Pentagon Report: China Now Has World’s Largest Navy as Beijing Expands Military Influence

By: John Grady
September 1, 2020 5:31 PM

Chinese president Xi Jinping tours People’s Liberation Army Navy warship. Xinhua Photo

China is bent on creating a world-class military that can conduct joint operations across the globe and already boasts the world’s largest navy, according to the Pentagon’s latest annual assessment of the Chinese military.

A “permanent condition of military inferiority is anathema” to China’s leadership and nowhere is that more obvious in its naval build-up, Chad Sbragia, deputy assistant secretary of defense for China, said during a Tuesday American Enterprise Institute forum.

The Chinese Communist Party “has become increasingly confident [of] achieving its goal” of having “a world-class military by 2049.” A key component has been China’s continuing maritime build-up from its surface forces to ballistic missile submarines. He said its fleet numbers 350 warships compared to the United States’ 293.

“I would also draw your attention to weapons systems and it’s important to highlight the Chinese shipbuilding advantages in terms of its size of the fleet, is both in context of the broader modernization ambitions, virtual class military. This is a long-term challenge and it’s not only demarcated by a single variable, which would be total number of vessels, tonnage capacity, capabilities, location, posture, activities, and then other aspects,” he told a small group of reporters in a Pentagon briefing…….More Here

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