Military Power of the People's Republic of China is a publication of the United States Department of Defense that provides an estimation of the military power and strategy of the People's Republic of China.
The Defense Department is required to annually produce and issue the report under Section 1202 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000 (Public Law 106-65.)
The 2006 report notes that the Chinese military has expanded its presence in the area of the Taiwan Strait and that the balance of forces is "shifting in the mainland's favor." It also states that the Chinese military budget has grown significantly, although is not keeping pace with overall government expenditures.
Based on the report, Slate magazine writer Fred Kaplan called the Chinese military a "paper tiger" that is responsible for "about a quarter of the Pentagon's budget."
Famous quotes containing the words military, power, people, republic and/or china:
“Nothing changes my twenty-six years in the military. I continue to love it and everything it stands for and everything I was able to accomplish in it. To put up a wall against the military because of one regulation would be doing the same thing that the regulation does in terms of negating people.”
—Margarethe Cammermeyer (b. 1942)
“He who has power can be king.”
—Chinese proverb.
“Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“Royalty is a government in which the attention of the nation is concentrated on one person doing interesting actions. A Republic is a government in which that attention is divided between many, who are all doing uninteresting actions. Accordingly, so long as the human heart is strong and the human reason weak, Royalty will be strong because it appeals to diffused feeling, and Republics weak because they appeal to the understanding.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)
“Anyone who tries to keep track of what is happening in China is going to end up by wearing all the skin of his left ear from twirling around on it.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)