This video (5min 6sec) from China gives us a look at the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) the largest army in the world with 35,000,000 troops. Why would the PLA need 35 million troops? Who are they afraid of? It was reported that the day after the U. S. attacked Iraq, the PLA went to the leaders of China and asked to have their military budget doubled. As long as you trust Halliburton, Parsons, Blackwater, and other contractors to help American troops enough, you shouldn't be worried. But if you don't you might be massively paranoid about this. The PLA has recently tested a missile that knocks out satellites. Chinese officials said that if they ever got into a war with the U. S. (over Taiwan, for example), they would immediately take down the entire American power-grid. Can they actually do that?
Maybe solar power is an even better idea than we thought. When the Chinese attacked Russia and Europe in 1238-41, because of their battle tactics, no army could stop them. They only stopped because Ogotai the Khan died. But of course it's not like that in modern times, is it?
The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military of the People's Republic of China (PRC). It is the largest standing army in the world and is also the largest employer in the world, with 35 million troops, and includes naval, air, and strategic nuclear forces. The PLA was established on August 1, 1927, as the military arm of the Communist Party of China, and was named the Red Army until June 1946. The People's Liberation Army's insignia consists of a roundel with a red star bearing the Chinese characters for "Eight One" referring to August 1, the date of the 1927 Nanchang Uprising, surrounded by wheat ears and cog wheels.
The PLA has paid close attention to the performance of the US ground forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. As well as learning from the success of the US military in information-centric warfare, joint operations, C4ISR, hi-tech weaponry, etc. the PLA is also studying the unconventional tactics that could be used to exploit the vulnerabilities of a more technologically-advanced enemy. This has been reflected in the two parallel guidelines for the PLA ground forces development. While speeding up the process of introducing new equipment into the force and retiring the older equipment, the PLA also places an emphasis on finding ways of using existing equipment to defeat an enemy with technology dominance.
