In the future, China will inevitably become the main rival of the United States in all components, possibly lagging behind in nuclear weapons. Vasily Kashin, Deputy Director of the HSE Center for Integrated European and International Studies, told Izvestia about this on Friday, October 29.
On the eve of the deputy chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces, General John Hyten, said that China in the coming years is able to bypass the Russian Federation and America in military power, and the pace of development of hypersonic weapons in China is much higher than in Russia and the United States.
"American General John Hyten absolutely correctly assesses the situation. The weakness of the Chinese army and navy is that they have not had combat experience for more than 30 years. For this reason, no one knows how this machine will behave in the event of a real war. The Chinese are aware of this and are trying to compensate for their inexperience with intensive combat training," he said.
Kashin pointed out that China is actively developing new weapons systems. For example, they have already launched the production of fifth-generation J-20 fighters — according to experts, up to 150 such machines have been produced, he added.
In addition, the expert said that China has built a powerful surface fleet, and their army is larger than the Russian one. The PRC has a different scale of economy and budgetary capabilities, if compared with the Russian Federation, Kashin concluded.
Hyten explained that Russia is actively experimenting with hypersonic weapons. However, this is not comparable with the pace at which China is developing its combat capabilities. Over the past few years, China has conducted hundreds of hypersonic weapons tests, while the United States has nine. According to the general, the speed of weapons development in China will significantly surpass Russia and the United States if they do not take action to change the situation.
On October 20, the White House expressed concern about hypersonic weapons tests in China, which Beijing denied, saying it was an experiment with a spacecraft. After that, the United States announced an increase in tension in the Asian region.
