Editors:

Roy Kamphausen

David Lai

Travis Tanner

Assessing the People’s 

Liberation Army in the 

Hu Jintao Era

Assessing the People’s 

Liberation Army in the 

Hu Jintao Era

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ASSESSING THE PEOPLE’S LIBERATION ARMY 

IN THE HU JINTAO ERA

Roy Kamphausen

David Lai

Travis Tanner

Editors

April 2014

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ISBN 1-58487-617-4
v

CONTENTS

Foreword ....................................................................vii

1. Introduction ..............................................................1

David Lai and Roy Kamphausen 

2. The “New Historic Missions”: 

 Reflections on Hu Jintao’s Military Legacy ............31

Daniel M. Hartnett 

3. The Evolution of Core Concepts: People’s War, 

 Active Defense, Offshore Defense ...........................81

Dennis J. Blasko 

4. What’s in a Name: Building Anti-Access/

 Area Denial Capabilities without Anti-Access/

 Area Denial Doctrine ........................................... 129

Christopher P. Twomey

5. Aspiring to Jointness: PLA Training, Exercises, 

 and Doctrine, 2008-2012.......................................171

Wanda Ayuso and Lonnie Henley

6. The Role of Informatization in the People’s 

 Liberation Army under Hu Jintao ........................ 207

Joe McReynolds and James Mulvenon

7. China’s Evolving Naval Strategy and 

 Capabilities in the Hu Jintao Era ..........................257

Nan Li

8. Second Artillery in the Hu Jintao Era:

 Doctrine and Capabilities ......................................301

Michael S. Chase
vi

9. “Who Cares if You’ve Been in a War?”

 Veteran Activism, State Repression, and

 Civil-Military Relations in Hu-Era China ...........355

Neil J. Diamant

10. Toward Strategic Leadership:

 Chinese Communist Party People’s Liberation 

 Army Relations in the Hu Era ..............................399

Timothy R. Heath

11. Trends in People’s Liberation Army 

 International Initiatives under Hu Jintao.............441

Kenneth Allen

About the Contributors ...........................................525
vii

FOREWORD

It is my pleasure to introduce this 2013 publication 

by the Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) of the U.S. Army 

War College, the National Bureau of Asian Research 

(NBR), and the United States Pacific Command, focusing on A Retrospective of the People’s Liberation Army in 

the Hu Jintao Era (2002-12). The papers in this book provide a valuable and insightful review of the People’s 

Liberation Army’s (PLA) many impressive advances 

over the past decade. Solid scholarship on changes 

taking place in the PLA helps us understand how the 

Chinese view the employment of military power to 

support broader policy aims. A historical review of 

patterns and developments in training, operations, acquisitions, and political military relations can greatly 

assist that understanding. The outstanding work in 

this jointly sponsored study is an important contribution toward this end.

This volume provides unique insights into the 

PLA’s achievements over the span of Hu Jintao’s tenure as Central Military Commission Chair from 2002 

to 2012. This period saw a remarkable growth in capabilities and a critical expansion in the military’s 

missions. The PLA increased its adoption of information technologies and advanced sensors into its 

modernization efforts. It also improved its ability to 

carry out joint training and missions other than war. 

Reflecting developments in the Chinese Communist 

Party, the PLA also experienced important changes 

in its political focus and mission. Most significantly, 

Hu Jintao introduced the “historic missions,” which 

oriented the PLA toward a much greater international 

mission than it had previously undertaken. Supporting this new international mission, the PLA expanded 
its participation in international military exercises, as 

well as peacekeeping operations and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions abroad, including 

its first ever permanent naval deployment abroad in 

the counterpiracy missions in the Gulf of Aden. Understanding how the PLA matured and developed in 

the Hu era is critical to understanding the PLA today, 

and for identifying opportunities to further cooperation between our two militaries. 

I commend both NBR and SSI for their commitment 

to excellence with the release of this volume. A Retrospective of the PLA in the Hu Jintao Era is an essential 

resource for those seeking to understand how the PLA 

has evolved. Just as importantly, the volume helps us 

prepare for the opportunities before us. 

SAMUEL J. LOCKLEAR, III 

Admiral, USN 

Commander, U.S. Pacific Command

viii
1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

David Lai

Roy Kamphausen

The 2012 People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conference took place at a time when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was making its leadership transition 

from Hu Jintao to Xi Jinping. The agenda of the conference took advantage of this occasion and focused the 

conference discussion on the developments in China’s 

national security and the PLA during the Hu Jintao 

administration from 2002 to 2012. The participants of 

the conference also reflected on the future of China’s 

military modernization under Xi Jinping.

While a comprehensive analysis of these subject 

matters would be ideal, the participants had nevertheless singled out some key areas where the PLA had 

apparently made significant changes. The discussion 

papers are presented in this volume. But before presenting the key findings, a brief review of “China’s 

military modernization with Hu’s characteristics” is 

in order. 

HU’S MARKS IN HISTORY?

During his reign as the General Secretary of the 

CCP, President of the People’s Republic of China 

(PRC, or China for short), and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC),1

 Hu Jintao has put 

an official stamp on quite a few major changes in China’s political and national security apparatus, as well 

as developments in the PLA. 
2

Three Milestones.

Among the major changes, three are of particular 

significance. The first one is Hu’s clean and complete 

handover of his political, governmental, and military 

titles to his successor, Xi Jinping. Back in 2002, Hu 

was the first party chief in the history of the CCP to 

assume the party’s leadership in an arguably orderly 

way. Even so, this first orderly Party leadership transition was overshadowed by Hu’s predecessor, Jiang 

Zemin, who held onto control of the gun by retaining 

his position as Chairman of the CMC.2 Hu Jintao had 

to wait 2 more years to become China’s “Commanderin-Chief.” 

Ten years later, Hu made history again by relinquishing all of his power and positions at once. We do 

not know, and may never know, what took place behind closed doors before this decision—the CCP leadership was completely silent about the significance of 

this act, and the Chinese were apparently prohibited 

to talk or write about it (there was hardly any flattery 

written in the Chinese media). Yet this change is a 

milestone in the CCP’s reluctant and much-controlled 

process of political change. It is a positive step in the 

CCP’s attempt to become a more institutionalized ruling party and could go a long way to help the CCP 

nurture a more stable party-military relationship. 

Another landmark move in China’s national security that bears Hu Jintao’s name is the propagation 

of a “Historic Missions for the PLA in the New Stage 

of the New Century” or “new historic missions” for 

short. The new historic missions came out of a speech 

Hu Jintao reportedly delivered to senior PLA officials 

at an expanded meeting of the Central Military Commission in December 2004 shortly after he became 
3

Chairman of this powerful military organization. The 

full text of Hu’s speech was never made public; but 

the core components were widely disseminated. The 

CCP and PLA official media had characterized the 

new historic mission as a “Three-Provides-and-OneRole” decree. Specifically, the PLA is tasked to:

• provide an essential guarantee of strength for 

the CCP to consolidate its ruling position,

• provide a strong security guarantee for safeguarding the period of important strategic opportunity for China’s national development,

• provide a powerful strategic support for safeguarding China’s national interests, and

• play an important role in safeguarding world 

peace and promoting common development.

These new historic missions were later codified in 

China’s 2006 and subsequent National Defense White 

Papers and reaffirmed in the CCP’s 17th and 18th party 

platforms in 2007 and 2012, respectively. 

While every element of the new historic missions is 

significant to the Chinese military, the most noteworthy aspect of it is undoubtedly the CCP leadership’s 

decision to turn on the green light for the PLA to “go 

global.” Indeed, the new historic missions place heavy 

emphasis on China’s need to protect its opportunity 

for development and its expanding national interests 

worldwide. In the words of a high-profile PLA Daily

editorial, China’s national interests are spreading everywhere in the world, into the open seas, outer space, 

cyberspace, and so on. Today, China has an “interest 

frontier” that recognizes no territorial boundaries.3

The PLA must be prepared to defend these expanding 

national interests. To carry out these new historic missions, the PLA must act in ways commensurate with 
4

China’s rising international status and follow China’s 

interests, wherever they go.4

By any account, the new historic missions are revolutionary for the PLA. Auspiciously, the Chinese military was ready to meet the challenges. Indeed, China’s 

accelerated military modernization since the mid1990s had undoubtedly prepared the Chinese armed 

forces to undertake actions abroad.5 This is most evident in the PLA’s quick response to the CCP’s call for 

it to protect Chinese interests in the Gulf of Aden in 

December 2008. 

In the late-2000s, widespread armed robbery and 

hijacking of merchant vessels in the Gulf of Aden had 

severely endangered freedom of navigation in one of 

the world’s busiest sea lanes of transportation. The 

United States and other major maritime powers had 

been fighting against piracy in this area for years, but 

China had no part of those operations, although it was 

one of the most affected victims—Chinese-dispatched 

and China-bound cargo ships made up about 40 percent of the vessels sailing through the pirate-infested 

waters.6 In December 2008, the United Nations (UN) 

adopted a U.S.-initiated resolution (UN Security 

Council Resolution 1851) calling for the international 

community to support the ongoing anti-piracy efforts 

in the Gulf of Aden and authorizing the use of military force against the Somalia-based pirates. Expectation for China to take part in these international efforts 

was also mounting accordingly.

