As 2025 draws to a close, it’s time for some retrospective and vote for the single greatest PRC win in the military, technological, softpower, and/or geopolitical sphere. After you’ve voted please comment why you think your choice is correct.
Greatest PRC win of the past year
- Thread starter siegecrossbow
- Start date
Liberation day tariffs for me. Trump single-handedly driving all possible supply chains into China with the amount of trade uncertainty he created. Mega self-own.
For me it was a difficult choice between Sep 3 Parade and the EUV reveal this week. You should add the EUV reveal to the poll as well.
I chose Sep 3 cause that was the most comprehensive demo of China's military advancements. It answered many many gaps I have been noticing in China's military tech. They basically leap frogged the west with this parade in pretty much every major weapons category. New tanks, all the unmanned vehicles, 6th gen CCA drones, massive variety of Hypersonic missiles, massive improvement in Air and missile defense, stealth anti-ship missile no category was missing in terms qualitative leapfrog.
For me 6th gen reveal was a great achievement as well, but not that important cause its just fighter jets. Modern warfare is significantly more complex than just fighter jets. Its about all the support elements too such as the drone advancements, AWACS and also all the ground based air defense necessary. Sep 3rd parade shows all those advancements making the PLA a comprehensive fighting force.
The EUV reveal is I would say just as important as the Sep 3rd parade cause entire US and western world thinking is that they can stop China's growth because of lack of chips and the main reason that China cannot catch up in chips is because of EUV which was portrayed as the complex human technology in existance. Now China has broken that chokehold and destroyed their entire worldview.
I don't believe EUV is that complex, its just something China didn't think they needed to develop in the past so they didn't invest much on it. Now that they are putting whole of nation effort on getting chip self-reliance, EUV will be shown as pretty easy as well.
I chose Sep 3 cause that was the most comprehensive demo of China's military advancements. It answered many many gaps I have been noticing in China's military tech. They basically leap frogged the west with this parade in pretty much every major weapons category. New tanks, all the unmanned vehicles, 6th gen CCA drones, massive variety of Hypersonic missiles, massive improvement in Air and missile defense, stealth anti-ship missile no category was missing in terms qualitative leapfrog.
For me 6th gen reveal was a great achievement as well, but not that important cause its just fighter jets. Modern warfare is significantly more complex than just fighter jets. Its about all the support elements too such as the drone advancements, AWACS and also all the ground based air defense necessary. Sep 3rd parade shows all those advancements making the PLA a comprehensive fighting force.
The EUV reveal is I would say just as important as the Sep 3rd parade cause entire US and western world thinking is that they can stop China's growth because of lack of chips and the main reason that China cannot catch up in chips is because of EUV which was portrayed as the complex human technology in existance. Now China has broken that chokehold and destroyed their entire worldview.
I don't believe EUV is that complex, its just something China didn't think they needed to develop in the past so they didn't invest much on it. Now that they are putting whole of nation effort on getting chip self-reliance, EUV will be shown as pretty easy as well.
Its the J-10 shoot out.
Social media is a cancer, but Reddit is better than most as there are generally subs where people who are knowledgeable contribute.
Even on technical subs like aviation, everyone used to mock Chinese jets and call any advance Chinese jet a Temu copy etc etc. The J-10 shootdowns changed everything. It was like a massive cultural shift. A real-world result that made people take Chinese gear seriously.
People are taking the 6th gen proto types more seriously because of the actions of the Pl-15s.
Social media is a cancer, but Reddit is better than most as there are generally subs where people who are knowledgeable contribute.
Even on technical subs like aviation, everyone used to mock Chinese jets and call any advance Chinese jet a Temu copy etc etc. The J-10 shootdowns changed everything. It was like a massive cultural shift. A real-world result that made people take Chinese gear seriously.
People are taking the 6th gen proto types more seriously because of the actions of the Pl-15s.
Idk man. All the posts defending India's honor... I can't really see that as a net win for PRC or humanity.
India getting exposed to the whole world as a lying weakling phony was much more satisfying than the actual shootdowns themselves. Indians in general have been exposed to the whole world by their pathetic attempts
I hesitated on EUV because we don’t know for a fact that it is legit yet.
The two sixth gen flights undoubtedly, but not because they are the most advanced fighters in the world right now.
Rather this is the first time in a broadly-recognized field China is able to DEFINE what is cutting edge, and therefore the very meaning of progress itself. Before last christmas, there was no realized concept of an "air cruiser", or that the "generation of electrical energy is the defining characteristic of sixth-gen on par with stealth." All future fighters will now be compared vis-a-vis these chinese definitions.
On a similar note, I rank the launch of Sichuan higher than the commissioning of Fujian. Fujian is by all dimensions more powerful, more advanced, and something only capable of being built by the 2 superpowers. Sichuan is completely different as it represents a new DOCTRINE in naval warfare. It's actually easier to build than Fujian but the flexibility in which Sichuan operates and fights will represent a new path of naval/amphibious warfare.
