Chinese Army Needs More Tanks
As we all know, Vietnam has been increasingly hostile in its attitude towards China. Sharing a land border with China, Vietnam is posed to present a challenge to China, especially if its Army gets to purchase US-made M1-A2 Abrams and AH-64 Apache choppers. Their Air Force’s Su-30s pose a threat too! Vietnam might also be able to buy up to 36 F-16Cs or F-15Es or even F-35s armed with AMRAAMs by 2020. Such a possibility might happen, since Vietnam has now improved relations with her former foe USA as they work together to stifle China’s security at her borders and divert China’s attention away from deterring Taiwan separatists.
Following that, it is highly prudent that Chinese Army purchases more T-96 and T-98 MBTs, as well as building and deploying more than 2000 new generation IFVs near the border with Vietnam. Increasing China’s defence budget to 8% of GDP annually,China should have a force of 6000 T-96s and 1800 T-98s by 2020, and deploy 30%-40% of those tanks near the Vietnamese border. The aim of that deployment is to deter Vietnamese aggression and if war breaks out, gives the Chinese army the ability to quickly rout Vietnam’s ground forces and capture Hanoi within a week after hostilities started. Of course, by that time PLA will have decent and massively overwhelming fire support from the PLAAF’s aircraft armed with PGMs and Ground-Launched LACMs, MLRS ,SRBMs and artillery guns that will deliver accurate fire to destroy Vietnamese army’s assets.
So, what do you guys think? Do you agree that China needs more tanks to prepare for a Vietnam contingency? PLA military planners must always prepare for the unexpected, and lay decent preparations to meet real and hypothetical threats since no one can predict the future. As a future superpower, China needs an army powerful enough that will make any nation that shares a land border with her to tremble in fear. If such a war with Vietnam happens, it will possibly give China critical and vital combined arms and urban warfare fighting experience-which is needed for PLA troops fighting an urban fight in Taiwanese coasts and Taipei, possible by 2030, should reunification still unachieved by then.
China should also seek to discourage further Russian arms sales to Vietnam by agreeing to pay 3 billion US dollars or more to Russian defence industry annually for the next 10 years in exchange for Russian oath not to sell arms to Vietnam anymore. China couldn’t afford for Vietnam to be armed with advanced arms, considering the fact that Vietnam has vast urban warfare experience from fighting USA in the 60s and 70s-something which Chinese troops and commanders lacks from.