Compelled by the need to protect China’s interest 

and blessed by the UN mandate, Chinese leaders decided to put the new historic missions to a test. The 

PLA Navy (PLAN) promptly assembled a contingency fleet, and a first-ever PLA combat team was soon 

on its way to escort Chinese merchant ships in the 

troubled waters. 
5

By most accounts, the PLAN escort operations 

have been well executed. As of April 2014, the PLAN 

has successfully dispatched 17 rotations of battleships 

to the Gulf of Aden. While protecting China’s overseas 

interests, the PLAN major fleets also took turns to test 

their capabilities in the escort operations. This undertaking has turned out to be quite a learning experience 

for the Chinese military in its overseas operations.7

Moreover, and from a strategic perspective, although the PLAN escort fleet is a small contingency 

force with limited combat engagements (thus far), it is 

no exaggeration to say that its operation is a giant step 

for the PLA as it carries out its new historic missions 

and China’s march to become a full-fledged world 

power in international security affairs. 

The third significant development is Hu Jintao’s 

commission of China’s first aircraft carrier in September 2012.8

 China’s quest for aircraft carrier capability 

has been a subject of internal debate and external criticism. The most pointed question has been: Is China 

wasting its time, effort, and treasure to pursue a combat capability that is decreasing in utility? 

Chinese leaders apparently have ready answers for 

this question. First, Chinese analysts and policymakers strongly hold that the absence of aircraft carrier 

capability in the last 60 years was a painful missing 

piece in China’s national security development. As 

China takes steps to consolidate and protect its maritime interests in the Western Pacific and expanding 

interests worldwide in the new historic era, Chinese 

leaders are convinced that a carrier-led blue water 

navy is essential for this mission.9
6

Second, the United States is still building new 

Ford-class nuclear-powered carriers projected to operate in this century and beyond. Moreover, China’s 

neighbors, India and Japan are also pursuing carrier 

capabilities (India has just launched its first homebuilt carrier on August 12, 2013; Japan will have its 

two “helicopter destroyers,” or “light aircraft carriers” 

as the Chinese call them, completed in the next few 

years). Chinese see no reason why they should forsake 

their “carrier dream.” 

Third, Chinese leaders are convinced that building 

aircraft carriers is an important part of China’s military modernization; it will also have a spillover effect 

on China’s overall modernization programs. 

China is currently following a two-pronged approach to modernize its military. One prong continues the mechanization of its armed forces. At the same 

time, the Chinese military is also moving aggressively 

to turn itself into a formidable player in the unfolding 

information age. While an aircraft carrier is an important part of the former, it is also becoming an integral 

component of the latter. Building carriers thus serves 

China’s military modernization agenda on both fronts. 

In addition, aircraft carrier construction is undoubtedly the crown jewel of a nation’s shipbuilding 

industry in particular and industrial-age technology 

in general. China is currently the world’s largest commercial shipbuilding nation10 and the second largest 

producer of warships, with the potential to overtake 

the United States and become number one by 2020.11

China’s time, efforts, and treasure invested in building 

aircraft carriers will pay great dividends for China’s 

shipbuilding industry. At the same time, it will benefit 

China’s other industries, as aircraft carrier building 

involves technologies from many other industries and 
7

reflects to a good extent the level and capability of a 

nation’s modernization.12

Although China’s first aircraft carrier is a refurbished ex-Soviet vessel and largely a training platform, 

Chinese take their efforts as painful and necessary 

first steps to learn and excel. They are confident that 

the coming of China-made and more capable aircraft 

carriers accompanied by battle groups will only be a 

matter of time.13 Moreover, as its economic development continues, China will have no lack of money to 

support the development of aircraft carriers and their 

supporting battle groups. 

For better or for worse, China’s breakthrough in 

its quest for maritime power will make its impact 

felt in the Asia-Pacific region and eventually, worldwide. The one that will come in a foreseeable future is the presence of Chinese aircraft carrier battle 

group around the unsettled and disputed areas in the 

Western Pacific. 

Taiwan will have to prepare for the days when Chinese carrier battle groups sail along its eastern coast, 

making Taiwan vulnerable on both sides (the western 

side is facing mainland China). 

The Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands are not far from Taiwan. It is undoubtedly within reach of China’s future 

carrier-led forces. Japan is concerned with China’s 

growing maritime power. It is building two “light aircraft carriers,” or the 22DDH helicopter destroyers in 

Japanese terms,14 with the capacity to carry the F-35 

fighter jets that can make vertical takeoff and landing 

on board. This addition to Japan’s maritime forces is 

seen as Japan’s effort to match the Chinese carrier-led 

capabilities. 

China’s South China Sea neighbors, namely the 

Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia, share the same 
8

concerns. They are reportedly upgrading their maritime military capabilities.15 It is clear that although 

they may not have enough to match the growing 

Chinese military might, they are preparing to uphold 

their claims on the disputed territories in the South 

China Sea. 

The United States is also watching closely China’s 

efforts to build carrier capabilities. In operational 

terms, China’s carrier-led capability will further enhance China’s anti-access and area-denial (A2/AD) 

capabilities that have been developing since the mid1990s. They are posing great challenges to U.S. power 

projection calculations. From a strategic perspective, 

the development of China’s carrier capabilities is arguably turning the question of “whether” the balance 

of power in the Western Pacific established and maintained by the United States since the end of World 

War II will be altered into a question of “when” and 

“to what extent” the shifting of power will take place. 

Much Praise.

The landmark changes highlighted above are very 

significant in China’s national security modernization. There have been many other major changes during Hu’s reign as well. Many of those changes have 

been noted in China’s biannual National Defense White 

Papers from 2002 to 2012. The Pentagon has also kept 

track of the key developments in China’s military capabilities through its annual report on the military 

power of the PRC. 

During the CCP leadership transition, Chinese 

official media took the occasion to praise Hu for his 

“contributions” to China’s national security affairs 

during his 10-year reign. On the eve of the CCP’s 
9

18th Party Convention in November 2012 (where the 

change of party leadership between Hu and Xi took 

place), the CCP’s Archival Studies Institute (中共中

央文献研究室, the central authority for the CCP’s history) released its documentation of the major achievements under Hu’s leadership since the 16th Party 

Convention. The sections on China’s national security 

and military modernization summarized the developments in 11 categories.16

1. Establishment of the scientific outlook on development as the guiding principle for national security 

and military modernization (确立科学发展观为加强国

防和军队建设的指导方针),

2. Putting forward the call for the integration of 

building a prosperous nation and developing a powerful military (实现富国强军的统一),

3. Propagation of the new historic mission (提出新

世纪新阶段军队历史使命),

4. The transition to the guideline of using information as the driving force and the generation of new 

type of fighting power as the progressive point (转到

以信息为主导, 以新型作战力量建设为增长点的方针),

5. Emphasis on the PLA loyalty to the CCP and 

strengthening party works in the military (推动军队思

想政治建设, 保证党对军队的绝对领导),

6. Taking force mechanization as the basis and 

informationization as the driving force, push for the 

integration of mechanization and informationization 

(以机械化为基础, 以信息化为主导, 推进机械化信息化

复合发展和有机融合),

7. Pushing for the rule of law in the military (推动

正规化建设, 依法治军),

8. Pushing for training, establishment of the integrated operation system, logistic support system, 

military industries, weapon acquisition system, stan-
10

dardized military service system, veteran system, and 

military benefits (建立一体化联合作战体系, 指挥体系, 

训练体系, 保障体系, 武器装备采购体系, 兵役制度, 转

业退伍安置制度, 福利制度, 住房制度, 军人社会保障制

度),

9. Integrate military and civilian sectors (军民融合

寓军于民),

10. Promote People’s War principle under information-centric conditions (推广信息化条件下人民战

争的原则), and

11. Enhance international security cooperation, 

military security dialogues (深化国际安全合作, 建立军

事安全对话机制).

Along the above mentioned lines, the PLA’s Military Science journal published a series of articles (28 of 

them in four special issues) written by military officers praising Hu’s “contributions” to China’s national 

security and military modernization.17 Although the 

articles are mostly flattery, lack substance or meaningful analysis, are full of “party jargon,” and windowdressed with Hu’s call for the “scientific outlook on 

development” (“科学发展观”), they nevertheless 

show us what the Chinese want others to know about 

the major changes during the Hu administration. 

Chinese official news media and policy analysts have 

also joined the chorus to praise Hu Jintao for his 

contributions.18

HU’S CREDIT?

