Today we’ll be comparing the two largestcountries in the world in terms of population, with India set to be the most populated countryin the world by 2022.
Both nations have seen widespread economicprogress in recent times, thanks to China’s economic reform and the liberalization ofIndia’s economy.
Presently, China has the 2nd largest economyin the world behind the United States, although according to Fortune “America’s economywill not be the world’s largest for much longer.”
According to some analysts, in the near futureIndia also has a chance of becoming the world’s largest economy…again. While both countries still experience highpoverty rates, some progress has been made. A lot of this new money, however, has beenas much about social progress as it has defense matters.
Today we’ll compare these two emerging economiesin of, India vs China. Let’s start with the larger of the two nationsboth in terms of population and economy, which is China. We should note that in 2017, the World Banksaid that China’s economy shows signs of slowing down while India’s is still revvingup. And we already know that India is expectedto have the world’s largest population in a few years. China’s GDP for 2016 was 11-plus trilliondollars, second only to the USA whose GDP is 18-plus trillion dollars. The European Union would be in second placebut we cannot count that as a country. According to an article in Bloomberg publishedin 2016, at projected growth rates, China should have the world’s largest economyby 2028.
Not surprisingly, China has seen increasedspending on defense, and in 2016 that amount was $146 billion. The Guardian puts it higher at around $150billion. Behind the USA, this is the most any countryspends on its defense. India’s 2016 GDP was around 2.3 trilliondollars, making it the 7th largest economy in the world. Analysts state that at projected growth rates,that will be $6.84 trillion by 2030. Of that, $52.2 billion went to defense forthe year 2016-17.
This means India is the 5th biggest spenderon defense behind the US, China, Russia and Saudi Arabia. With such a fast-growing economy, it’s expectedthat India will significantly increase the military budget over the coming years.
Now let’s have a look at how many peoplestand behind these budgets. China has the largest population in the worldwith 1.38 billion people. The country has around 2,335,000 active frontlinepersonnel and over 1.4 million active reserve personnel and paramilitary forces.
This is the largest army in the world, almostdouble the size of the USA and India. North Korea also has a very large army ifyou count all those people on stand-by with some military training. India’s population is 1.311 billion people,almost 1.4 million of whom are active military personnel. 1,155,000 people are serving as reserve personnel. If you’ve seen our show on the world’sbest elite forces, you’ll know that part of this army is the elite Indian MARCOS. This is of some importance when comparingmilitaries, given that these guys have had their hands full for a long time on the India-Pakistanborder.
In 2017 it was announced that on top of technologicalmodernization, Chinese President Xi Jinping intends to invest heavily on its own elitemilitary force. Now let’s get down to questions of hardware. Both countries have been busy updating theirarsenal of weapons on land, in the air, and at sea.
According to sources, China has 9,150 MainBattle Tanks, 4,788 armored fighting vehicles, 1,710 Self-propelled guns, 6,246 Towed-Artillery,and 1770 multiple launch rocket systems. We should note that various sources give differentnumbers. Some equipment might be out of date and notusable, while there is constant growth. China’s cream of the crop is its third-generationVT-4 main battle tank, which its military claims is the best battle tank on the planet.
The country is also the proud owner of a largefleet of Type 99 and 96 tanks. China is sometimes said to have the thirdbest tank force in the world behind the USA and Russia. But guess who’s fourth? You guessed it, India! India has around 5,978main battle tanks, 6,704 armored fighting vehicles, 290 self-propelled guns, 7,414 towedartillery and 292 multiple-launch rocket systems. Some of this hardware is said to be in needof an upgrade, but that’s just what India is doing right now.
It has a large force of T-72 tanks, but it’salso the owner of the highly touted Russian-made T-90 tank. According to Bloomberg in 2017, the countryspent millions on upgrading its almost 1,000 strong fleet of T-90s. A force to be reckoned with, given that theT-90 is often on the list of the world’s best tanks. India also has initiated the Field ArtilleryRationalisation Plan, in which 3 billion dollars will be spent on 3000 to 4000 pieces of newartillery.
In 2016, National Interest put China behindthe USA as the second most lethal air force by the time we reach 2030. From its around 1,300 total aircraft, Chinahas a large number of Russian Su-35s and Su-27s, with the former being one of the best aircraftever made. But China’s ace up its sleeve are the ChengduJ-20 and J-31 stealth fighters, aircraft which U.S. analysts have agreed are a feat of engineering. This is one reason why China is such a threat. India didn’t make National Interest’slist. India is said to be the fourth largest airforcein the world in terms of personnel and aircraft. From its 1,720 aircraft, about 900 are combatcapable.
Its fleet consists of Russian built SukhoiSu-30MKIs and Mikoyan MiG-29s, as well as the highly-rated French-built multi-role fighter,the Dassault Mirage 2000. The latter is certainly up there as one ofthe best military aircraft ever built, but will India have the money to invest as muchas China is in buying or developing its own top of the range machines? As for the ocean, China again is very strong.
The country has one aircraft carrier, 25 destroyers,3 amphibious transports, 42 frigates, 8 nuclear attack submarines and around 50 conventionalattack submarines. The country is investing a ton of money onupdating its navy, which includes two new state of the art supercarriers, enough tomake any country’s military quiver. These should be ready in 2020 and 2023, respectively. By that time only the USA, UK, and China willhave ships of that size. Although just a few years later it is expectedthat India will have its own supercarrier in the form of the INS Vishal. It’s also expected to be a work of militaryart, but it is early days yet. Right now India is one of few countries tohave an aircraft carrier, and it also owns 11 destroyers, 14 frigates, 15 submarines,23 corvettes, 0 amphibious assault ships and 7 mine warfare ships.
It is also a very powerful navy, but is saidto lack submarine strength – unlike China. As we know the USA and Russia have the lion’sshare of nuclear weapons, but China has around 270 of these weapons. The actual amount has been the focus of considerablespeculation, with some analysts stating that China has many more nuclear weapons hiddenunderground. We should add that this has not been confirmedand some critics have said it’s hogwash. India also has nuclear strength, owning around120 nuclear warheads. In conclusion both militaries are growingin power, and both countries are leading the world with a handful of other nations in termsof technology.
You could say China has more tools in thebox, but India certainly is not far behind. So, who do you think would win in this hypotheticalmatchup? India or China? Let us know in the comments.But according to me although India have less weapons than China but India have more will power than China . See you next time!
Comments
Post a Comment