Armed Sources
www.comw.org/cmp/ Is China’s roughly 2.5 million-member People’s Liberation Army (PLA) a real threat or what Mao Zedong liked to call a paper tiger? Web surfers curious to resolve this question can turn to the Project on Defense Alternatives’ "Chinese Military Power" (CMP) site. Launched in December 1999, the site averages about 20,000 unique visitors per ...
Is China’s roughly 2.5 million-member People’s Liberation Army (PLA) a real threat or what Mao Zedong liked to call a paper tiger?
Web surfers curious to resolve this question can turn to the Project on Defense Alternatives’ "Chinese Military Power" (CMP) site. Launched in December 1999, the site averages about 20,000 unique visitors per month. PDA codirector Carl Conetta, who edits CMP, described it as a "gateway" to a range of information and views on the PLA. "We’re looking for balance… [and] try to cover the policy spectrum and give people a sense of different opinions," he commented. Conetta also noted that CMP fills a gap in online China research because many sites devoted to the PLA — most run by enthusiasts — offer plenty of pictures but little substance.
PDA culls information from a wide variety of U.S. political, military, and think tank sources, organizing it in categories ranging from the timely ("Spy Plane") to the wonkish ("China and the RMA," or revolution in military affairs). Visitors can quickly obtain everything from poll numbers indicating that only 22 percent of Americans think the recent spy plane crisis will cause long-term damage to relations with China to a report detailing China’s struggle to develop a viable nuclear submarine program.
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