There is no denying that China’s national security 

and the PLA have experienced many major changes 

during the Hu administration. Chinese official writings have unceasingly given credit to Hu Jintao for his 
11

“penetrating understanding” (“洞察力”) of China’s 

security environment, “strategic vision” (“战略眼

光”) on China’s military modernization mission, his 

“scientific outlook on development” (“科学发展观”), 

and “insightful theoretical instructions” (“精辟的理

论指导”) on practically every aspect of changes and 

improvements in China’s national security affairs and 

military organization. Of particular note is that the 

CCP leaders wanted badly to place Hu on a par with 

his predecessors, Jiang Zemin, Deng Xiaoping, and 

Mao Zedong. Hu’s “Thoughts” (“思想”) were sought 

to become part of China’s guiding principles to such a 

degree that Hu’s “scientific outlook on development” 

were propagated to an almost absurd level. Indeed, 

almost every change and development in China nowadays must go with a “scientific outlook on development,” military or nonmilitary. 

These unsolicited accreditations are preposterous 

for two main reasons. First, Hu Jintao is more of a 

follower than an innovator. Throughout his political 

life, Hu has carefully followed the party line. In many 

ways, Hu is a typical Chinese bureaucrat and survivor of China’s centuries-old repressive political culture, which demands group conformity but weeds out 

those who are ambitious and capable. Hu was selected 

by Deng Xiaoping to be a successor to Jiang Zemin 

not because of the intellectual attributes unduly ascribed to him, but because, quite the contrary, for his 

conspicuous lack of them. A humble follower like Hu 

Jintao posed no threat to anyone, but was trusted to 

follow through the CCP’s agenda. 

Second, as a careful follower, Hu is only a dedicated caretaker. During his tenure as the General Secretary of the CCP, Hu carefully managed party affairs, 

China’s monumental domestic changes, and interna-
12

tional outreach. Hu must surely be grateful that the 

country had remained largely intact when he handed 

it over to his successor, Xi Jinping.

The development in China’s national security and 

military modernization under Hu’s watch is more 

of a continuation of the CCP’s modernization mission that was largely set by Deng Xiaoping and to a 

smaller extent, modified by Jiang Zemin, who, unlike 

Hu Jintao, was much more aggressive. For instance, 

Deng Xiaoping’s observation on “peace and development as the principal theme in the evolving world” 

(“和平与发展是当今时代的主题”) has been the defining view in every major Chinese official assessment 

of China’s security landscape, e.g., the CCP’s party 

platforms and China’s National Defense White Papers. China’s “3-step strategy” (“三步走战略”) for its 

military modernization as articulated in the National 

Defense White Papers is consistent with Deng Xiaoping’s prescription for China’s overall modernization. 

Moreover, Deng Xiaoping’s stipulations for the PLA 

to be “politically-correct, capability-modernized, 

and organization-standardized” (“革命化, 现代化, 正

规化”), to turn from a “quantity-based” force into a 

“quality-based” one (从 “数量型” 转向 “质量型”), and 

to become a well-educated and trained military are 

all guiding principles for Chinese leaders. Finally, the 

calls for a “prosperous nation with a strong military” 

(“富国强军”), a “world-class military industry” (“世界

水平的军事工业”), and many more can all trace their 

origins to Deng Xiaoping’s teaching. 

Deng Xiaoping, however, did not live long enough 

to see the information revolution that is changing the 

world and warfare in fundamental ways. Jiang Zemin 

arguably deserves some credit for bringing China’s 

military modernization up to speed with the trans-
13

formation of military affairs in the information age. 

His suggestions for China to “win local wars under 

high-tech and information conditions” (“打赢高技术

和信息化条件下的局部战争”), efforts in jump-starting 

the “transformation of military affairs with Chinese 

characteristics” (“中国特色的军事变革”) following 

the wakeup calls from the United States with the U.S. 

show and use of force in the post-Cold War world, and 

the strategy for the PLA to pursue the “dual tasks” 

and develop in a “leap-forward” way (“双重任务” and 

“跨越式发展”) are prime examples.

Hu Jintao, though not a thoughtful or insightful 

innovator, and Chinese unqualified praise notwithstanding, deserves credit for his dedicated implementation of the work carved out for him. 

Of particular note is that Hu had waged repeated 

battles against the so-called “Western conspiracy to 

corrupt the PLA” (“西方腐化解放军的阴谋”) during 

his rule. Indeed, throughout the Hu years, Chinese 

political and military leaders had dogmatically resisted the calls for “removing the CCP from the military” 

(“军队非共产党化”), “de-politicizing the military” 

(“军队非政治化”), and “nationalizing the military” 

(“军队国家化”). For this, Hu earned a high praise 

from PLA senior leadership for keeping the soldiers 

loyal to the CCP. An article by General Li Jinai in 

the PLA Daily about Hu's effort in this regard is the 

best testimony.19 Nevertheless, China’s national security and military modernization have experienced 

what the Chinese call a “golden decade of development,” thanks to Hu Jintao’s careful management and 

wholehearted support.
14

XI’S TIME FOR MORE CHANGE?

Since taking over the helm, Xi Jinping has made 

quite a few highly publicized calls such as the “China 

Dream,” the PLA being capable to fight and win wars, 

China standing firm on territorial disputes, a “new 

type of great-power relations with the United States,” 

so on and so forth, to further advance China’s national 

security goals. These calls appear to indicate that Xi is 

ready to promote drastic changes in China’s national 

security and military modernization. However, this 

may not be the case, for a number of reasons. First, Xi’s 

calls are really not new. They are natural outgrowths 

of China’s expanding national power. The China 

dream has long been an inspiration for successive Chinese leaders. It is only now that China has made much 

progress on its modernization and the dream appears 

to be within reach that Xi Jinping has taken the lead to 

call it out loud.

Second, Xi Jinping’s moves are a continuation of 

China’s longstanding development efforts. For instance, the proposed new type of great-power relations 

with the United States is, in essence, another round 

of interaction with the United States over the power 

transition between China and the United States.20

Ten years ago, China put forward a call for its peaceful development as an attempt to address the deadly 

issues stemming from the changing relations between 

China and the United States as a result of China’s rapid rise. At the heart of China’s peaceful development 

call is the Chinese leaders’ promise that China would 

not repeat mistakes made by past great powers undergoing similar power transition processes. In response 

to China’s move, the United States called for China 

to become a “responsible stakeholder” of the extant 
15

U.S.-led international system, from which China had 

benefited tremendously since it started its economic 

reform in 1978. 

Although this goodwill exchange between China 

and the United States marks a very positive step in the 

relationship between the two great powers, it cannot 

secure this complicated relationship forever. Indeed, 

conflict of interest has continued to trouble the two 

nations and brought the two to tests of will from time 

to time. Recognizing the need for top-level leadership, 

on his first visit to China in November 2009, President 

Barack Obama invited his Chinese counterparts to 

join the United States in a “strategic reassurance” construct. By many accounts, Xi Jinping’s call for a new 

type of great-power relationship is a long-overdue 

response to the U.S. initiative; after all, Xi’s call contains the following: 1) avoid confrontation; 2) promote 

mutual respect; and 3) seek cooperation and winwin solutions, all of which are elements of strategic 

reassurance.

Finally, Xi Jinping, like Hu Jintao, is also a well-behaved Chinese bureaucrat. The difference between Xi 

and Hu is that Xi is a princeling and has stronger ties 

to the Chinese military. Xi can be more confident and 

assertive than Hu, but not as aggressive as Bo Xilai, a 

disgraced high-powered princeling and putative rival 

to Xi. Bo Xilai is accused of corruption. But the real 

reason behind his fall is more likely a power struggle 

for leadership in the CCP. Bo was overly aggressive; 

he stuck his neck out and got hammered (he had just 

gone through a staged trial in China at the time of 

this writing). 

According to the current CCP design, Xi Jinping 

will serve two 5-year terms until 2023. He is going to 

oversee the completion of the second step in China’s 
16

military modernization, namely the completion of 

force mechanization and major advance in information-based capabilities. With Xi’s characteristics of 

leadership, China’s military modernization will most 

likely develop according to the well-specified plan 

under Xi’s watch in the next 10 years. 

KEY FINDINGS

Back in 2008, Daniel Hartnett made a thorough 

analysis of the PLA’s new historic missions.21 In 

Chapter 2, Hartnett analyzes a few key PLA activities 

as direct results from the new historic mission. One 

marked development is the PLA’s effort to broaden its 

geographic and functional area of focus and acquire 

new skills and capabilities. The PLA has strengthened 

its ability to defend China’s maritime territorial interests. This includes increasing PLAN patrols of disputed maritime territories, coordination with civilian 

maritime enforcement agencies, and development of 

a nascent aircraft carrier capability. Today, Hartnett 

sees the following future possibilities. First, over time, 

the PLA may take a stronger position on perceived violations of China’s maritime territorial claims. Of particular note is that the United States should expect that 

the PLA will play a larger role in China’s maritime territorial disputes with other states, such as those with 

U.S. treaty allies, Japan and the Philippines. 

