To those who serve/served in the armed forces: WHAT DO YOU ENVY ABOUT THE PLA?

aquilis182 said:

Thanks you my friend Im learnig from your source... Im analazing the SIPRI data and looks like they even clarify the fact (as you tell me before) than things are cheaper in China than the U.S. (thas ovious scince they are not nearly the same quality) But I have few cuestions than perhaps you can answer to me... Is not about the website you gave me but is about the quality and price of Chinese military spending against U.S. military spending.

1. China's military hardware (must of them... not all) are obsolete so they can buy (or produce their own versions) to a mush cheaper price than U.S. forces does, after all U.S. have more advance technology (oviously more expensive)... The SIPRI.org keep that in mind when they give the translation about the money spending?

2. I gess (This time I have no wesite to give a reference to backe up my argument...) but scince China's military forces are biger than U.S. Forces and the spend less money in their military than U.S. does... That can mean a Chinese soldier dont get pay as good as an U.S. soldier does? The SIPRI.org keep that in mind when they give the translation about the money spending?

3. I read at

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than they Chinese forces (including PAL, PLAAF and PLAN) dont nearly get the amount of training than U.S. Forces Does... I mean, amunnition for the weapons, fuel, mantenances and continuos trainning ain't free... The SIPRI.org keep that in mind when they give the translation about the money spending?

I trust the

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(scince their translations comes directly from the world bank) more than I do even with

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when they talk about military budget... but im just curious about those things in consideration
and to be honest Im not an expert in economy

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First, to anser ur question about soldier's pay. In absolute term, Chinese soldier get paid like **** compare to US soldier. But if you look at their pay relative to the rest of Chinese people, its actually not that bad. China does operate on conscription, but in name only. all citizen are techniquely liable to military service whenever called upon, but as of right now, everyone in the PLA are voluntary recruits.

second, just becuz China can get somethings cheaper, doesnt mean it is inferior quaility, espcially if that something is like uniform or personal comuter where the technology component is really low.

Also, i am sure that F-15 and F-16 are more advance than Su-27 or j-10, but its not a like an iron age weapon vs a bronze age weapons, its more like a sharper iron age weapon vs a slightly duller iron age weapon

China wont be able to match F-22, but then again america cant afford to get so many of them anyway. its rather self-defeating to have a weapon that no-one else can match, but so expensive that it will bankrupt yourself.

The power purchasing parity that is used here is to meassure what you get for a certain amount of money in a specific country or market.
It has not neccessarily to do with the advancements of technology. It's more the standart of living wich is higher in the US.
Difficult to explain. If a kid gets $5 in the US he can maybe buy one baseball cap. In China, a kid perhaps gets only $1 but here the cap also costs only that much. Mainly because labour is much cheaper in China.
That is ment here. For the mony China spends on defence, around $65Bn if it's converted to US$ at current market prices, the chinese military in China can buy as much as it could buy for $188.4Bn in the US.

So, China has less mony to spend. But something in China that is just as advanced as something in the US, is probably cheaper in China.

Chinese soldiers get paid poorer than their US counterparts in nominal and probably even in PPP terms (though of have no comparrison of the standart of living of US and chinese soldiers). But with the mony a chinese soldier gets, he can live much better in China than he could in the US. Since goods are cheaper in China.
I'm no insider in the PLA, but yes there seems to be less training there.
But that translation of money is not influenced by the amount of training they get. It's rather the other way round. The value of the money spend partly determines what level of training you get.

kunmingren said:

First, to anser ur question about soldier's pay. In absolute term, Chinese soldier get paid like **** compare to US soldier. But if you look at their pay relative to the rest of Chinese people, its actually not that bad. China does operate on conscription, but in name only. all citizen are techniquely liable to military service whenever called upon, but as of right now, everyone in the PLA are voluntary recruits.

second, just becuz China can get somethings cheaper, doesnt mean it is inferior quaility, espcially if that something is like uniform or personal comuter where the technology component is really low.

