Before you read this article, try hard to click on "Attention", which is both convenient for you to discuss and share, but can bring you a different sense of participation, thank you for your support!

Publisher: Painting Elliot

In September 2025, an exclusive interview published on the official website of Russian "National Defense" magazine attracted global attention. Igor Korotchenko, editor-in-chief of the magazine and a well-known military strategist, made a sharp judgment when responding to the question "New Situation of Sino-US Strategic Game".

Behind the judgment that ¡°China¡¯s comprehensive national strength has formed the capacity to contain any threat¡± is a reality mapping of the accelerated restructuring of global power structures after the game of China and the United States enters a new phase, and also allows the international community to re-examine the evolutionary trajectory of the power pattern of the great powers.

Preliminary

In September 2025, an interview published by Russia¡¯s National Defense magazine caused concern in the global strategic community. The magazine¡¯s editor-in-chief and senior military strategy analyst Igor Korotchenko, in response to the question ¡°New trends in the Chinese-American strategic game,¡± made it clear that China¡¯s comprehensive national strength has formed the capacity to contain any threat.

This conclusion is not groundless, but is based on a series of breakthrough developments in the field of military modernization by China in recent years and the specific presentation of these developments in actual combat scenarios.

As an expert who has long tracked global military dynamics, Korotchenko's views are regarded as an objective annotation of the changes in the strategic power balance between China and the United States, and also indirectly confirm the changes in the international community's perception of China's national defense strength.

This judgment coincided with a significant adjustment in the assessment of China¡¯s military capabilities by the U.S. strategic community.Two years ago, the Pentagon continued to insist on the argument that ¡°the U.S. military can have absolute air control over the Pacific¡± in the China Military and Security Development Report, but the multiple military confrontation scenarios since 2025 have gradually lost support for this argument.

In an exclusive interview, Korotchenko specifically mentioned the latest report released by the U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on October 16, which has upgraded China's military modernization rating from "rapid catch-up" to "parallel development." It also clearly pointed out that China has achieved "partial transcendence" over the United States in six areas including electromagnetic ejection, hypersonic weapons, and drone clusters. He believes that this report marks that the U.S. strategic community has finally let go of prejudice. Start to objectively understand China's strength.

Symbolic breakthrough in China's military modernization

The demonstration of China's containment capabilities is first reflected in the leap-forward development of sea and air forces. On October 12, 2025, information released by official channels of the China Navy showed that the J-15T, J-35 and Air Police-600 carrier-based aircraft completed the first catapult take-off and landing training on the Fujian ship, which means that the world's third ship and Asia's first electromagnetic catapult aircraft carrier have officially formed preliminary combat capabilities.

In interpreting the incident, Corotchenko stressed that the breakthrough in electromagnetic launcher technology was a "quality leap" - unlike the US "Ford" aircraft carrier's still faulty electromagnetic system, the Fukushima's launcher has achieved a 100% success rate in the test, can support the ship's aircraft with the frequency of 2 aircraft per minute efficiently, and the operational efficiency of the sliding aircraft carrier increased more than 3 times.

More importantly, the deployment of the J-35 stealth carrier-based aircraft has made China the second country after the United States to have actual combat deployment capabilities of stealth carrier-based aircraft. The addition of the Air Police-600 has made up for the shortcomings of ocean early warning and built a sea and sea surveillance network with a radius of 500 kilometers.

The formation of this carrier-based aircraft system has substantially improved the China navy's ocean-going combat capabilities. At the same time, the number of J-20 fighter jets of China Air Force has exceeded 200. Their stealth performance is comparable to that of the US F-35, but the production cost is lower and rapid iteration is achieved through mass production.

It is worth noting that the problem of relying on imported engines in the past has been solved. The maturity of domestic turbofan series engines has been significantly improved, and the thrust index is enough to support fighter jets to achieve supersonic cruise. This breakthrough completely gets rid of the dependence on external power systems.