Second, so long as the China’s leadership feels 

that the PLA is incapable of fulfilling the new historic 

mission, additional resources for the China’s military 

modernization efforts will be justified. Therefore, the 

United States should anticipate that the PLA will, 

among other things, continue to improve its maritime, 

space, and cyberspace capabilities—key foci of the 
17

missions. Third, the United States should anticipate 

that the PLA will continue to increase its global presence as it seeks to defend China’s expanding overseas 

interests. Finally, the inherent tension in the new historic missions between traditional territorial defense 

missions and overseas missions provides the United 

States with an opportunity to influence the PLA’s future trajectory. The PLA should be encouraged to participate in missions around the world that benefit the 

common good, such as defending international freedom of navigation. Such a direction may provide China with an incentive to support current international 

norms and institutions, rather than transforming them 

to suit Beijing’s parochial interests.

In Chapter 3, Dennis Blasko discusses the People’s 

War doctrine, the Active Defense, and Offshore Defense strategies in the context of the new historic missions. The principles of People’s War, Active Defense, 

and Offshore Defense have continued to be the basis 

for Chinese military organization, doctrine, and operations since first articulated. All have been adapted and 

modified for the 21st century. These Chinese doctrines 

do not seek to initiate war; rather, warfighting is to be 

undertaken only if deterrence fails. However, this last 

assertion should be subject to debate. It is questionable whether the Chinese employed the principles of 

People’s War, Active Defense, and Offshore Defense 

to deal with the territorial disputes since 2009; or in 

other words, can those Chinese acts be called “modern maritime People’s War”? Unfortunately, neither 

the Chinese nor their foreign counterparts have an 

answer to the question.

In Chapter 4, Christopher Twomey discusses China’s internal discussion on what the United States calls 

anti-access and area denial (A2/AD) capabilities. Cen-
18

tral to China’s approach to facing American military 

capabilities in East Asia has been the development of 

the A2/AD forces. The PLA, however, does not use 

the U.S. term to describe its capabilities. In the Chinese 

security and defense discourse, the terms of counterintervention, assassin’s mace, trump weapons, system 

of systems, active strategic counterattacks on exterior 

lines, and the “three non’s”—nonlinear, noncontact, 

nonsymmetric (or asymmetric)—are frequently used. 

While the Chinese have no agreement on the 

proper terms for the emerging A2/AD capabilities, 

their deployment of those capabilities has outpaced 

the development of doctrine to manage the application of those capabilities. This shortcoming reduces 

the overall combat power these capabilities might create, and suggests a lack of consideration on the part of 

senior PLA leaders as to how military technology is 

changing and how these changes might impact naval 

warfare today. 

While this set of circumstances should not be 

viewed as an invitation for complacency on the part 

of the United States, it does suggest that continuing 

to monitor Chinese doctrinal deliberations will provide significant warning to foreign analysts and planners before any major improvements in this regard 

manifest.

On the other hand, the PLA is more deeply considering the implications of the information technologies 

and networks for conflict. China is able to draw heavily on outside thinking about these implications, many 

of which are tried and tested by the United States in 

wartime. Still, the integration of new A2/AD capabilities with new doctrine will remain a challenging area 

for the PLA given traditional bureaucratic rigidities.
19

In Chapter 5, Wanda Ayuso and Lonnie Henley 

discuss the PLA’s aspiration to jointness. They examine PLA training, exercises, and doctrine development 

from 2008 to 2012. They found that in 2006, Hu Jintao 

issued guidance on transforming PLA training by first 

training commanders and staff on joint operations 

concepts. PLA efforts toward joint operations since 

2008 have centered on developing faculty expertise 

in military educational institutions; getting PLA commanders to think in terms of joint training; and developing information systems to facilitate joint command. 

These efforts are not producing rapid results, and Chinese military leaders are aware that the PLA has not 

reached the level of joint operations development they 

seek. Nevertheless, the PLA has gained knowledge in 

joint operations from its interaction with other countries in bilateral and multilateral exercises. PLA cadets 

have received theoretical training on joint operations 

but lack operational experience. 

Despite efforts to inculcate basic concepts of joint 

operations in an academic setting, commanders continue to fall short in their ability to lead joint operations involving actual forces. Outside the academic 

setting, only a handful of military exercises address 

issues of joint command. Joint operations concepts 

have been slow to develop since the military and its 

leadership have had to adapt to a radically different 

way of thinking about military conflict. Centralized 

training guidance, standardized equipment, and improvements to academic training may provide the 

right tools to further the transformation to which military leaders aspire.

Finally, achieving a modern standard of military 

effectiveness will require the PLA to internalize joint 

operations concepts and apply them in more realistic, 

multi-service training exercises.
20

In Chapter 6, Joe McReynolds and James Mulvenon discuss trends in informationization of the PLA 

under Hu Jintao. During Hu’s terms, the PLA fully 

embraced informatization as a central guiding principle of military theory and doctrine, an underlying firmament uniting PLA concepts such as the revolution 

in military affairs (RMA) with Chinese characteristics, 

integrated joint operations, civil-military integration, 

and system-of-systems warfare, and tying them to 

China’s broader civilian informatization effort. However, this theoretical sophistication masks significant 

operational deficits, and the PLA’s recent technological advances will not generate world-class combat 

abilities if they are not matched by modernized personnel and organizational structures. This will be the 

next major hurdle for the PLA’s informatization effort, 

and Hu’s primary informatization legacy is his laying 

the policy groundwork that, in time, may enable the 

PLA to overcome these structural challenges.

Mulvenon and McReynolds therefore suggest that 

U.S. military strategists should first focus on scenarios 

involving China and must understand the impact of 

informatization trends not only in terms of specific 

weapons and support platforms but also in terms of 

integration between military and civilian informatization and networks, both in peacetime and in defense 

mobilization or conflict scenarios. Accurately understanding these linkages will enable better prediction 

of both the outputs of China’s research, development, 

and acquisition (RD&A) processes and the actions of 

Chinese political and military actors in war or crisis 

scenarios.

Second, however, informatization should be understood as a source not only of increased military 

strength and power projection capabilities, but also of 
21

new systemic vulnerabilities. As the PLA develops advanced command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance 

(C4ISR) technologies and integration with civilian 

networks, they are likely to become increasingly reliant on those systems through training and doctrine, 

ultimately replicating the supposedly “asymmetric” 

vulnerabilities in these areas that PLA theoreticians 

have traditionally noted in their analyses of the U.S. 

military. Shared vulnerabilities could potentially give 

rise to shared interests with the United States, opening 

an additional path by which China may move toward 

becoming “a status quo power” in the space and cyber 

domains.

In Chapter 7, Nan Li looks at China’s evolving 

naval strategy and capabilities under Hu Jintao. In 

naval strategy, Hu has made two contributions. He 

required the PLA to safeguard China’s newly emerging overseas interests, which defines PLAN’s far-seas 

missions; and he endorsed the concept of information 

systems-based system of systems operations, which 

impacts on how PLAN conducts operations. PLAN 

strategists believe that near-seas missions are the priority because they are more critical to China’s physical 

security. Pertaining to system of systems operations, 

some PLA strategists argue that the premise that PLA 

can achieve superiority through information systems 

integration is flawed, and that PLA operations should 

still be guided by its traditional active defense strategy, which is premised on the concept of “inferior 

fighting superior.” 

As to capabilities, the PLAN’s acquisition of an aircraft carrier, destroyers, frigates, and light frigates can 

be accounted for by the need to construct a “maritime 

system of systems” as well as PLA’s traditional active 
22

defense strategy. Other contributing factors include 

availability of new shipbuilding technologies and 

funding, and the need to replace obsolete ships. 

Li suggests that 1) because PLAN’s far-seas operations are driven mainly by economic concerns and the 

level of U.S.-China economic interdependence is high, 

such operations offer opportunities for cooperation 

between the U.S. Navy and the PLAN, particularly 

in nontraditional security operations to enhance sea 

lanes security; 2) China’s dependence on maritime 

trade and thus secure sea lanes is likely to increase, 

but the PLAN’s far-seas fleet responsible for securing 

these sea lanes still has limited capabilities. Both render the Chinese economy vulnerable. This vulnerability provides initiatives for the United States in managing U.S.-China maritime relations by adopting both 

coercive and cooperative measures; and 3) as more 

Chinese naval ships are deployed out to sea more 

frequently, they operate more in exclusive economic 

zones (EEZs) of other countries. Their experience of 

being “interrupted” in other’s EEZs may gradually 

change the perspective that underlies Chinese disagreement with the United States over military activities in EEZs. This may offer an opportunity for the 

United States to work out rules with China to manage 

naval ships’ interactions to prevent incidents at sea.

