China's Military Power: Assessing Current and Future Capabilities

Once termed the “world's largest military museum,” the Chinese military has made enormous progress over the past twenty years. With skyrocketing military budgets and new technology, China's tanks, aircraft, destroyers, and missile capabilities are becoming comparable to those of the United States. If these trends continue, how powerful will the Chinese military be in the future? Will its capabilities soon rival or surpass those of the United States? The most comprehensive study of its kind, this book provides a detailed assessment of China's military capabilities in 2000 and 2010 with projections for 2020. It is the first of its kind in outlining a rigorous, theoretically- and empirically-grounded framework for assessing military capability based on not just weaponry but also doctrine, training, equipment, and organizational structure. This framework provides not only the most accurate assessment of China's military to date but an important new tool in the study of military history.

Roger Cliff is a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. He has previously worked for the Office of the Secretary of Defense and conducted research for the RAND Corporation on China's foreign policy, military modernization efforts and defense industry. He received his PhD from Princeton University.