Also, i am sure that F-15 and F-16 are more advance than Su-27 or j-10, but its not a like an iron age weapon vs a bronze age weapons, its more like a sharper iron age weapon vs a slightly duller iron age weapon

China wont be able to match F-22, but then again america cant afford to get so many of them anyway. its rather self-defeating to have a weapon that no-one else can match, but so expensive that it will bankrupt yourself.

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When you talk about the pay, MMM... Not that bad means still bad?
When I talk about the quality of military products Im not talk about uniforms and thinks like that... Im think I was clear enough whe I mention, weapons trainning, fuel and thinks more significant in the battlefield than just mearly uniforms.

To be hones with you when I was talking about U.S. planes vs Chinese plane I wasant mean F-15s and F-16s against SU-27s and J-10s... Actually SU-27s are better than F-15s and F-16s in terms of manewverability, The J-10s are far better than the SU-27s... that means China that Im aware than China is not that weak... but they only have 60 J-10 fighters and around 100 russian maded SU-27s )including his variations... That means I know china is not as waek as you may though it was thinking. I was talking about the majority vas majority of the PLAAF aircrafts... they are J-6s and J-7s (Chinese version of Migs-19s Farmers and Migs-21s Fishbeds) Even the anging F-4 Phamton Discharge from U.S. forces are superior to them... Sadly for PLAAF those ancient planes still their backbone. I sugest you to chek their price at ... About the F-22... U.S. have around 300 already operative in the USAF scince 2004... I agree with you when you say F-22s are expensive... $133 million each thats a lot of money for a single jetfighter, a single F-22 but it worth it scince a single Raptor defeat 8 F-15s in a mock aereal combat about a year ago. The B-2 spirits are over a billion dollar but we have 20 anyway... I also very expensive to mantain scince you have to paint it every time you land the damn plane (I gess the paint have to do something with the stealth against the infrared censors) But my point is... Even if they are expensive we still have plenty of them. And scince the F-16s are pretty good and very cheap ($14.6 million each) I gess the J-6s and J-7s are less than the half of the price scince they are from the early 50' to 60's.
The bottom line is Than China have 6000 aircrafts (must of them J-6s and J-7s, not SU-27s or J-10... I gess they are used to defend the capital or escort VIPs in case they need it, just like the F-22s are used to escort the Air Force One) US have a little over 4000 aircrafts, so the disvantage in US numbers si not that huge as china's disvantage in quality.

and around 100 russian maded SU-27s?????
based on sinodefence

su-30 100
su 27sk 36
su 27ubk 40
J11 96
also with the new J1B and production rate and J10, you can do the math, and you should also know there is something called J8F

sinowarrior said:

and around 100 russian maded SU-27s?????
based on sinodefence

su-30 100
su 27sk 36
su 27ubk 40
J11 96
also with the new J1B and production rate and J10, you can do the math, and you should also know there is something called J8F

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Well thats about 272... To be honest with you I used the calculator... jejeje (im not a rocket sciencist when we talk about maths). I get my info from a military magazine of 2001... I see their progress a lot in 6 years. But my point stands cause thats the amount of PLAAF good aircrafts they have (not including the 60 J-10s I get that from sinodefence)... the vast majority still J-6s and J-7s

Gollevainen said:

Yeah what about j8F?? What does it or any other airplane have anything to do with Land forces forum?

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I suggest you to read all or coments... so you figured out why we are talking about it

chicket9 said:

what are things you can highlight about the PLA (as well as PLAAF and PLAN) that you envy, or what Chinese forces do practically better than the armed services you serve in, or something that you can say to any PLA soldier/general with two thumbs up?

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==Well, the PLA is basically one generation ahead of us in the areas of heavy weapons and digitalisation.

King_Comm said:

==Well, the PLA is basically one generation ahead of us in the areas of heavy weapons and digitalisation.

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King_Comm that's a very bold statement. Could you be more specfic and point out those areas?? Thanks!