In Chapter 8, Michael Chase looks at the doctrine 

and capabilities of the Second Artillery in the Hu Jintao era. During the Hu Jintao era, the Second Artillery 

made impressive progress in doctrinal development, 

force modernization, and training, emerging as a cornerstone of China’s growing military power. The PLA 

published important volumes elaborating its doctrine 

for missile force deterrence operations and campaigns. 

After decades of vulnerability, the PLA’s Second Ar-
23

tillery Force (PLASAF) deployment of road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) enhanced the 

survivability of the nuclear missile force and strengthened the credibility of China’s strategic deterrent. The 

Hu era also featured the expansion of PLASAF’s conventional capabilities, giving Beijing new options to 

employ conventional missiles for deterrence, intimidation, and precision strike operations. In addition, 

Second Artillery improved its command automation, 

intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), 

and communications capabilities, and increased the 

realism and complexity of missile force training.

Chase suggests that China’s growing nuclear and 

conventional missile capabilities have far-reaching 

implications for the United States. Specifically, 1) China’s growing nuclear capabilities are likely to complicate future arms control negotiations, and aspects of 

PLASAF doctrine could create serious crisis stability 

and escalation management challenges; 2) strategic 

dialogue on these issues is required to mitigate escalation risks and lay the groundwork for future Chinese 

participation in multilateral arms control discussions; 

3) PLASAF’s growing conventional missile capabilities will allow China to pose an increasingly serious 

threat to targets like regional bases and surface ships; 

and, 4) this will require the United States to rethink 

aspects of its traditional approach to military operations, deterrence, and assurance of allies and partners 

in the region.

In Chapter 9, Neil Diamant looks at China’s veteran 

affairs as an element of civil-military relations. Looking to move beyond propagandistic images of heroic 

soldiers in the official media, he finds that, overall, 

many PLA veterans have had difficulty adjusting to 

the massive changes in the reform period, with many 
24

of them finding themselves in a precarious position 

in the state and society. Diamant further argues that 

veterans, including officers, are not a viable threat to 

the regime mainly on account of their old age, physical problems, lack of large scale organization, and dependence on the state. Further modernization of the 

PLA on the basis of force reduction is unproblematic, 

given the resources the CCP has invested in domestic 

security units.

Diamant suggests that when observing “patriotic” 

or “nationalistic” protests in China, the United States 

would do well to avoid overestimating the Chinese 

public’s support for the PLA, or conflict. Although 

there is a popular element in these activities, there is 

also a significant degree of state orchestration that is 

intended to gain leverage in negotiations.

Second, the Chinese public’s support for the PLA 

is not reflexive or “blind;” in fact, many oppose military benefits and refuse to consider military service 

themselves. If there are significant costs to a military 

exchange—impacting trade, employment, stability, 

investment and travel opportunities, the Chinese public will not support it. The United States should remind China of these potential costs in a variety of fora.

In every policy arena, Chinese policymaking must 

be conceptualized through the prism of fragmentation, decentralization, competition between factions, 

and unclear lines of authority—very much contrary to 

the image presented by the PRC government to the 

world at large. The PLA is but one institution vying 

for power, resources and prestige. When considering 

the possibility of a flare-up in the South China Sea, 

the interests of multiple nonmilitary agencies must be 

evaluated as well.
25

In Chapter 10, Timothy Heath looks at the emerging party-military relationship. During the era of Hu 

Jintao, the CCP deepened reforms that bolstered its 

ability to lead a professionalizing military. The reforms aimed to strengthen the CCP as an organization; render party-military relations more functional 

and resilient; and improve the CCP’s ability to provide strategic leadership. These changes have enabled 

a greater degree of dynamism and flexibility in the 

CCP’s leadership of the PLA. However, the reforms 

have also encouraged a fragmentation of party authority along national and military lines. This fragmentation of authority, exacerbated by the persistence 

of weak state and military institutions and the CCP’s 

overall political vulnerabilities, introduces new challenges to ensuring the PLA’s loyalty.

Heath suggests that reforms designed to improve 

the effectiveness of party leadership without surrendering control of the military are likely to continue under Xi’s CCP leadership. These reforms have resulted 

in a more flexible, competent CCP regime capable of 

leading the military’s peacetime activities. So long as 

the CCP continues to make necessary adjustments to 

its leadership style, the PLA has considerable room to 

grow as a professional force even as it remains a party 

led military.

Second, the long-term survival of the PLA as a party-led military, however, is less clear. The long-term 

prospects for the party’s evolving style of leadership 

ultimately depends on the CCP’s willingness to adopt 

changes that touch on fundamental principles of Leninist rule, such as measures that limit party penetration and control of all organizations.

Third, despite the reforms, the PLA continues to 

suffer from the CCP’s broader problems of politi-
26

cal weakness and fragmentation of authority. These 

vulnerabilities are likely to exacerbate problems of 

command and control in unanticipated situations. 

Understanding the complexity of the relationship between national CCP and PLA leadership can help U.S. 

policymakers navigate security-related foreign policy 

crises with Beijing.

In the final chapter, Kenneth Allen examines 

trends in PLA international initiatives under Hu Jintao. The purpose of Chapter 11 is to identify and assess international initiatives by the PLA from the time 

Hu Jintao became the Chairman of the CCP’s Central 

Committee’s Military Commission (CMC/Central 

Military Commission) in September 2004, after having 

served as one of the three Vice Chairmen since 2002, 

until Xi Jinping, who had served as a Vice Chairman 

since October 2010, replaced him during the 18th Party Congress in November 2012. Xi also replaced Hu as 

the Chairman of the State CMC during the 12th National People’s Congress (NPC) in March 2013. While 

it is difficult to determine which specific international 

initiatives can be directly attributed to Hu, it appears 

that employing military diplomacy to enhance China’s soft power was clearly implemented as a concept 

under Hu, and that the PLA began to become actively 

involved in international humanitarian assistance and 

disaster relief (HA/DR) and military operations other 

than war (MOOTW) activities as a direct result of Hu’s 

four historic missions. In addition, the PLA clearly 

improved transparency under Hu. Looking forward, 

the PLA will likely continue to expand the scope of its 

global involvement under Xi Jinping, thereby slowly 

becoming more confident and preparing for future 

conflict at or beyond its borders.
27

Allen thus suggests that: 1) should there be civil 

unrest in countries where Chinese are living and 

working, the PLA will most likely become more actively involved in helping to evacuate them to safety. 

China’s increasing focus on HA/DR will require specific technological developments, including equipment, information technology, and logistics and maintenance support. Although these capabilities would 

be necessary to support an immediate need, such as 

a natural disaster, they would also enhance the PLA’s 

ability to support military operations beyond its borders. Besides learning how to remain at sea for lengthy 

periods of time, the PLAN’s increased deployments 

abroad have strengthened its foreign relations. 2) The 

transparency of China’s military has improved in recent years under Hu. However, there remains deep 

international uncertainty about key areas of the PLA’s 

force composition and growing capabilities. 3) Looking forward to the role of military diplomacy under 

Xi Jinping, the PLA will most likely continue to expand its global involvement in HA/DR activities and 

combined exercises with foreign countries, as well 

as send more delegations abroad to learn from and 

about other countries’ militaries. At the same time, the 

PLA continues to provide some training for foreign 

militaries in China.

ENDNOTES - CHAPTER 1

1. The CCP has a Central Military Commission. The Chinese 

government also has a Central Military Commission (CMC). 

These are essentially the same organizations with the same people in charge. In their own words, the Chinese say that this is one 

organization with two names. But the CCP’s CMC is definitely 

more “official.” This writing follows the “Chinese custom.” 
28

2. Jiang Zemin was handpicked by China’s paramount leader 

Deng Xiaoping during the June 4, 1989, political turmoil in China to become the CCP Secretary General and later President of 

China. However, Deng Xiaoping stayed as Chairman of the CMC 

for a few more years afterwards and stepped down reluctantly 

only when he was certain that Jiang would carry on the course 

he (Deng) had set for China. In 2002, Jiang Zemin followed Deng 

Xiaoping’s footsteps to withhold control of the military power.

3. “On the PLA’s Historic Mission in the New Stage of the 

New Century,” Editorial, PLA Daily, January 9, 2006.

4. Huang Kunlun, “Watching PLA Fulfill its New Mission 

from the Gulf of Aden: PLA’s Mission Will Extend to Wherever 

National Interests Expand,” PLA Daily online, January 4, 2009.

5. Chinese leaders set China’s military modernization in 

motion following the so-called “wakeup calls” from the United 

States with its show of force against Saddam Hussein in 1991, in 

the Taiwan Strait crisis of 1996, and in the Kosovo air campaign in 

1999. They apparently accelerated this monumental undertaking 

upon seeing the U.S. military launch another revolutionary military action against Saddam Hussein in 2003.

6. Wu Jiao, “Navies Seeking Better Ways to Battle Pirates,” 

China Daily, November 6, 2009. Jiao, however, did not specify 

whether the vessels were Chinese owned, Chinese flagged, or 

Chinese rented.

