The Western world is currently like a man lost in a jungle who is preoccupied with the grass stains on his pants when he should be paying attention to the tiger behind him:
Yeah, that's bad.
Really bad.
China may not have quite the cutting-edge tech like the U.S. does (yet), but they are closing the gap.
FAST.
China‘s navy is now the world's largest maritime military force and will deploy 460 warships by the end of the decade, according to the Pentagon‘s latest annual report on Chinese military power.
The current warship arsenal for the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) includes 355 naval platforms, including major surface ships, submarines, aircraft carriers, amphibious warships and mine warfare craft.
By contrast, the U.S. Navy currently has 296 warships, but that arsenal includes 11 aircraft carriers capable of projecting power at long distances. Other Navy ships include 115 cruisers and destroyers, 68 submarines, 31 amphibious warfare ships and 59 small surface combatants and combat logistics ships.
Boy oh boy is is a good thing we have those aircraft carriers.
It's a good thing that China wouldn't dare try to take those out—
Like I said... Not. Good.
U.S. analysts say the PLAN, financed by China‘s growing economic might, is building new warships at a rapid pace, mainly guided-missile cruisers and destroyers and corvettes, while its submarine force continues to expand.
When you combine this rapid build up with propaganda videos like these:
You have a recipe for bad things on a global scale.
As part of its drive to control the South China Sea and East China Sea, the PLAN is beefing up its littoral warfare capabilities with large-scale production of missile-firing corvettes. At least 70 of the ships will be built. Those vessels complement the force's 60 high-speed, missile-firing catamarans.
Construction of eight Renhai-class missile cruisers began last year with the first new cruiser entering service. Each Renhai warship comes with 113 missile launch tubes capable of firing anti-ship cruise missiles, surface-to-air missiles, torpedoes and anti-submarine weapons, as well as land-attack and anti-ship ballistic missiles.
Newer warships are armed with 215 nautical-mile-range YJ-62 anti-ship missiles, and the newest missile, the 250 nautical-mile-range YJ-18A, the report said. Several modernized destroyers are outfitted with supersonic YJ-12A anti-ship missiles that have a range of 290 nautical miles.
The long-range missiles will allow the Chinese navy to threaten U.S. warships at greater distances and are likely built in anticipation of a U.S.-China conflict over Taiwan.
China remains laser-focused. They've built the world's most powerful police state with one goal: making China the next world superpower.
