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32-725: The Southern Nigeria Regiment was a British Colonial Auxiliary Forces regiment which operated in Nigeria in the early part of the 20th century. The Regiment was formed out of the Niger Coast Protectorate Force and part of the Royal Niger Constabulary . The Lagos Battalion or Hausa Force was absorbed into the Regiment in May 1906 and became the Regiment's second battalion. On 1 January 1914

64-581: A paper tiger . The Yeomanry was maintained as a back-up to the constabulary in maintaining law and order. In the 1850s, the Crimean War highlighted the problems of British military organisation, leading to the abolishment of the Board of Ordnance, with its military corps and various previously civilian transportation, stores, and other departments absorbed by the British Army. The Indian Mutiny led to

96-666: A "bit more of a paper tiger" than previously thought as it was "utterly inept" and suggested that the Russian military "may not be as invincible as we've believed for a number of decades". The New Yorker described Russia as a paper tiger and analysed their performance during the 2008 Russo-Georgian War . The paper said that the Russian military suffered from "disunity of command; logistical weaknesses; poorly trained, poorly motivated, poorly led troops; very poor quality of officer corps; very poor quality of campaign design and ability to plan", as well as "very poor integration within and among

128-760: A British ("Home" or "Colonial") military unit or corps was considered part of the British Army was ultimately decided by whether it received Army funds from the War Office. Within and without the British Isles, the British military, (referring to land, rather than naval,components of the British armed forces ) by the end of the Napoleonic Wars (by which time the Kingdom of Ireland had been absorbed into

160-454: A meeting with Henry Kissinger in 1973, Mao Zedong claimed in a humorous aside to have coined the English phrase. Mao Zedong first introduced his idea of paper tigers to Americans in an August 1946 interview with American journalist Anna Louise Strong : The atom bomb is a paper tiger which the U.S. reactionaries use to scare people. It looks terrible, but in fact it isn't. Of course,

192-617: Is a calque of the Chinese phrase zhǐlǎohǔ ( simplified Chinese : 纸老虎 ; traditional Chinese : 紙老虎 ). The term refers to something or someone that claims or appears to be powerful or threatening but is actually ineffectual and unable to withstand challenge. The expression became well known internationally as a slogan used by Mao Zedong , former chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and paramount leader of China , against his political opponents, particularly

224-529: Is nothing to be afraid of; it is a paper tiger. Outwardly a tiger, it is made of paper, unable to withstand the wind and the rain. I believe that it is nothing but a paper tiger. In 1957, Mao reminisced about the original interview with Strong: In an interview, I discussed many questions with her, including Chiang Kai-shek , Hitler , Japan, the United States and the atom bomb. I said all allegedly powerful reactionaries are merely paper tigers. The reason

256-475: Is that they are divorced from the people. Look! Wasn't Hitler a paper tiger? Wasn't he overthrown? In this view, "paper tigers" are superficially powerful but are prone to overextension that leads to sudden collapse. When Mao criticized Soviet appeasement of the United States during the Sino-Soviet split , Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev reportedly said, "the paper tiger has nuclear teeth". The term

288-632: The Bermuda Volunteer Engineers with the Royal Engineers in the official Army Lists, which also listed the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps and Bermuda Militia Infantry officers as part of the British Army, whereas most colonial units were listed separately or did not appear at all), whereas others that did not receive Army Funds were considered auxiliaries (British military units, but not part of

320-659: The Board of Ordnance , and the British Army (mostly composed of cavalry and infantry regiments), administered and funded under the War Office. Most were Home corps and units (i.e., those depoted and recruited in the British Isles, wherever they might be deployed) though some were raised in colonies. The regular forces also included at various times, usually in particular locations, invalid , fencible , and other units, utilised primarily for garrison or defensive duties. Some regular forces raised in colonies, such as those grouped in

352-632: The British Empire were militia formations in England's American colonies (specifically, in the Colony of Virginia , settled in 1607, and Bermuda, which was settled by shipwreck of the Sea Venture in 1609, becoming an extension of Virginia in 1612) a century before the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland unified to create the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 (at which point

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384-806: The Kingdom of Great Britain , forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , and the Irish military forces had been absorbed into those of Great Britain), included two regular forces (employed in the garrisoning and defence of the British Isles, other parts of the British Empire, and deploying to foreign countries as required), the Ordnance Military Corps (including the Royal Artillery , Royal Engineers , and Royal Sappers and Miners ), administered and funded under

416-651: The People's Liberation Army is not as strong as the United States Armed Forces due to their differing focuses, and that China's large GDP does not equate to their actual strength or power. Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine , the Russian Armed Forces was described by many commentators as a paper tiger. Steve Day, a retired Canadian Armed Forces Joint Task Force 2 commander, described Russian command and control as

448-538: The Permanent Active Militia of the Province of Canada . These units consisted of professional soldiers . They supplied a reserve force either to be called up in war time to reinforce regular British Army garrisons for home defence, or in some cases were entirely responsible for home defence. Many units, however, took part in active campaigns outside of the role of home defence in various conflicts

480-951: The Royal Bermuda Regiment ; the Royal Gibraltar Regiment ; the Falkland Islands Defence Force ; and the Royal Montserrat Defence Force . The British Government is currently (2020) working with the local governments of the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Cayman Islands to raise reserve military units in those territories, also, with recruitment for the new Cayman Islands Regiment starting in January 2020. Paper tiger " Paper tiger "

512-745: The Royal West African Frontier Force , were funded only by the Colonial Office or local Governments and therefore not considered part of the British Army. Additional to the Regular military forces, the British Military also included various Reserve Forces. The main ones by the time of the Napoleonic Wars included the Militia (or Constitutional Force , composed of infantry regiments), mounted Yeomanry , and