7. See Andrew S. Erickson and Austin M. Strange, “Learning the Ropes in Blue Water: The Chinese Navy’s Gulf of Aden 

Deployments Have Borne Worthwhile Lessons in Far-Seas Operations—Lessons that Go Beyond the Antipiracy Mission,” U.S. 

Naval Institute Proceedings, Vol. 139, No. 4, April 2013, pp. 34-38, 

for an up-to-date discussion.

8. See David Lai, “China’s Aircraft Carrier: the Good, the Bad, 

and the Ugly,” Strategic Studies Institute Op-Ed., October 27, 

2011, for an account of the Chinese unyielding effort to acquire 

the carrier. 
29

9. There have been numerous Chinese writings reflecting on 

the internal debate in China about the need, merit, and cost of 

pursuing aircraft carrier in the past 2 decades. The proponents 

have apparently prevailed in the date.

10. Barry Rogliano Salles (BRS), “At a Low Ebb,” Annual 

Review of Shipbuilding Market, 2013.

11. Andrew S. Erickson and Gabe Collins, “China Carrier 

Demo Module Highlights Surging Navy,” The National Interest, 

August 6, 2013.

12. See David Lai, “The Agony of Learning: The PLA’s Transformation in Military Affairs,” Roy Kamphausen, David Lai, and 

Travis Tanner, eds., Learning by Doing: The PLA Trains at Home and 

Abroad, Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War 

College, 2012, for an extended discussion of China’s decision to 

develop aircraft carrier capability.

13. Zhao Huanxin, “We Are Ready to Build More Carriers,” 

China Daily, November 20, 2012. There are also images on the Internet showing China building aircraft carriers in its major shipyards in mid-2013. See Erickson and Collins.

14. “Jane’s points out that the 22DDH vessels ‘could quite 

easily double up as the kind of light aircraft carrier that the U.S. 

Marine Corps uses for expeditionary operations’. . . . Although 

designated for helicopters, the vessel would also be capable of 

launching jets capable of vertical take-offs and landings.” Quoted 

by Julian Ryall, “Tokyo Maintains a Steady Course on Military 

Spending,” South China Morning Post, January 23, 2013.

15. Lu Minghui (卢明辉), “南海争端与东南亚国家的扩军

(“South China Sea Disputes and Southeast Asian Nations’ Military Expansion”), 南洋问题研究 (Southeast Asian Affairs), No. 4, 

2006.

16. Zhang Ning (张宁), Chief Editor, 科学发展观与十六大以

来的理论创新 (The View on Scientific Development and Theoretical 

Advances since the 16th Party Convention), Beijing, China: 中央文献

出版社 (CCP Central Archival Publication), 2012.
30

17. The articles are in Military Science, No. 6, 2010, and Nos. 4, 

5, and 6, 2011.

18. Jia Yong (贾永), Cao Zhi (曹智), and Li Xuanliang (李宣

良), “以胡锦涛为总书记的党中央推进国防军队建设纪实 (“Record 

of National Defense and Military Development under the Leadership of General Secretary Hu Jintao”), Xinhua News Agency, 

Beijing, China: September 12, 2012; Zhang Sutang (张宿堂等) 

et al., “十六大以来以胡锦涛为总书记的党中央治国理政纪实” (“An 

Overview of China’s National Development under the Hu Jintaoled CCP since the 16th CCP Party Convention”), Xinhua News 

Agency, November 5, 2012; Jia Yong (贾永), Cao Zhi (曹智), and Li 

Xuanliang (李宣良), “党中央中央军委推进国防和军队发展60年纪

实” (“60 Years of Development in National Defense and Military 

under the CCP and CMC”), Xinhua News Agency, September 29, 

2009; Feng Chunmei (冯春梅), “十六大以来重大战略述评之十一

军事变革和平发展的中国支柱” (“Analysis of Important Strategic 

Analysis”), 人民网 (People’s Daily Net), November 3, 2012; Zhang 

Xiaotong (张晓彤), “十六大以来国防和军队建设的新进展” (“New 

Developments in National Defense and Military since the 16th 

CCP Party Convention”), 中国共产党新闻网 (CCP News Net), November 9, 2012; Yang Guihua (杨贵华) and Liu Yun (刘昀), “20

世纪90年代以来国防和军队建设的重大成就” (“Major Achievements in National Defense and Military since the 1990s of the 20th 

Century”), 军队政工理论研究 (Theoretical Studies on PLA Political 

Work), August 2012; Ha Da (哈达), “党的十七大以来国防和军队建

设的成就与经验” (“Achievements and Experience in National Defense and Military Development since the CCP’s 17th Party Convention”), 理论建设 (Theoretical Works), No. 8, 2012.

19. Li Jinai (李继耐), “新形势下军队思想政治建设的科学指

南” (“Scientific Guidance for Political Works in the Military in the 

New Era”), PLA Daily, November 2, 2012.

20. See David Lai, The United States and China in Power Transition, Carlisle, PA” Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College, 2011, for an extensive discussion of power transition.

21. Daniel M. Hartnett, Towards a Globally Focused Chinese Military: The Historic Missions of the Chinese Armed Forces. Project Asia, 

Alexandria, VA: The CNA Corporation, 2008.
31

CHAPTER 2

THE “NEW HISTORIC MISSIONS”:

REFLECTIONS ON HU JINTAO’S MILITARY 

LEGACY

Daniel M. Hartnett

The views presented in this chapter are entirely the 

author’s, and do not reflect the views of any organization with which he is or was affiliated.

This chapter examines a set of missions provided 

to the Chinese military in 2004 and the impact these 

missions have had on the military’s development and 

activities since then. It argues that these new missions 

mark a significant turning point for China’s military, 

the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Besides reinforcing traditional objectives such as maintaining Chinese 

Communist Party (CCP) rule and defending China’s 

sovereign territory, the new missions for the first time 

require the PLA to defend China’s expanding overseas interests. As a result, the PLA has sought to adapt 

itself to these new requirements by broadening its 

geographic and functional area of focus and acquiring 

new skills and capabilities. 

POLICY IMPLICATIONS

The “New Historic Missions’” heavy emphasis on 

the need to defend China’s territorial sovereignty will 

likely result in the PLA taking a stronger position on 

perceived violations of China’s maritime territorial 

claims. The United States should expect that the PLA 

will play a larger role in China’s maritime territorial 
32

disputes with other states, such as those with U.S. 

treaty allies, Japan and the Philippines. 

• So long as the China’s leadership feels that the 

PLA is incapable of fulfilling the New Historic Missions, additional resources for China’s 

military modernization efforts will be justified. 

Therefore, the United States should anticipate 

that the PLA will, among other things, continue 

to improve its maritime, space, and cyberspace 

capabilities—key foci of the missions.

• The United States should anticipate that the 

PLA will continue to increase its global presence as it seeks to defend China’s expanding 

overseas interests.

• The inherent tension in the New Historic Missions between traditional territorial defense 

missions and overseas missions provides the 

United States with an opportunity to influence 

the PLA’s future trajectory. The PLA should be 

encouraged to participate in missions around 

the world that benefit the common good, such 

as defending international freedom of navigation. Such a direction may provide China with 

an incentive to support current international 

norms and institutions, rather than transforming them to suit Beijing’s parochial interests.

INTRODUCTION

In the fall of 2012, China underwent a significant 

change in leadership as the fifth generation of leaders 

assumed power. During the CCP’s 18th Party Congress (November 2012), China's then premier leader, 

Hu Jintao, relinquished power to Xi Jinping. By the 

end of the congress, Xi took over as general secretary 
33

of the CCP and chairman of China’s supreme military 

command, the Central Military Commission (CMC)—

in effect becoming the head of both the CCP and the 

military.1 After 10 years as head of the CCP and the 

Chinese state and 8 years as leader of the PLA, Hu Jintao officially passed from the political stage in Beijing.2

If the past is any precedence, China’s new leader will 

work quickly to make his mark upon China by enacting policy guidance on issues he finds of concern. As 

with political transition in any country, it is likely that 

some of Xi’s guidance will change or possibly even 

counter policies and goals set during the Hu era. Already there is evidence that this is beginning to occur, 

as one increasingly hears what appears to be a new 

catchphrase for the Xi era, namely “China’s Dream.”3

In order to better understand any new policies that 

Xi may implement, it is useful to look back at some of 

the accomplishments of the previous Chinese administration under Hu. While a full assessment of Hu’s 

time at the helm of China is beyond the scope of this 

chapter, it is possible to examine one area, namely 

Hu’s contributions to the PLA over the past 8 years. In 

particular, this chapter looks at the impact on the PLA 

from a set of new missions Hu provided to the military shortly after he became chairman of the CMC in 

2004.4 These new missions, officially referred to as the 

“Historic Missions of Our Military in the New Century of the New Period” (“新世界新阶段我军历史使命”), or 

simply the “New Historic Missions,”5 are a set of four 

tasks, summarized as follows:

• Reinforce the military’s loyalty to the CCP.

