I think a major part is the Chinese military simply has a greater habit for blanket secrecy than the US military, not a specific calculation about why the information in question needs to be secret.
PLAN Aircraft Carrier programme...(Closed)
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Intrepid
Major
This may be. But when the first deck landings emerged, the military acted quite differently and forced even that messages penetrated to the outside.
True. However there are certain aspects of the keel and hull construction of USN CVNs that are very, very classified.
I understand your viewpoint and there is much truth in what you have posted. However many nations have built new CVs in the last 15 years or so.. There is very little that is "new" in the design of an aircraft carrier. Just my opinion.
joshuatree
Captain
I think it really boils down to the comfort level of the party that is building the carrier. When it's your first go around, you probably prefer not to have all these eyes on you till you feel you got it down pat yourself. Liaoning is a first in furbishing but this one will be a first from ground up.
Intrepid
Major
Good point. So I think, we saw the first carrier landing after the pilots had already performed hundred such landings.
Equation
Lieutenant General
Building something of this size and difficulty is never "comfortable" even if you've done it dozens of times because there's always be something came up and the issue has to be resolved on the field on budget and on time even if it's the same kind of structure done before.
I didn't say the Chinese military would be shy to trumpet certain information for political advantage. What I said was Chinese military had a long standing habit of keeping everything secret unless it serves a very specific political or propaganda purpose to reveal it. I other words, the people has no right to know, and would only be allowed to know a specific subset of things, appropriately shaded and packaged, that was judged to be conducive to shaping public opinion in a specific desired way.
The US military started out with the habit of not keeping anything secret unless there is a very specific danger in revealing it. It has also gradually become quite adept at shading or packaging the information it reveals in a manner conducive to shaping public opinion in a desired way. But it is forced to reveal other informations unfavorable to itself or the government, or at least make such information legally discoverable by the public, because there is a long tradition that asserts the public has the right to know.
Tell that to Chelsea Manning
plawolf
Lieutenant General
That is all true, but there are strategic reasons for the US to be so 'open' while China prefers to downplay their true capabilities.
There is an old Chinese saying that sums up the rationale for both sides perfectly, and that is roughly translated as, 'the strong flaunt their strength while the weak flaunt their weakness'.
The US is the undisputed economic and military superpower. No matter what China comes up with, the US has the money and technology to develop a counter.
China could them develop a counter to that counter, but that would only spur the US on to develop yet another counter, and suddenly you are in an arms race that you are likely to loose.
China's primary game plan is to develop its economic and technological base to the point where it is not afraid to get into an arms race with the US. If China is at such a level, the US would not want to get into an arms race any more.
In the meantime, it's best bet st upsetting US military primary lies in secrecy and misdirection.
The most important reason is funding. By not presenting itself as a threat, China is making it very hard to the US military to get more funding to start an arms race.
Even with the funding currently available, China could limit how effectively the US military can use that. You cannot counter a weapons system you did not know existed. On the flip side, China could trick the US into wasting significant time and resources trying to emulate and developing counters to weapons that do not exist by faking programmes.
There is an old Chinese saying that sums up the rationale for both sides perfectly, and that is roughly translated as, 'the strong flaunt their strength while the weak flaunt their weakness'.
The US is the undisputed economic and military superpower. No matter what China comes up with, the US has the money and technology to develop a counter.
China could them develop a counter to that counter, but that would only spur the US on to develop yet another counter, and suddenly you are in an arms race that you are likely to loose.
China's primary game plan is to develop its economic and technological base to the point where it is not afraid to get into an arms race with the US. If China is at such a level, the US would not want to get into an arms race any more.
In the meantime, it's best bet st upsetting US military primary lies in secrecy and misdirection.
The most important reason is funding. By not presenting itself as a threat, China is making it very hard to the US military to get more funding to start an arms race.
Even with the funding currently available, China could limit how effectively the US military can use that. You cannot counter a weapons system you did not know existed. On the flip side, China could trick the US into wasting significant time and resources trying to emulate and developing counters to weapons that do not exist by faking programmes.
Exactly.
And what I have been saying for 15 years as the PRC has modernized.
We see the new DDGs, new FFGs, and the CV program...the J-20, J--11D, etc, Though portions of all are shrouded in secrecy, these are systems the US knows exists and is in fact spending money to counter them.
The DF-21D, IMHO, represents the last statement you made. It is all white papers and missiles on trailers that get positioned, but IMHO do not represent in the least a fully operational system. Yet, the US is spending beaucoup dollars to counter something, which I believe is a Sun Tsu gambit, exactly like what you are talking about.
Then there are programs the US may have simply heard rumors of, but does not know whether they exist or not or to what level of research, development, or actual building they are. As you say, in those instances it is hard to spend or develop something you know little to nothing about.
Anyhow...good analysis plawolf.
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