Modernising China’s military

A leading Chinese armed forces newspaper has said that China’s military thinking is outmoded and that the country should learn from others, particularly the US, when it comes to modernising its vast armed forces.

A commentary in the Liberation Army Daily said that modernising China’s military was central to reforms which have seen heavy investment in high-tech weapons like advanced fighter jets.

China has been slimming down its military – the world’s largest – for the past few years and is trying to build a more effective force to face US-supplied Taiwan and Japan, as well as the US itself.

On this episode of Inside Story we ask if China is attempting to become a major global military power and whether following the example of the US military would help it to achieve this objective.

To discuss this we are joined by: Shunzi Taoka, a Japanese military analyst; Lei Wang, a fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; and Richard Weitz, a military analyst at the Hudson Institute.

This episode of Inside Story aired on Sunday, August 15, 2010.