By remaining loyal to the CCP, the military can 

help ensure that the CCP maintains its grasp on 

power in China.
34

• Ensure China’s continued economic development by defending China’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and domestic security. The 

military should prevent internal and regional 

problems, such as Taiwan and ethnic separatist 

movements, territorial disputes, nontraditional 

security problems, and domestic social stability issues; from disrupting China’s economic 

development.

• Defend China’s expanding national interests, 

especially in the maritime, space, and cyberspace domains. The military should broaden 

its definition of security from simply territorial defense against traditional military threats 

to also defending expanding Chinese interests 

in key extraterritorial areas—namely the maritime, space, and cyberspace domains—as well 

as defending China against a growing range of 

nontraditional security concerns, such as terrorism.

• Prevent the outbreak of conflict. The PLA 

should do what it can to prevent the outbreak 

of conflict that could impact China’s national 

development goals by supporting international 

peace operations, improving its crises response 

capabilities, and strengthening its deterrent 

and warfighting capabilities.

This chapter argues that the New Historic Missions are one of the defining military policies enacted 

during Hu’s tenure in office. Besides reinforcing traditional PLA missions, such as ensuring the military’s 

loyalty to the Party and safeguarding territorial defense, the missions also expand both the definition 

and geographic scope of China’s security interests. On 
35

the one hand, the Historic Missions broaden the territory in which the PLA is expected to defend China’s 

national interests. As a result, the PLA is no longer 

expected to simply protect China’s interests within 

its borders. Furthermore, the new missions codify the 

notion that the military should also include a broader 

definition of security, to include defending against 

nontraditional security threats, such as terrorism and 

maritime piracy. 

As a result, in the years since the New Historic 

Missions were announced, significant changes have 

occurred in China’s military procurement, force modernization and reform efforts, and military activities. 

It is beyond the scope of this chapter to point out all 

developments that have been influenced by the missions. However, several areas are worth mentioning. First, the military appears to be implementing 

an almost campaign-like attempt to reinforce its loyalty to the Party. Second, the PLA is strengthening 

its ability to safeguard China’s maritime territorial 

interests. Third, the PLA is expanding its capabilities and operations in three key areas: the maritime, 

space, and cyberspace domains. All of these developments appear to reflect the influence of Hu’s New 

Historic Missions.

This chapter is divided into three sections. In the 

first section, the bulk of this chapter, an in-depth description of the content and significance of the New 

Historic Missions is provided in order for the reader 

to understand exactly what the missions are and what 

they require of the PLA. The second section, some of 

the more notable examples of how these missions have 

influence the development of the PLA are described. 

In the final section, some implications for the United 

States are provided.
36

For sources, this chapter draws from a variety of 

Chinese language writings, augmented with Western 

writings as necessary. In particular, it relies on two invaluable sources of information. First is the purported 

speech by Hu to an expanded session of the CMC on 

December 24, 2004. In this speech, Hu articulates—

possibly for the first time—the New Historic Missions

to the attending delegates. The second invaluable 

source is a series of lessons on the missions that the 

PLA’s General Political Department (GPD) published 

in 2006. As the PLA’s main organization representing 

the CCP within the military, it is worth paying attention to anything that the GPD produces. Indeed, as 

will be demonstrated below, the GPD’s lessons—seven in total—provide a wealth of additional information about the CCP’s thinking on the significance and 

specific content of these missions.

What are the New Historic Missions?

The New Historic Missions are a new set of four 

missions presented to the PLA during an expanded 

session of the CMC on December 24, 2004. They reinforce some traditional PLA objectives as well as 

provide the military with new requirements. The four 

missions are a significant development for China’s 

military for two reasons. First, they appear to be a 

new entry to the sacred body of Chinese “military 

thought” (军事思想). Second, official Chinese documents now routinely incorporate the missions into 

their text, further signifying their relevance. These 

two points are worth discussing further. 
37

Since their announcement in 2004, the New Historic Missions have been slated for incorporation into 

the collection of theories that makes up the corpus 

of nearly sacrosanct Chinese military theories. This 

lexicon of Chinese military thought includes the main 

military-related writings and speeches of the leader of 

each generation of China’s leadership. As each leader 

makes way for the next, the military contributions of 

the outgoing leader are enshrined in this collection. 

Premier in this pantheon of Chinese military demigods is none other than Mao Zedong. Mao’s contribution to this collection, encapsulated in the concept of 

Mao Zedong Military Thought (毛泽东军事思想), spans 

decades of his writings and speeches, and clearly is 

the holist of the group. Following Mao is Deng Xiaoping’s contribution, collectively known as Deng Xiaoping Thought on Army Building in the New Period (邓小

平新时期军队建设思想). Pulled primarily from Deng’s 

writings during the Reform and Opening Period in the 

1980s, they naturally focus on issues such as reforming 

and modernizing the PLA in light of then-ongoing social and economic changes in China. Jiang Zemin’s input, the third component, is captured under the rubric 

of Jiang Zemin Thought on National Defense and Army

Building (江泽民国防和军队建设思想). Of note, the 

transition from Jiang as China’s leader to Jiang as China’s former leader provides a bit of insight into how 

one’s writings are included in this sacred collection. 

In the late-1990s, Jiang’s military thought was referred 

to as “important expositions” (重要论述).6 However, 

since the early-2000s, Chinese sources have referred to 

Jiang’s military contribution as a “thought,” officially 

on par with Mao and Deng’s components.7

Following the pattern set by Jiang’s military 

thought, it appears that recently this list has expanded 
38

to include Hu Jintao’s input, comprised in part by the 

New Historic Missions. Since the missions were announced, comments by high-level Chinese military 

officials have hinted that the missions were destined 

for inclusion in the list of military thought of China’s 

previous leadership. For example, in 2005, Politburo member and CMC vice chairman, General Guo 

Boxiong, stated that the missions are:

[T]he progressive innovation of the Party’s guiding 

military theory, the succession to and enhancement 

of Mao Zedong Military Thought, Deng Xiaoping 

Thought on Army Building in the New Period, and 

Jiang Zemin Thought on National Defense and Army 

Building.8

The GPD makes a similar argument in the first of 

its lessons on the missions:

In the different historical periods of the revolution, 

construction, and reform; our Party in succession 

formed the three great military theory results of Mao 

Zedong Military Thought, Deng Xiaoping Thought on 

Army Building in the New Period, and Jiang Zemin 

Thought on National Defense and Army Building. . . . 

Chairman Hu insisted on taking Marxist military theories as a guide, creatively used the successful experiences in leading national defense and army building 

of the Party’s three generations of core leadership to 

completely and profoundly reveal the Historic Missions of Our Military in the New Century of the New Period, and open up new fields of vision for us in practice 

to persist in and develop Marxist military theories.9

Further signifying the importance of this new set 

of military missions, the Historic Missions have been 

included in a variety of official Chinese documents. 
39

For example, since 2006, every Defense White Paper—

authoritative biennial statements about China’s security situation—has mentioned the role of these missions in guiding the PLA’s modernization process.10

The 2010 Defense White Paper best demonstrates this 

when it attributes various ongoing PLA reforms as an 

effort to fulfill the missions: 

[The PLA] intensifies theoretical studies on joint operations under conditions of informationization, advances the development of high-tech weaponry and 

equipment, develops new types of combat forces, 

strives to establish joint operation systems in conditions of informationization, accelerates the transition 

from military training under conditions of mechanization to military training in conditions of informationization, presses ahead with implementation of the 

strategic project for talented people, invests greater 

efforts in building a modern logistics capability, and 

enhances its capabilities in accomplishing diversified 

military tasks in order to win local wars under the 

conditions of informationization, so as to accomplish 

its historical missions at the new stage in the new 

century [sic; emphasis added].11

Even nondefense-related official documents include a reference to the New Historic Missions. For 

example, the 17th Party Congress Work Report, delivered in 2007 by none other than Hu, stated that the 

PLA was to “fully carry out the historical missions 

[sic].”12 The CCP’s 2007 constitution also incorporates 

Hu’s missions, further signifying their importance.13

In early-2013, the official switch of Hu’s “important 

expositions” to “military thought” occurred when an 

April 2013 PLA Daily article referred to Hu’s input as 

Hu Jintao Thought on National Defense and Army Building (胡锦涛国防和军队建设思想).

14 Of note, this article 
40

allegedly was a synopsis of an address that China’s 

new leader, Xi Jinping, gave to the PLA delegates 

of March 2013 National People’s Congress, further 

demonstrating the official nature of the shift in 

terminology. 

Now that the importance of the New Historic Missions has been detailed, it is time to examine the actual missions. What exactly is the content of these four 

new missions? The next sections describe each of the 

four missions in turn.

Mission 1: Provide a Powerful Guarantee for the 

Party to Consolidate Its Ruling Position.

