Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 08/2012

Chinese Military Modernization and Force Development: A Western Perspective

Anthony H. Cordesman, Nicholas S. Yarosh

June 2012

Center for Strategic and International Studies

Abstract

The US and China face a critical need to improve their understanding of how the other is developing its military power and how to avoid forms of military competition that could lead to rising tension or conflict between the two states. One key tool in building this understanding is to create an unclassified dialogue on the military developments in each country, and as to the size of each country’s current and planned military forces. The Burke Chair has developed a detailed analysis of the unclassified data on the trends in Chinese military forces since 1985, examining how these trends interact with the trends in Chinese military spending and strategy.