China’s military thinking is outmoded and should learn from others, especially the US when it comes to modernizing its vast armed forces, a leading armed forces newspaper said yesterday.
A commentary in the People’s Liberation Army Daily said modernizing China’s military was central to reforms which have seen heavy investment in high-tech weapons like advanced fighter jets.
China has slimmed down its military, the world’s largest by number, over the past few years, trying to build a more effective force to face US-supplied Taiwan and Japan, as well as the US itself, but this needs creativity and more open thinking, the newspaper said, which could be a problem.
TRADITIONAL CULTURE
“Because conservative thinking has a rather large influence in traditional Chinese culture, the task of renewing its culture and rethinking the military will be extremely difficult,” it said.
China had to “audaciously learn from the experience of the information cultures of foreign militaries,” it said.
“History and reality have shown again and again that a country which does not have a world view is a backward one. A military which lacks global vision is one without hope,” it said.
The US was a good example to follow in two regards, the article added.
The US military buys technology already available on the open market when it can, such as global positioning systems used in the Gulf War, a cheaper and more practical method than trying to develop such equipment itself, the commentary said.
In addition, the US pays a lot of attention to training, “enlisting large numbers of able-bodied men and boldly using them,” it said.
LESSONS LEARNED
The Chinese military looked on with horror during the first Gulf War in 1990 and 1991, when US guided missiles and precision bombs easily took out Iraqi equipment such as tanks, much of it similar to what China was using at the time.
Since then the People’s Liberation Army has come on in leaps and bounds, though analysts say poor training and coordination among different branches of the military remain serious challenges.
During last year’s national day parade, China showed off its DongFeng 21C missile, which could force US aircraft carriers to keep a greater distance if it is successfully developed into an anti-ship ballistic missile.
That would make it harder for the US to come to Taiwan’s aid in the event of a conflict.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS