An Analysis of Size and Structure of the Army of Reunified Korea

Unified Korea winning the armed conflict with China?

By the time Korea gets unification, Taiwan's technological base would be absorbed into mainland China, and do you honestly thing an Unified Korea would be able to defeat an Unified China (PRC+ROC)?

Since we are all engaged in day dreaming here, (esp. the South Korean Naval Graduate), what about Unified China vs. Unified Korea matchup?

An Analysis of Size and Structure of the Army of Reunified China

In the Korean equivalent thread, the logic presumes that Unified Korea's military will make up of NK active/reservist forces in cohesion with SK active/reservist forces, and the economy of scale of merging two into one single military will provide an numerical manpower advantage to Unifed Korea, esp. against a potential conflict with PLA.

Similarly, the application of Korean logic of merging economy of scale (NK + SK) and numerical advantage cannot really apply in the Chinese unification case, since PLA is soooo much bigger than ROC's army, it's addition and combination will be neglible.

However, can the Korean logic of merging technological bases (PRC manpower + Taiwan tech) be applied to the Chinese unification example?

Can one simply merge the technological base of Taiwan with Mainland China to produce a mega Unified China (as in the Korean example)?

Re: An Analysis of Size and Structure of the Army of Reunified China

Despite the PLA being much bigger than its across-strait counterpart, there are still lots to learn from their brothers. Although PLA army aviation does have attack helicopters and have been using them somewhat, they still lack the experience in using large numbers of dedicated attack helicopters, especially in the style how NATO does it. Apart from that, I personally believe that the improvements in the national strength is more indirect and mostly in the civil branches, however, still will be drastic.
The biggest improvements will be in the semiconductor sector. Taiwan have being contracted by Western IT companies for decades. Nowadays, a lot of things are only manufactured in Taiwan. Those related technologies could be used to shrink the size of sensors in missiles, network infrastructures similar to the CI4SR, and many others.

Unified Korea would not be possible without China falling apart, a weak Russian government, and North Korean Coup d'Etat/political meltdown. Annexation of the South by North Korea would be even more implausible, unless Uncle Sam is either shot in the head or messed up in the head.

On top of that, which is already impossible, unless every man in Japan is above 5 feet tall, that is there is no disputes that severe that could lead to conflicts. The theory of Koreans wanting to reclaim YanBian region does exist, but to the majority of Koreans, they could care less. Only those hot headed extremists like those idiots in Japan, would want to reclaim the land and put action into it.

On top of the previous two, even if a unified Korea wants to start a war with China, just compare the size and population between the two. Having a total war between two countries is a lot more than just how many soldiers you have or how many guns you have. Although the wealth in China mostly from the exportation along the Eastern coasts, the real heavy industrial centers are still deep in Western China. That's also where the Jets, tanks, and artillery are manufactured. Do some of you really think that a country the size of a province in China could beat an unified China in a total war? PLA don't even have to shoot the Koreans, they could just dump all their ammunition and tanks on the Koreans and it is enough to drown them.

Just look at WWII, the Japanese got their ass kicked.

I just learned of the existence of this thread. I guess in military training you really plan for everything, even the next to impossible. There is no way either China or a freshly reunified Korea will instigate a war against the other, unless either country is in severe internal disarray, or somehow becomes radically hostile, or if it is a war instigated by other parties, in which case it is insufficient to look at the military resources of only these two countries during normal times.

If this impossible scenario happens I do think that the Chinese military will have a hard time especially since it is less likely to have allied help and, as in real life, China is an under-militarized country relative to the Koreas and the US, the two most likely opponents in such a scenario.

PanAsian said:

I just learned of the existence of this thread. I guess in military training you really plan for everything, even the next to impossible. There is no way either China or a freshly reunified Korea will instigate a war against the other, unless either country is in severe internal disarray, or somehow becomes radically hostile, or if it is a war instigated by other parties, in which case it is insufficient to look at the military resources of only these two countries during normal times.

If this impossible scenario happens I do think that the Chinese military will have a hard time especially since it is less likely to have allied help and, as in real life, China is an under-militarized country relative to the Koreas and the US, the two most likely opponents in such a scenario.

Click to expand...

An Unified China (PRC+ROC) would decimate an Unified Korea (NK+SK)...There would be no competition with industrialized China's massive manufacturing capacity and labor force, combined with the technological base of Taiwan... Unified Korea wouldn't stand a chance if it dared invade an Unified China.

Phead128 said:

An Unified China (PRC+ROC) would decimate an Unified Korea (NK+SK)...There would be no competition with industrialized China's massive manufacturing capacity and labor force, combined with the technological base of Taiwan... Unified Korea wouldn't stand a chance if it dared invade an Unified China.

Click to expand...

Oh, I missed the part about a unified China+Taiwan. I think it's less about the industrial base, it's more that a reunified Taiwan will help China immensely in defending her coastal flank in case China's opponent(s) want to open multiple fronts. Ultimately this is why Taiwan is militarily critical for China, the island can serve as a giant base with easy access to a large portion of China's core coastal areas as well as better (though still not great) access to the Pacific than China's mainland coast.

PanAsian said:

Oh, I missed the part about a unified China+Taiwan. I think it's less about the industrial base, it's more that a reunified Taiwan will help China immensely in defending her coastal flank in case China's opponent(s) want to open multiple fronts. Ultimately this is why Taiwan is militarily critical for China, the island can serve as a giant base with easy access to a large portion of China's core coastal areas as well as better (though still not great) access to the Pacific than China's mainland coast.

Click to expand...

I agree that having or not having Taiwan is central to Chinese naval capabilities and a PLAN presence on Taiwan would make it hard for Korea to enact any strategy to stop this war with their own forces (in defense after a quick initial conquest over a short disatnce), utilizing an asymmetric naval blockade with enough effects that China doesn't consider the strip of land worth all the trouble. At least someone in Korea thought about this and had a lot of time for trying to crack this really hard nut. From a training perspective, it's a good idea to pose such a question, but people shouldn't get agitated by that.

PanAsian said:

Oh, I missed the part about a unified China+Taiwan. I think it's less about the industrial base, it's more that a reunified Taiwan will help China immensely in defending her coastal flank in case China's opponent(s) want to open multiple fronts. Ultimately this is why Taiwan is militarily critical for China, the island can serve as a giant base with easy access to a large portion of China's core coastal areas as well as better (though still not great) access to the Pacific than China's mainland coast.

Click to expand...

China doesn't really need Taiwan in the extremely unlikely event of a war against a unified Korea. Remember that Korea is accessible by land to China, and well within Chinese missile range. China is magnitudes more powerful than even a unified Korea.

PanAsian said:

I just learned of the existence of this thread. I guess in military training you really plan for everything, even the next to impossible. There is no way either China or a freshly reunified Korea will instigate a war against the other, unless either country is in severe internal disarray, or somehow becomes radically hostile, or if it is a war instigated by other parties, in which case it is insufficient to look at the military resources of only these two countries during normal times.

If this impossible scenario happens I do think that the Chinese military will have a hard time especially since it is less likely to have allied help and, as in real life, China is an under-militarized country relative to the Koreas and the US, the two most likely opponents in such a scenario.

Click to expand...

I think invading China by Korea would be an impossible scenario. Even the US and the UN would not dare invading China when it was in complete catastrophe during the Korean War. At the time, China just finished its civil war, which followed fighting 2 WWII's, which then followed another civil war, which followed a series conflicts with foreign powers (Sino-Japanese wars and Opium war), which followed a series of civil war (against Tai Ping Tian Guo). China could not be in any weaker condition after almost 100 years of continuing nationwide wars. Yet, when contemplated with the thought of invading or attacking mainland China, the US and UN decided against it and even fired its top commander because of it. In the 60's and 70's, the Soviets and China were in danger of an all out war. Even with China going through all sorts of political and social nightmares, like the Great Leap in the 50's, the huge famine in the 60's and the Cultural Revolution in the 60's and 70's (an estimated 60 million people died in this period), the Soviets would not dare an open war with China. So I don't think anyone would even contemplate the thought of attacking the mainland China in their wildest dreams.