter, nor Russia.

Above: this chart is of great interest to me, since we live in Taiwan Province. While NATO is stretched like a worn out rubber band all across the planet, almost all of China’s military hardware in concentrated just 200km off its coast, watching Taiwan Island. Thus, supply chains are measured in hours, whereas NATO has to measure theirs in days and weeks.

Above: the South China Sea with Baba Beijing’s Nine-Dash Line claims. This is China’s playground where it can concentrate most of its military capacity, along with Japan north of Taiwan. In contrast, NATO is stretched thin across every one of Earth’s seven continents, trying to control the world’s resources. This article with graphics explains well NATO’s role as hegomonic Globocop (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/10/infographic-us-military-presence-around-the-world-interactive).

If there is a hot war with Sinoland, Uncle Slaughter is going to have its hands full, fighting the world’s largest navy, largest missile force and one the largest air forces and ground armies.

Not to mention China’s long-standing mutual defense treaty, meaning NATO will be fighting DPRK too, which has one of the best militaries on the face of the Earth!

The Judeo-West loved the Nine-Dash Line going back centuries. But, as soon as the communists liberated China in 1949, the Talmud-Tanakhs suddenly began to demonize it and use it as a way to challenge and sabotage Sinoland.

Above: for decades, Baba Beijing only had a couple of hundred nuclear warheads. Even today, it only has about 500, compared to thousands that Russia and Uncle Slaughter each have. I don’t agree with this chart’s explosive growth, but clearly, given the global instability and forever wars being perpetrated by the West’s Talmud-Tanakhs across our Pale Blue Dot, I could see China stockpiling up to 1,000 max.

Above: like the air force, China’s innovation and advancements in missile technology is one for the record books. Only four countries have confirmed hypersonic missiles: Russia, Iran, China and DPRK: the Asian Quad, or RICK. JewSA and the rest of NATO do not. There are reports that China has underground “dark” hypersonic manufacturing plants, only manned by robots, that can crank out 1,000 missiles per week. They are called dark, since robots don’t need lights to see.

Above: Baba Beijing has taken the space race to heart and is outpacing Judeo-West, be it satellites or the inhabiting the Moon and Mars. China has its own space station. Their satellites are providing Talmud-Tanakhs’ enemies with valuable intelligence, which countries like Iran are really taking advantage of. Iran and most of the rest of the anti-Judeo-West are now using China’s Beidou (which means North Star), while abandoning GPS, since it knows that Uncle Slaughter can corrupt the coordinates or block it at any moment, for its many perceived enemies.

Ironically, the Judeo-West Worldwide Wehrmacht also uses Beidou for its navigation, admitting that it has better and more accurate coverage!

Above: China used to have the largest ground army in the world, which was used defeat NATO in the Korean War, whip India’s butt twice and help Vietnam defeat the Judeo-Satanists during their Southeast Asian genocide. The PLA has moved upstream to a much more high-tech level. The “Other” is probably their newly created Space Force, which is being kept under wraps.

Above: all of these amazing developments could not happen without Baba Beijing’s ongoing, relentless war on corruption. Imagine three members of any Western Joint Chiefs of Staff being taken down and sent to jail. You can’t. But, they are doing it in China.