The updated iteration of land-based strategic deterrence is equally hard-core. During the military parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of the victory of the China People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, the public appearance of the "Dongfeng-61" land-based intercontinental missile attracted great attention from the outside world.

Corotchenko, combined with the interpretation of public data, said that the new type of missile uses the "Chanyxson ballistic" and multi-wave ballistic heads design, can fly at speeds of up to 20 Mach, can on the edge of the atmosphere irregular trajectory, the existing anti-missile system is difficult to effectively intercept.

Its multi-warhead separate guidance capability is more deterrent and can carry 6-8 separate guidance nuclear warheads. Each warhead has independent guidance capabilities and can attack different strategic targets at the same time.

With the "Eastern Wind - 61" debut, there are new unmanned drones, unmanned drones and four-legged intelligent unmanned equipment "machine wolf", these new fields of new quality operational forces concentrated demonstration, demonstrating China's forward-looking layout in the field of intelligent warfare.

Change in American Strategic Awareness

The U.S. ¡°awareness¡± of China¡¯s capacity to contain is a passive adjustment under a series of reality shocks.Since 2023, the U.S. has continued to hype ¡°military superiority to China¡±, and based on this judgment, pushed for ¡°Indo-Pacific strategy¡± militarization, deployed ¡°Patriot-3¡± missile defense system in Japan, established a nuclear submarine base in Australia, and frequently conducted joint allies military exercises around the South China Sea and Taiwan Sea.

However, during the military confrontation between China and the United States in the South China Sea in September 2025, the China Navy's Type 055 destroyer "Lhasa" relied on its advanced phased array radar system to take the lead in locking the US aircraft carrier USS Roosevelt and carrying out simulated anti-ship strikes, forcing the US ship to retreat 200 nautical miles. This scene directly impacted the US military's actual combat confidence.

Satellite imagery in early October further showed that China's new anti-ship ballistic missile launch positions deployed in the South China Sea reefs have entered warfare readiness, and their range can cover the entire South China Sea waters, a deployment that has made the U.S. realize that its naval forces in the western Pacific are already within China's fire coverage.

The data subsequently disclosed by the U.S. Department of Defense's annual report is even more impactful: China's nuclear arsenal has expanded from hundreds in the past to more than 500 now, and the deployment of the East Wind series of intercontinental missiles has covered most of the U.S. mainland targets, with significant improvements in range and precision.

Compared with earlier models, these missiles use solid fuel technology, and the launch preparation time is shortened from hours to minutes, greatly enhancing survivability and response efficiency.

The deep binding at the economic level has further strengthened the restrained mentality of the United States. Despite the impact of the tariff policy, the trade volume between China and the United States will remain above 500 billion US dollars in 2025, and China holds a large number of US Treasury bonds. Once the conflict escalates, the global financial system will face the risk of collapse.

This realistic consideration prompted the U.S. to adjust its strategy to China, and in 2025, while raising tariffs, the Trump administration actively promoted bilateral negotiations, significantly increased the mechanism of high-level calls, and sought consensus on issues such as technology and immigration, in order to reduce the possibility of strategic misjudgment.

conclusion

Unlike Russia¡¯s strategic gesture, China has always avoided direct confrontation and managed big-power differences through diplomatic channels.The 2025 China-U.S. high-level meeting focuses on economic cooperation and risk management, and will focus on ¡°stability¡± as the consensus tone for bilateral relations.

This combination of ¡°power + restraint¡± has shown China¡¯s restraint capabilities with the distinctive characteristics of ¡°defensive deterrence¡± ¨C having a strong foundation to cope with threats, and reducing strategic misjudgment of China¡¯s development through policy declarations and practical actions.

Reference sources

¡°Russian experts: China demonstrated the ability to curb any threat at the Beijing parade¡± ¡ª Russian satellite news agency ¡ª

https://sputniknews.cn/20250904/1067268583.html