Let's say in a TL in which Mao dies in the early 1950s, and the PRC is fortunate enough to have a Deng Xiaoping equivalent leader to kick start the OTL capitalist reforms in the mid 1950s instead of the 1980s as OTL, while sidelining the hardline Communists who would oppose such a scheme. If China's economic miracle and rise to great power status came decades earlier, how powerful can the Chinese military get by the 21st century? Can China feasibly build up a military that rivals or surpasses that of either the USSR or the USA? In particular, how much power projection can this ATL Chinese navy have relative to the US or the Soviet Union?
How powerful can the Chinese PLA get if China's economic miracle came earlier?
- Thread starter Berkeley2017
- Start date
Wallet
Banned
Remember, by the 1970s the US was looking to divide the Communist block. It was eager to open trade and that dramatically helped the Chinese economy.
No doubt the Chinese would benefit without the cultural revolution and purges but the US might not want to establish a major trading partner at that time
No doubt the Chinese would benefit without the cultural revolution and purges but the US might not want to establish a major trading partner at that time
For lack of domestic expertise and lack of help from the Soviets (I assume the Sino-Soviet split still happens because Moscow won't like these reforms) they'll have difficulty developing a carrier arm of their own. Nonetheless I can imagine the Chinese navy having at least one super carrier and being bigger in general. Moreover, US help would pick up (I assume the rapprochement between China and the USA under Nixon will still happen). That means they can buy American ships, not to mention buying mothballed Soviet stuff after the Soviet Union's collapse. With more money to throw around the Chinese armed forces will probably be more high tech and less dependent on sheer weight of numbers. What we need to take into account is that China will likely surpass Japan as the second economy before the end of the 20th century.
Not happening. Communism had failed enough yet to warrant capitalist reforms. And even if it had, the global economic system had not developed sufficiently for the Chinese to do what they did from 1978 to present.
As to a navy, rarely to continental powers develop a blue water navy capable of serious power projection. Germans, Russians etc. The US is the exception largely owing to its two coasts and history sea trade.
As to a navy, rarely to continental powers develop a blue water navy capable of serious power projection. Germans, Russians etc. The US is the exception largely owing to its two coasts and history sea trade.