They already did it once, along with India, the two most populated countries in the world.

Yea, those basterds have got game.

True... but that's about all they have.  That and Destroyers which... are ok but not great alone.

I mean, maybe they could slip through with a ballistic sub or two and nuke the British isles.  But i think it'd be against them.

Admittidly though with the way the royal navy is going... it may actually turn out that "swarm" tactics could win the day after a while, since the British i believe are cutting down their navy.

You are talking about Hong Kong and Tibet?

If you gave them a lot of time sure.... but if they went to war like tommorrow.  

I'd expect Britain to win... if they took out the Chinese Navy it just becomes a game of "Lets fire missles at them from the sea where they can't reach us, and bomb with are ridiculiously expensive almost impossible to shoot down bombers till they do what we want!"

A favorite tactic of the west... and really with good reason... i mean it's a cheap and cowardly way to fight a war.  But effective.

Oh yeah.  If they ever get their Navy and Airforce up to par they'll be a real deadly force.

From the evidence I have seen, their ship number is expected to decrease, but their total tonnage is expected to increase. I believe they are replacing their smaller carriers with large carriers. They are still a capable navy, however, and I would rank them slightly ahead of the Russians and French. 

The problem though with small ship numbers is that it makes you vulnerable to "suicide" attacks and mosquito attacks and the like, no?

I'm not really up to how far behind Chinese naval technology is behind british technology outside of the lack of some of the more essential modern ships.

i know they have more... but they're obviously a lot less effective.

It may not be a problem for the British vs china but i can see how it might be exploited by others.

Technology and training really plays a huge part. Like you said, it depends on the enemy. I can't see anyone who would be against the British having the technology to do any real damage.

To give you an example, if the US went to war with Israel, our F15's could probably take out there entire fleet of F15's without a single loss. All due to the difference in technology in the planes we export, and the ones we don't.

Great logic, thats why authoritarion governments have been so unsuccessful, their economies are going great but they decide to stop that because the last thing anyone wants is a super power economy.

The Economist asks, "By 2026, will China—assuming it stays in one piece—be the world’s biggest economy?"  Thats a very early estimtate, and more of a headline grabber, but economists who are much smarter than Kasz ever dreamed about being peg China's GDP passing the United States at around 2050, taking into account those 'you have to be an idiot to miss ideas' such as GDP growth slowing overtime for China, political turmoil, China's population, as well as many other factors.

http://www.economist.com/theworldin/international/displayStory.cfm?story_id=5134720&d=2006

"Plenty of things rapidly change the happening of things?"  I'm buying it, but during let me remind you that China's GDP growth stayed around 10 percent from 1976 to today, that includes the fall of the Soviet Union and the complete overhaul of China's economy.

Yes, that is a potential problem. I imagine everyone remembers the terrorist attack on the USS Cole. Well, that was impressive. The Cole is an Arleigh-Burke Destroyer-4th largest class of ships in the Navy besides the carriers, amphibious assault ships, and destroyers. That such a small force could damage should a large ship supports your notion.