Chinese Missiles Could Cripple US Asia-Pacific Forces as Washington Loses Military Primacy

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China has enough cutting-edge ballistic missile technology to destroy the United States' Western Pacific Navy fleets and military bases in a matter of "hours", a report from the University of Sydney said on Monday.

The US no longer "enjoys military primacy" in the Indo-Pacific and has an "uncertain" capacity to keep a "favourable balance of power", the report from the University's United States Studies Centre said.

Beijing could quickly topple US forces "particularly around Taiwan, the Japanese archipelago or maritime Southeast Asia" before Washington could respond, authors Ashley Townshend, Matilda Steward and Brendan Thomas-Noone warned.

The report also revealed shocking estimates of the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force using figures from the International Institute for Strategic Studies, stating that China possessed up to 1,500 short-range ballistic missile, 450 medium-range, 160 intermediate-range and hundreds of long-range cruise missiles, allowing Beijing launch precision strikes from mainland Singapore, potentially crippling the US's large logistics factory as well as primary bases in South Korea and Japan.

China's DF-21D "carrier killer" can also destroy US aircraft carriers from up to 1,500km away, or 932 miles.

America's military capacity, which once stood at 80 percent of global defence spending in 1995, now stood at 52 percent, the report noted.

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