The People's Liberation Army (PLA) was given a bloody nose when it went into battle in 1979 against a battle-hardened Vietnam using Korean War "human wave" tactics but nearly a decade later in 1988 the PLA Navy armed with modern missile boats defeated Vietnamese naval forces in a sea battle in the Spratly islands group in the South China Sea. Understanding the needs of modernisation and backed by economic clout, China is now fast developing the PLA to enable it to become a dominant regional military power. As the emerging economic superpower in Asia, China must play an ever-growing part in the future of the region and the world.
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