The Chinese Navy Is Behind America in One Key Area (But Not For Long)

Robert Beckhusen

Security, Asia

It all comes down to one word: training. 

The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has no recent combat experience and no hope of challenging the U.S. Navy on a global scale. The U.S. Navy outnumbers and outclasses China’s sailing branch in practically every category — not just technologically.

America’s sailors are better trained and have far more practical experience, giving an edge in the event of a future conflict.

But that’s not the whole story. Beijing is slowly and steadily improving how it trains its sailors and how it conducts naval exercises — even putting its people at greater risk than the U.S. Navy— and reforming a stodgy, top-down method structure that inhibits captains’ initiative.

In other words, China is pushing hard to get better at preparing for war. This is worrying for the United States, which already faces the possibility of defeat or stalemate in a  with China.

That thesis is central to a recent article by U.S. Navy Capt. Dale Rielage in Proceedings, the influential journal of the U.S. Naval Institute. As the U.S. Pacific Fleet’s director of intelligence, Rielage knows a thing or two about the Chinese military.

The past decade has “seen a major improvement in the scope and complexity of PLAN training that has paralleled the expansion in its missions, operations, and capabilities,” Rielage wrote. “Central to these are high-end naval combat tasks — the fundamentals of fleet action against a foreign navy intervening against People’s Republic of China (PRC) interests. While no training is a perfect facsimile of combat, the PLAN’s proficiency is increasing through this deliberate investment in more advanced and realistic training.”