During the decade of Xi Jinping's rule, China has restructured the world's largest professional army, and developed a nuclear and ballistic arsenal capable of alarming its enemies.
As China's neighbors seek to follow this pattern, a third five-year term for the current Chinese president is likely to be accompanied by an acceleration in the arms race in the Asia-Pacific region.
China now has two aircraft carriers in service, hundreds of long- and medium-range ballistic missiles, thousands of combat aircraft, and the world's largest naval power, far ahead of the United States.
China's military budget has been rising for 27 years, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, China now has about 350 nuclear warheads, twice the amount it had during the Cold War. US intelligence agencies estimate that this stockpile may more than double to 700 warheads by 2027. New nuclear missile silos are being built in the northwest of the country.
"They have a very large navy, and if they want to intimidate and put ships in the vicinity of Taiwan, they can really do it," the commander of the Seventh Fleet told US media, Carl Thomas.
At the same time, China's nuclear arsenal is increasing dramatically and may be able - according to the Pentagon - to be launched from land, sea and air.
And last July, the Chinese president warned in a speech that "the Chinese people will never allow any external force to oppress, oppress or enslave them, and whoever dares to do so will be destroyed in front of a great steel wall built by 1.4 billion Chinese." He stressed that the time for bullying his country is over.
In January 2021, China signed a pledge, along with Russia, the United States, Britain and France, that would "reduce the risk of nuclear conflict."
The United States of America expressed its "concern" over a report published by the "Washington Post", that China has begun building more than 110 silos for launching intercontinental ballistic missiles.
A 2021 Pentagon report stated that China "is the only adversary capable of combining its economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to pose a long-term challenge to a stable and open international order."
For years, the People's Liberation Army was considered outdated and ineffective, with one historian describing it as "the largest military museum in the world." It was equipped with old military equipment made in the former Soviet Union, and was based mainly on infantry units that did not perform well on the ground abroad.
During the Korean War, the People's Liberation Army intervened on the side of North Korea, losing 400,000 men, according to Westerners, or 180,000, according to Beijing. In 1979, he faced Vietnam during a brief but bloody war.
By the time Xi Jinping became commander-in-chief of the armed forces in 2013, reforms had begun. It was initiated in the 1990s by Jiang Zemin.
"All the major players in the Indo-Pacific are responding as quickly as possible to the modernization of the Chinese military," said Malcolm Davis, a former Australian defense official now at the Institute for Policy Strategy.
For its part, South Korea wants to develop a naval force capable of operating off its coast, and Australia plans to buy eight nuclear submarines with British and American assistance under the "Ocos Agreement".
Canberra is also talking about buying hypersonic weapons, long-range ballistic missiles, and even stealth bombers capable of striking anywhere in the world without being detected. Here, Malcolm Davis says, these projects reflect a realization that China has a growing ability to engineer the region according to its will.
According to the former Australian defense official, "the era in which the US Navy dominated the seas in the western Pacific is coming to an end," explaining: "We would not have seen Okus if the Chinese president had not been... In a way, he has done us a favor." big.”
Arms purchases are on the rise, from South Korea, which has developed its deep-sea navy, to Australia, which is buying nuclear submarines.
According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, based in London, defense expenditures last year exceeded one trillion dollars in the Asia-Pacific region.
China, the Philippines and Vietnam have doubled their military spending over the past decade, and South Korea, India and Pakistan are not far from them. Even Japan presented this year a record budget in the field of defense, ending its reservations and talking about an "increasingly violent" security environment.
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