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Military power of China & Ukraine

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China vs Ukraine

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China Ukraine

China is a country located in Eastern Asia with an area of 9,596,961 km2 (land boundries: 22,457 km and costline 14,500 km). The capital of China is Beijing. The number of inhabitants is 1,444,390,177.

The People's Liberation Army is the military arm of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, which oversees the PLA through its Central Military Commission. The PLA is outfitted primarily with a wide mix of older and modern domestically-produced systems heavily influenced by technology derived from other countries. Russia is the main supplier military equipment outside the domestic industry.

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Ukraine is a country located in Eastern Europe with an area of 603,500 km2 (land boundries: 5,581 km and costline 2,782 km). The capital of Ukraine is Kiev. The number of inhabitants is 41,487,960.

During the 2008 Bucharest summit, NATO declared that Ukraine would eventually become a member of NATO when it meets the criteria for accession. In February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Ukrainian military is equipped mostly with older Russian and Soviet-era weapons systems. Ukraine has a broad defense industry capable of building Soviet-era land systems and maintaining and upgrading Soviet-era combat aircraft, as well as missile and air defense systems.

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If you want to check the comparison in terms of economic ratios check out CompareEconomy.com

Military expenditures

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Military budget: 293 billion $ 10.4 billion $
Percent of GDP: 1.7% 6%

Military budget

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Highest value in the world: 816 billion $ (USA)
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Manpower

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Active personnel: 2,035,000 700,000
Reserve personnel: 2,000,000 1,000,000
Available for military: 385,821,101 11,149,646

Active

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Highest value in the world: 2,035,000 (China)
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Land Forces

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Tanks: 5,750 1,462
Armoured fighting vehicles: 14,130 5,739
Total artillery: 7,094 3,636
Self-propelled artillery: 2,720 899
Rocket artillery: 3,140 693

Tanks

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Highest value in the world: 12,267 (Russia)
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Air Forces

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Total aircraft: 4,630 297
Fighter aircraft: 1,049 57
Multirole aircraft: 1,130 0
Attack aircraft: 120 27
Helicopters: 1,355 115
UCAV (combat drone): 151 12

Total aircraft

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Highest value in the world: 12,930 (USA)
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Navy

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Total naval: 742 53
Aircraftcarriers: 4 0
Destroyers: 38 0
Frigates: 54 1
Corvettes: 73 0
Submarines: 74 0

Total naval

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Highest value in the world: 967 (North Korea)
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Nuclear weapons

China

The last of five nuclear-weapon states under the NPT, which at this moment possesses approximately 280 nuclear warheads in total. Nevertheless, the number of deployed bombs is unknown. The first test that occurred to be successful occurred in 1964. The main goal of Chinese was to build a deterrent against two major nuclear powers, namely The United States as well as The Soviet Union. The nation decided to choose dried lake for the nuclear site, Lop Nur. Although China developed and tested its first atomic device only in 1964, they managed to test their first hydrogen bomb only 32 months later. As a result, they can boast with the shortest period between developing fission and fusion technology.

China managed to conduct 45 tests of nuclear weapons. Still, the data regarding the stockpile of accumulated warheads is uncertain. The same thing concerns the number of deployed warheads. It is all due to the limited information that the country provides. We should also bear in mind that they are the only country out of five nuclear-weapon states under the NPT that does not give a positive security assurance.

Ukraine

Although Ukraine has never produced its own nuclear weapon to this day, we should bear in mind that back in the days, Ukraine possessed approximately 5,000 nuclear weapons. This is all due to the fact that before 1991, Ukraine was a part of the Soviet Union. However, as a consequence of its dissolution, all the countries that were satellites or were forcefully attached to Soviet Union, received number of warheads. They were once the property of the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, after Ukraine became independent, they received everything that was the part of the USSR, even nuclear warheads. As a result of that, Ukraine became the third largest holder of nuclear weapons in the world.

Ukraine decided to get rid of these weapons quite quickly. Three years later, in 1994 that is, they joined Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In 1996, all the warheads were moved and disassembled in Russia.

Military service

China

18-24 years of age for selective compulsory military service, with a 2-year service obligation; no minimum age for voluntary service (all officers are volunteers); 18-19 years of age for women high school graduates who meet requirements for specific military jobs; a recent military decision allows women in combat roles.

Ukraine

18-27 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript service obligation is 18 months