China’s Air Force: from Shield to Sword

The Chinese air force is relatively young, but one of the biggest and strongest in the world. It has been developing extremely rapidly over the last two decades and is now approaching a decisive point which will be vitally important for China’s future potential to project its power far beyond its borders. The People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) of today traces its history back to the small aviation units of the Red Army in the period 1930–40 [1] . The communist forces made very limited use of aircraft in the civil war and the fight against the Japanese aggressors, since most of the trained personnel and equipment was controlled by ...