Comparison of US and Chinese Military Armed Forces

Table comparison between the US and Chinese Military as for 2018[]


Official name	United States Armed Forces	People's Liberation Army (Chinese: 中国人民解放军)
Service Branches	U.S. Army U.S. Marine Corps U.S. Navy U.S. Air Force U.S. Space Force U.S. Coast Guard	PLA Ground Force PLA Navy PLA Air Force PLA Rocket Force PLA Strategic Support Force
Supreme Command	Department of Defense	Central Military Commission
Leadership	Commander-in-Chief: President Joseph R. Biden Secretary of Defense: lloyd austin Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: General: mark milley	Chairman of the Central Military Commission: Xi Jinping Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission: Air Force General Xu Qiliang Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission: General Zhang Youxia Minister of the National Defense: General Wei Fenghe Chief of the PLA General Staff: General Li Zuocheng
Active Personnel	1,358,193 approx. (ranked 2nd)	2,035,000 approx. (ranked 1st)
Budget	$706 billion (FY18) (1st by total expenditure, 11th as percent of GDP)	$175 billion (FY18) 1.177 Trillion Yuan (2018) (ranked 2nd)
Percent of GDP	3.1% (2018 est.)	1.5% (2018 est.)
Nuclear Arsenal	5,113 warheads (ranked 2nd.)	250 warheads (ranked 4th.)
Major Wars and Events	American War of Independence (1775–1783) Early national period (1783–1812) War with Mexico (1846–48) American Civil War (1861–1865) Post–Civil War era (1865–1917) Indian Wars (1865–1870) Spanish–American War (1898) Philippine–American War (1899–1902) Banana Wars (1898–1935) Moro Rebellion (1899–1913) World War I (1917–1918) World War II (1941–1945) Cold War (1945–1991) Korean War (1950-1953) Vietnam War (1965–1973) Gulf War (1991) Kosovo War (1999) War in Iraq (2001–present) War in Afghanistan (2001–present) Iraq War (2003–2010)	Chinese Civil War against the Kuomintang (KMT) as the Chinese Red Army. (1927–1949) World War II against the Empire of Japan. (1937–1945) Yangtze Incident (the battle against British warships on the Yangtze River. (1949) Reclaiming of Tibet (1950–1951) Korean War (Under the banner of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army). (1950–1954) First Taiwan Strait Crisis. (1954–1955) Second Taiwan Strait Crisis at Quemoy and Matsu. (1958) Sino-Indian War. (1962–1962) Border skirmishes with India.(1967) Vietnam War (over 320,000 Chinese soldiers served in North Vietnam throughout the war). (1965–1970) Sino-Soviet border conflict. (1969 to 1978) Battle of the Paracel Islands. (1974) Sino-Vietnamese War. (1979) Border and naval skirmishes with Vietnam. (1986, 1988) Tiananmen Square protests (1989). Third Taiwan Strait Crisis. (1995–1996) PLA Control of Hong Kong's Military Defense (1997) PLA Control of Macau's Military Defense (1999)