[Raellus]

Originally Posted by RN7

To be honest the only progress that they have made over the past 20 years has been to replace the huge numbers of block obsolete aircraft they previously had, with relatively modest numbers of domestic designed aircraft and buy and license build smaller numbers of modern foreign (mainly Russian) aircraft and air defence systems. It has certainly improved China's air capabilities in many ways, and has also closed the technology gap with its major regional neighbours but it has hardly been revolutionary.

Fair enough.

Originally Posted by RN7

But the US has military and logistic bases across the globe, and many in the Pacific region including Japan and South Korea. Also the US has unmatchable airlift and sealift capabilities, and could bring troops, equipment and supplies at will and China could do little or nothing to prevent it. The US miltary established this capability during WW2 and has been prefecting it ever since.

A fair point but considering the difficulty the U.S. had in supplying its troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, I'm not sure that supplying a substantial miltiary force across the world's largest ocean would be as simple as you've implied.

Originally Posted by RN7

So when you claimed that the US wasn't building for large scale conventional wars, how did you miss Desert Storm and OIF?

I didn't miss anything. The '91 army was essentially the pinnacle of the Cold War army- the army built to take on the Soviets in a tank war in central Europe. The 2003 army was a slimmed down, lean and mean version of the same and the Iraqi armed forces were a shell of their '91 selves. Considering that the Iraqis had lost the bulk of their better armor (not saying much) and nearly their entire airforce during '91, the relatively easy victory in 2003 doesn't really prove a whole lot. Does the U.S. military today have the same number of tanks, aircraft, and ships that it did in '91? No.

Originally Posted by RN7

Despite the nature of the war in Afghanistan, it being a war against terrorism and the Taleban ideology, the war is largely fought on a conventional basis. The Taleban engage in dirty tactics such as road side and suicide bombings, and the US and NATO use a lot or irregular special forces and special equipment to combat them, but to a large degree the war is conventional and most of the major engagements have involved large scale skirmishes between infantry supported (on the US side) by armour, artillery and air power.

You make my point for me. If the much more advanced U.S. military can't defeat a third-world insurgent army after 9 years, how could it defeat the world's most populous nation?

Originally Posted by RN7

No your the one claiming it.

Classy. Show me where. Your whole argument is that the Chinese are not a match for the U.S. military, is it not? You can't have it both ways. You've raised some valid points and presented some compelling arguments. You've also made some pretty outlandish and unsubstantiated claims. I'd love to continue this debate but if you're going to be childish then forget it.