China's Modernizing Military: Credible Conventional Threat to Taiwan

Abstract

Does China have the military capability to threaten Taiwan? What are China's intentions with its newly modernizing military? How much of a threat does that pose to the United States? The assumption generally is that the United States will intervene in some form in the event that China attacked Taiwan. But what if the U.S. does not intervene and Taiwan does not succumb to threats alone? Can China back up its threats and succeed in an invasion of Taiwan using only its conventional forces? How successful has the PLA modernization drive been so far and what promise does it hold in the next few years to achieve the objective of taking Taiwan back by force? The purpose of this thesis is to measure the results of China's military modernization efforts and determine if the PLA has the capability to defeat Taiwan in a conventional war and succeed in an invasion of the island.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2001
Accession Number
ADA396538

Entities

People

  • Kenneth S. Fu

Organizations

  • University of California, Berkeley

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aerial Warfare
  • Air Power
  • Aircraft Equipment
  • Aircraft Industry
  • Airframes
  • Amphibious Operations
  • Boats
  • Defense Industry
  • Fighter Aircraft
  • Military Aircraft
  • Military Aviation
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Naval Warfare
  • Navy
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Asian Economic Studies
  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Oncology