544-618: The United States . It has since been used in various capacities and variations to describe many other opponents and entities. Zhilaohu is an ancient phrase. Robert Morrison , the British missionary and lexicographer, translated the phrase as "a paper tiger" in Vocabulary of the Canton Dialect in 1828. John Francis Davis translated the Chinese phrase as "paper tiger" in a book on Chinese history published in 1836. In

576-664: The Volunteer Force , although there were various others at different times and places. The Militia system was duplicated in many colonies, many of which would also raise volunteer units. These Reserve Forces were under the control of local authorities (the Lords Lieutenant of counties in the British Isles, and Governors in their separate offices of Commanders-in-Chief of colonies; Normally, neither Lords Lieutenant nor colonial Governors had any authority over regular forces in their territories), and locally funded. After

608-510: The British Army). Many colonial units started out as auxiliaries and later became regular units and forerunners to the current militaries of those colonies which have become politically independent. While most of the units listed here were army units, colonial marines were raised at various times, as were colonial naval and air force reserve units. Today, only four British Overseas Territories regiments remain (not including cadet corps):

640-551: The British Empire was involved in, including the two world wars. Some of the reserve colonial units, especially in the strategically important imperial fortress colonies (consisting of Halifax, Gibraltar, Bermuda and Malta), were funded by the War Department out of Army Funds and considered part of the British Army (by example, the Bermuda Militia Artillery was grouped with the Royal Artillery and

672-740: The English Empire became the British Empire). By the Victorian era , the colonial auxiliary military forces were generally followed the pattern of the auxiliary military forces of the British Isles. There were also British military units, separate from those of the British Army (such as the West India Regiments and the Canadian Regiment of Fencible Infantry ) that were raised and recruited in colonies, such as

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704-594: The Reserve Forces were generally referred to as the Auxiliary Forces (i.e., auxiliary to, but not part of, the British Army), or as the Local Forces (as they were originally all for home defence). With the threat of invasion by France, the Reserve Forces in the British Isles were also re-organised throughout the latter half of the 19th Century, into the first decade of the 20th Century. The Militia

736-814: The Southern Nigeria Regiment's two battalions were merged with those of the Northern Nigeria Regiment to become simply the Nigeria Regiment . The regiment contributed most of the British troops during the Aro-Anglo war November 1901 to March 1902. The following had command of the Regiment: This article about a specific British military unit is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . British Colonial Auxiliary Forces Whether

768-401: The United States, and that believing China is stronger than it really is, is detrimental to American perceptions and policy. According to Beckley, this is because "China’s economic, financial, technological, and military strength is hugely exaggerated by crude and inaccurate statistics": for example, Beckley states that high-scoring Chinese education statistics are actually cherry-picked , that

800-692: The abolishment of the East India Company, with the India Office taking over administration of India. The company's military forces were split, with the white units absorbed into the British Army and the native ones composing the Indian Army . The British Army saw significant change through the latter half of the century, with the British Army Regular Reserve formed in the 1850s, following which, to avoid confusion,

832-425: The atom bomb is a weapon of mass slaughter, but the outcome of a war is decided by the people, not by one or two new types of weapon. All reactionaries are paper tigers. In appearance, the reactionaries are terrifying, but in reality they are not so powerful. In a 1956 interview with Strong, Mao used the phrase "paper tiger" to describe American imperialism again: In appearance it is very powerful but in reality it

864-722: The conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars and the American War of 1812 , the British Government slashed defence spending, down-sizing the regular forces, including disbanding the fencibles (most of which units had been raised in Scotland due to the lack of Militia there in the 18th Century as a result of fears of rebellion), disbanding the Volunteer Force in the British Isles, and allowing the Militia there to become

896-626: The same regimental name). Although the Auxiliary forces remained organised as, and nominally, separate forces (until the Territorial Army was renamed the British Army Reserve in 2014), their being funded by the War Office meant they were also considered parts of the British Army. Outside the British Isles, the funding of auxiliary forces remained largely with the local governments. The first colonial units established in

928-586: The threat of literary theory to traditional literary scholarship in American academia. He said, "If a cat is called a tiger it can easily be dismissed as a paper tiger; the question remains however why one was so scared of the cat in the first place". Osama bin Laden described U.S. soldiers as "paper tigers". This statement may reflect the influence of Maoism on the formation of the Taliban . The phrase

960-481: Was frequently used in Chinese Internet discourse regarding the trade war begun by United States President Donald Trump. Internet users referred to Trump as a paper tiger, frequently observing that the United States economy depends heavily on Chinese companies for a host of necessities, electronics, and raw components. In The Resistance to Theory (1982), Paul de Man used the phrase to reflect upon

992-717: Was re-organised as a voluntary force from the 1850s, and the Volunteer Force restored as a permanent part of the peacetime military establishment. Both now included units other than infantry. These changes were copied to some degree in the colonial Reserve Forces. From the 1870s, administration and funding of the Auxiliary Forces in the British Isles passed from the Lords Lieutenant to the War Office and their units were increasingly integrated into British Army units (new infantry regiments, by example, being formed to include two regular battalions, with one or more Militia battalions and one or more Volunteer Force battalions, all bearing

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1024-528: Was used in a 2006 speech by then- Senator Joe Biden to describe North Korea after a series of missile launches from the country that same year, defying the warnings of the international community while still incapable of directly harming the United States. China itself has been called a paper tiger. In 2021, Michael Beckley argued in his book Unrivaled: Why America Will Remain the World’s Sole Superpower that China would not be able to overtake

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