Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 10/2014

Chinese Military Modernization and Force Development: Chinese and Outside Perspectives

Anthony H. Cordesman

September 2014

Center for Strategic and International Studies

Abstract

The United States and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) face a critical need to improve their understanding of how each 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. This report focuses on China’s military developments and modernization and how they are perceived in the US, the West, and Asia.