It may not even be the case that China will operate the best sixth-gens or leverage the full warfighting capabilities of a Sichuan-class assault carrier, but now that they exist the future of warfare changes for everyone.
Rather this is the first time in a broadly-recognized field China is able to DEFINE what is cutting edge, and therefore the very meaning of progress itself. Before last christmas, there was no realized concept of an "air cruiser", or that the "generation of electrical energy is the defining characteristic of sixth-gen on par with stealth." All future fighters will now be compared vis-a-vis these chinese definitions.
On a similar note, I rank the launch of Sichuan higher than the commissioning of Fujian. Fujian is by all dimensions more powerful, more advanced, and something only capable of being built by the 2 superpowers. Sichuan is completely different as it represents a new DOCTRINE in naval warfare. It's actually easier to build than Fujian but the flexibility in which Sichuan operates and fights will represent a new path of naval/amphibious warfare.
It may not even be the case that China will operate the best sixth-gens or leverage the full warfighting capabilities of a Sichuan-class assault carrier, but now that they exist the future of warfare changes for everyone.
It's not an individual victory that marked 2025 for me, but the holistic, spiritual victory they represented, in sum, against the seeming invincibility of the US empire.
People often forget this - because the West does a great job of pretending otherwise - but colonialism wasn't defeated primarily through Europe's self-implosion during World War 2 or the rise of a liberal conscience in the US. It was defeated, in truth, through the exhaustion of Western colonial powers by a rising tide of resistance amid the conviction that Europeans were not, in fact, the "master race."
The seed of this realization was in the sporadic but significant defeats of European powers throughout the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries - by the Ming and the Qing in Taiwan, the Ethiopians in Adwa, the Zulus in Isandlwana, the Japanese in Northeast China, the PRC in Korea, the Vietnamese at Dien Bien Phu and Saigon, the FLN in Algeria, and so on. It was not any individual victory, but the building realization that it is not only possible but plausible to defeat the Europeans, if only you have the courage, the will, and the organization. Every victory inspired more resistance; and each resistance created more victories: this virtuous loop was what ultimately defeated European colonialism.
Fast forward to today. The US has replaced Europe as the new symbol of white supremacy, and placed the world in the vice grip of a "neo-colonial" empire through its dominance of economy and technology. For most of the last 50 years, and almost all of the last 30, the US has convinced the world that its culture, ideology, and political system represented the "end of history" and that resistance was futile.
Yet, gradually, the hits came. It may have began in Korea, when the PLA fought the West to a stand still, or in Vietnam, when the Vietcong backed by China and the USSR drove out the Americans, or in Afghanistan, with the US's 20+ years war and defeat by the Taliban. But, as we have learned, mere military failures will not end the US empire - for a hegemony built in economy and technology must be undone in the same way - through economic and technological defeat.
Wherever it began, one thing, by now, seems certain - it will be China that ends the US's hegemony, and who strikes the final blow of the West's 300 years of dominance over the rest of the world.
People often forget this - because the West does a great job of pretending otherwise - but colonialism wasn't defeated primarily through Europe's self-implosion during World War 2 or the rise of a liberal conscience in the US. It was defeated, in truth, through the exhaustion of Western colonial powers by a rising tide of resistance amid the conviction that Europeans were not, in fact, the "master race."
The seed of this realization was in the sporadic but significant defeats of European powers throughout the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries - by the Ming and the Qing in Taiwan, the Ethiopians in Adwa, the Zulus in Isandlwana, the Japanese in Northeast China, the PRC in Korea, the Vietnamese at Dien Bien Phu and Saigon, the FLN in Algeria, and so on. It was not any individual victory, but the building realization that it is not only possible but plausible to defeat the Europeans, if only you have the courage, the will, and the organization. Every victory inspired more resistance; and each resistance created more victories: this virtuous loop was what ultimately defeated European colonialism.
Fast forward to today. The US has replaced Europe as the new symbol of white supremacy, and placed the world in the vice grip of a "neo-colonial" empire through its dominance of economy and technology. For most of the last 50 years, and almost all of the last 30, the US has convinced the world that its culture, ideology, and political system represented the "end of history" and that resistance was futile.
Yet, gradually, the hits came. It may have began in Korea, when the PLA fought the West to a stand still, or in Vietnam, when the Vietcong backed by China and the USSR drove out the Americans, or in Afghanistan, with the US's 20+ years war and defeat by the Taliban. But, as we have learned, mere military failures will not end the US empire - for a hegemony built in economy and technology must be undone in the same way - through economic and technological defeat.
Wherever it began, one thing, by now, seems certain - it will be China that ends the US's hegemony, and who strikes the final blow of the West's 300 years of dominance over the rest of the world.