Not to mention, China is quite some distance from the US mainland, and has limited logistical capabilities to get their assets that far.
Russia Suspected In Major Cyberattack On U.S. Treasury, Commerce Departments
- Thread starter ObsidianJones
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Right. But correcting for PPP, that's closer to 80%: China can equip a grunt with kit and small arms or build a jet fighter and all the attendant logistics at a lower cost than the USA can. After that, it can pay that grunt or the pilot for the jet fighter one hell of a lot less, too.
We're not theorising a Chinese invasion of the USA.
The point is that a mere comparison of nominal dollar spending between the USA and China is a misleading measure of what that spending equates to in military capability. It's not that I disagree that the threat of China is often ramped up for political ends, but the opposite is also true that those who are against US military spending often understate the military capability and development of other states.
True, but once people start talking about China's military being a threat to the US, that's going beyond comparing numbers and into what China can and cannot do with the capability it has (whatever that is). Currently, their military is a direct threat mostly to their nearest neighbours.
Now, if someone was to say that China is a political or economic or internet threat to the US, fair enough, and if I squint I could maybe accept the US's military actions against random third world countries might be a response to that, but that's still a stretch.
A Chinese threat to its neighbours is a threat to the USA, because of the USA's links with those countries. US-Japanese trade is over $200 billion. US-South Korean trade over $150 billion. Taiwan, $100 billion; Vietnam, $80 billion; Philippines, $30 billion. That's without going into all the other geopolitical interests at play - control of shipping lanes, resources, logistics etc. If Chinese influence envelops Japan, the USA's basically back all the way to the international date line.
In ten years, China will probably have at least one aircraft carrier similar in displacement to the latest US Navy vessels, and within twenty years, half a dozen. It will have caught up a lot of its technology shortfall, and be quite capable of menacing middle-size developing world nations across the globe itself at that point. Chances are it will, because there's no point building up a funky military without live testing and experience.
The USA is obliged to consider and plan for that reality.
Why does Russia have so many skilled hackers? They also have a ton of shady sites that steal your information just by visiting them.
I think its a blend of the ramp up of electronic and cyberwarfare/intelligence/counter intelligence as required by the nation state as technology improved AND a diversification of their organised crime syndicates. And some may even flow from one to the other. Plus the country has astonishingly lax computer laws on the proviso that what they do does not threaten or undermine Russia itself.