Taiwan tells lawmakers China fields 474 warships, 3,600 military aircraft and about 3,450 missiles

Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense has given lawmakers its latest estimate of the size of China's armed forces, putting the People's Liberation Army ground force at about 1.04 million personnel and the navy at about 474 combat vessels. The figures appear in a report the ministry recently sent to the Legislative Yuan, the China Times reported on 3 and 4 November.

According to the report, the Chinese navy and air force together operate about 3,600 aircraft, a count that includes naval aviation units, while the PLA Rocket Force holds about 3,450 missiles of various types. South Korea's Yonhap news agency carried the same figures on 4 November, citing Taiwanese media.

What the ministry listed

The ministry also described the equipment each service has been adding in recent years. For the ground forces it named the Type 99A main battle tank, the Z-20 helicopter and the PCH-191 long-range multiple rocket launcher, which Yonhap said can reach targets about 300 kilometres away.

For the navy, the report pointed to aircraft carriers, Type 055 and Type 052D destroyers, the Type 075 amphibious assault ship, Type 094 nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines and Type 039B diesel submarines. The air arms have been receiving J-20 stealth fighters, KJ-500 series airborne early warning aircraft and H-6N bombers, while the Rocket Force has kept fielding both conventional ballistic missiles and strategic nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles, according to the ministry's account.

Reading the numbers

A retired military officer cited by the China Times argued that the naval figure may matter most to Taiwan. Because China faces the sea only on its eastern side, ships of the Northern and Southern theatre commands are not far from the island and could be drawn into a blockade or support role in wartime, whereas ground and air units are more tightly bound by range and by the need to defend their own regions.

Chen Wen-chia, a national security scholar, cautioned that the totals describe the whole PLA rather than the force China could commit to a Taiwan campaign. He said any operation against Taiwan would be expected to be led by the Eastern Theater Command with the Southern Theater in support and reinforcement from other theatres and services, so analysts should neither count only two theatres nor add up the entire military.

In Chen's view, the decisive question is whether equipment can be turned into combat power. He noted that the PLA lacks recent experience of large-scale war and that its joint command, intelligence integration and logistics have not been tested in combat, with a cross-sea landing the hardest test of transport and supply. He added that strategic nuclear missiles should not be lumped together with the conventional strike force aimed at Taiwan, and that assessments should rest on readiness rates, available forces and mission assignments rather than raw inventories.

Yonhap also noted that China's finance ministry told the National People's Congress in March that Beijing planned to raise defence spending by 7.0 percent this year, to 1.9096 trillion yuan. On 4 November, Taiwan's defence ministry said it had tracked 22 Chinese military aircraft, seven navy ships and five other official vessels around Taiwan over the previous 24 hours, with 14 of the aircraft crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait, the agency reported.

Why it matters

The report gives Taiwanese legislators a single official snapshot of the forces they are being asked to plan and budget against. It also sharpens a familiar debate in Taiwan over whether headline totals should drive defence spending and public messaging, or whether planning should focus on the share of Chinese power that could realistically be brought to bear across the strait, and on how ready that force actually is.