Russa Vs China: Who would win?

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

What this make me wonder more than anything else is unless your going to project power what is the purpose of a gigantic conventional military force. (And if your going to attempt to project power you have more modern smaller forces to project that power with an emphasis on transportability)

The US shooses to use it military might as the world policeman (right or wrong a point for anotherof the billion threads here). Aside from that use large land standing military forces are next to useless in light of the MAD response.

I find it implausible to think that either Russia or China are going to in any time in the near future embark on wars of conquest between themselves or their neighbors. Therefore the massive Chinese buildup can only be described as folly as the cost of these forces must be a farily goodish portion of the Chinese GDP with no discernible payback.

Conversely the Russian's made the correct move and perhaps it is the one saving grace in their otherwise troubled economy.

[chequita guevara]

The cockraaches would win.

[orange]

the United States

we always win

[Lord Merciless]

Nobody wins. A total war between China and Russia will turn most of Eurasia into a radioactive wasteland.

[Inverse Icarus]

china, only if they conscript every person in their country to fight for them.

a billion men with pitchforks charging the enemy. you can only shoot so many

[Luk]

Russia, better arms, better fire power, better weaponry etc. Chinas has 10 times more people, but it does not matter if that people will not have arms to fight (that is why doctrine of police forces says that in battle with demonstrators there should be a ratio 10:1

[Drake Tungsten]

The United States would win. It'd be great for us if the Russians and Chinese annihilated each other...

[Jaguar]

Russia has clearly superior weapons. The gap between the two navies is immense, and the tank that makes up the majority of the Chinese mechanized force is based on a Russian tank, the T-72, only it's not as good. The Russians have already scrapped the T-72 for the superior T-90. However, most of Russia's firepower and production power are in the West, not near the border. So in a conventional war I'd have to say that China would be able to take quite a lot of land - maybe getting as far as Lake Bykal. However, there's really nothing there anyway, and they'd run into supply problems. So a conventional war would end in China grabbing one good port (Vladivostok) and a whole lot of tundra.

However, I think that pretty early on Russia would threaten China with its nuclear arsenal, and then China would retreat. (There's no way that China will win a nuclear war.)

[The Andy-Man]

Mongolia would win with a sneak attack

[Jaguar]

Those devious Mongolians...

[Shi Huangdi]

I'd think China would win a non-nuclear war. While Russia does have spme very advanced weapons, the Russian military is in a state of disrepair right now, extremely low morale, people not made, officers being forced to work as taxi drivers at night for more income, soldiers beating each other up...

[Ben Kenobi]

a billion men with pitchforks charging the enemy. you can only shoot so many.

Uberkrux:

What about tactical nukes?

[Az]

Actually, a couple of divisions of rocket artillery will deal quite sever punishment to any such "army".

[Alinestra Covelia]

I believe that Russian vodka just barely has the edge in lethality over "er guo tou" and "mao tai" combined. However I hear that China is working on a secret type of stealth liquor that will have no discernible effect while approaching, such that you only realize you've been hit after you bomb out.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Originally posted by Gatekeeper
Yeah, where does the action really kick in for "The Bear and the Dragon" by Clancy?

I read bits of that. It was the first time I'd ever touched a Clancy book.

I wasn't impressed and chances are slim that I'll pick up another.

Anyway ... if the war didn't go nuclear, I'd bet on China being able to grab a chunk of Russian territory.

This reminds me of the Carl Sagan book, "Contact" (later made into a mediocre movie). In it there's a bit where the American scientists are placing bets on who would win in a USSR/PRC standoff. They said if China moved all its able bodied men to the borders, Russia couldn't possibly hold them off.

Then a scientist said if China did that, then the Chinese birthrate would drop to zero and within a generation the crisis would be over.

I don't see China and Russia clashing anytime soon. There has been very little sabre-rattling from the Chinese government about their Russian neighbor ever since the fall of the Soviet regime. Right now the Russians are known for their visiting businessmen and their extreme aptitude for making money quickly.