The first of the four missions calls upon the military to “provide an important guarantee for the Party 

to consolidate its ruling position” (“为党巩固执政地

位提供重要的力量保证”). At its core, the intention is 

to ensure that the PLA remains loyal to the CCP in 

the event of a political crisis. During his speech to the 

CMC, Hu justified this mission by noting that the Party faced numerous domestic and international threats 

to its continued rule. According to Hu, the threats the 

Party faced were three-fold: the superiority of more 

developed nations, ideological attacks from “hostile Western forces,” and domestic social problems 

brought about by 3 decades of reform and development. In his speech, he asserts:

Upon entering the new century of the new period 

and comprehensively surveying the international and 

domestic situations, we face both rare opportunities 

for development and serious challenges. We still face 

pressure from developed nations with their economic, 

scientific and technological, and military superiorities. 

Hostile Western forces have not given up the wild 
41

ambitions of trying to subjugate us, intensifying the 

political strategy of westernizing and dividing up 

China, and attempting to use their political models 

and value systems to change us. Our country’s reform 

and development is currently at a crucial period. Social interest relations are even more complicated, various hostile forces stirring up trouble by exploiting by 

hook or by crook a few contradictions and problems 

present in our realization of a socialist life, and are carrying out disturbances and destruction. International 

and domestic forces are collaborating and working in 

concert. Their final goal is to overthrow the ruling position of our Party, overthrow the national power of 

the People’s Democratic Dictatorship and reverse our 

nation’s socialist system.15

Without the PLA’s loyalty and support, the Party 

fears that it will be incapable of dealing with these 

threats. Conversely, although not directly stated, the 

inability of the Party to ensure the loyalty of the military could result in the Party’s demise. According to 

Hu, “only if our Party closely relies upon all the people and firmly controls the People’s Army, will there 

be no large disturbances in China, and we will be able 

to ‘face danger with confidence no matter what problems arise.”16

In order to guarantee continued CCP rule in China, 

the Party must not only strengthen its control over the 

military and ensure the military’s loyalty to the CCP, 

but also seek to ensure that the military is capable of 

dealing with these threats:

Therefore, we must tightly grasp insisting on the fundamental principle and system of the Party’s absolute leadership over the army, and strengthening the 

army’s revolutionization, modernization, and standardization as the important strategic tasks of Party 
42

rule; thus ensuring that our military is able to undergo 

various battle tasks and various tests in complicated 

environments, and always is the backbone force for 

the Party to consolidate its ruling position.17 

The GPD’s lessons on the Historic Missions describe how to achieve this task’s objective, stating that 

it is essential to ensure that the military: 18

• Remains loyal to the CCP Central Committee 

and CMC: Only by ensuring the Party’s decisive leadership over the military can the Party 

consolidate its ruling position. Therefore, “if 

the Party says something, then we repeat it; if 

the Party orders us to do something, then we 

do it; if the Party points to somewhere, then we 

move to there.”

• Completes all tasks entrusted to it by the Party: In a somewhat circular argument, the GPD 

notes that the military’s primary task is to fulfill its obligations to the Party, which in essence 

means that the military is to successfully carry 

out its Historic Missions.

• Fights against all threats to Party rule: In order 

to confront the perceived threats confronting 

the Party, the GPD states that the PLA needs 

to strengthen its political acumen and political responsibility. In particular, the GPD notes 

that the military needs to resist calls to make 

the PLA ultimately responsible to the Chinese state, rather than the CCP as is currently 

the case.
43

Mission 2: Provide a Powerful Security Guarantee 

for Safeguarding the Important Strategic Opportunity Period of National Development.

The second task, “to provide a powerful security 

guarantee for safeguarding the important Strategic 

Opportunity Period of national development” (“为

维护国家发展的重要战略机遇期提供坚强的安全保

障”), calls upon the military to prevent domestic or 

international disruptions to China’s pursuit of further 

economic development. This mission in particular requires the PLA to defend what is referred to as China’s “Strategic Opportunity Period” (“战略机遇期”), a 

stock phrase for roughly the first 20 years of the 21st 

century. Possibly first used by Hu’s predecessor Jiang 

during the latter’s delivery of the 16th Party Congress 

Work Report in November 2002, the Strategic Opportunity Period implies that domestic and international 

environments favor China’s economic and social development, and therefore should be exploited. In that 

work report, Jiang noted that “[a]n overview of the situation shows that for our country, the first 2 decades 

of the 21st century are a period of important strategic 

opportunities which we must seize tightly and which 

offer bright prospects.”19 The GPD notes that this period benefits China’s continued development because 

at the international level, the overall situation is peaceful, the likelihood of great power conflict is low, and 

the world is moving toward multipolarization and 

globalization. At the domestic level, China’s economy 

continues to grow, benefitting the Chinese populace.20

The importance of the Strategic Opportunity Period is captured in Hu’s New Historic Mission speech, 

where he states that:
44

The first 20 years of this century is the important Strategic Opportunity Period that we must tightly grasp 

and be able to fully accomplish. Grasping the opportunity to promote development is of the utmost importance to fully build a moderately well-off society and 

speed up the promotion of socialist modernization. 

The Strategic Opportunity Period is hard earned and 

defended, and exploiting the Strategic Opportunity 

Period requires expending even more arduous effort. 

In order to defend and use the Strategic Opportunity 

Period, we should defend national security, guard 

national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and 

provide a powerful security guarantee for national 

development, thus creating a peaceful international 

environment and a harmonious social environment.21

However, while China’s overall international and 

domestic situation during the Strategic Opportunity 

Period is seen in a positive light, there are also a number of perceived obstacles which could derail progress 

during this period. Hu’s speech notes four problem 

areas in particular: 1) territorial disputes with neighboring countries, 2) separatist movements on Taiwan, 

3) other separatist movements, and 4) domestic social 

stability problems. According to Hu:

Currently, there are still a lot of factors that are influencing the Strategic Opportunity Period. Our nation’s 

historical land border problems have yet to be completely resolved. More than half of the three million 

km2 of maritime surface area over which China has 

sovereignty and jurisdiction is involved in territorial 

water or maritime rights and interest disputes with 

neighboring states. “Taiwan Independence” separatist forces and their activities are producing serious 

threats for national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Ethnic separatist forces are combining to harm 

the stability of the border areas. Terrorist activities are 
45

negatively influencing national security and stability. 

Along with the deep transformation of China’s social 

structure, various cultures of thought are agitating 

each other, various social contradictions are influencing each other, and factors harming social stability are 

increasing. The threats facing national sovereignty, 

the challenges facing the unification of the motherland, and the problems facing social stability, if one 

aspect is not properly guarded against, fought against 

without effort, or mismanaged, they could all possibly 

influence and seriously affect the important Strategic 

Opportunity Period for national development.22

In its lessons on the New Historic Missions, the 

GPD elaborates on these threats to China:23

• Taiwan independence movement: Writing in 

2006 when mainland-Taiwan relations were at 

a low point, it is understandable that the GPD 

would assert that Taiwan independence is the 

“most serious threat influencing the Strategic 

Opportunity Period.” Of note, this threat also 

includes the possibility of a U.S. intervention 

on behalf of Taiwan should conflict erupt.

• Land and maritime territorial disputes: Referring to China’s various territorial disputes as 

a “hidden danger,” the GPD contends that, if 

not settled, these issues could harm China’s 

chances for continued development. The GPD 

also states these disputes often are exacerbated 

by the “meddling” of international forces.

• Terrorism and national separatist movements: 

The GPD’s lessons note that terrorism is on the 

rise on China’s border along the arc from Central Asia, through South Asia, and into Southeast Asia. The GPD also asserts that terrorism 

is now a domestic problem, and mentions in 
46

particular Xinjiang’s East Turkistan separatist 

movement—the only group listed by name.

• Various domestic destabilizing factors: The final category of factors that could derail China’s 

continued development is domestic social factors. Although the GPD doesn’t provide details 

about these factors, it does note that rising per 

capita income and income inequality in China 

are partially to blame.

In order to combat these various threats, Hu states 

that the military should:

[F]irmly resist foreign invasions, and ensure that China’s territorial seas, territorial airspace, and borders 

are not violated. They should counter and constrain 

“Taiwan Independence” separatist forces and their 

activities, earnestly defend against and attack ethnic 

separatist forces, never allowing the various plans of 

the separatist forces and western hostile powers to divide China and destroy her sovereignty and territorial 

integrity to prevail. They should support national relevant departments, earnestly defending against and 

resolutely attacking terrorist activities. They should 

closely pay attention to the social situation, actively 

support and accompany local Party committees and 

governments to appropriately handle various social 

contradictions and issues, doing a good job of safeguarding social stability.24

Building upon Hu’s speech, the GPD lists three areas where the PLA needs to act: 25

1. Defend China’s territorial sovereignty: In particular, the GPD calls upon the PLA to closely monitor changes in the international and regional security 

situation; pay close attention to “readjustments” in 
47

regional military deployments; strive to improve its 

national defense capabilities; and strive to be able to 

“win local wars under informatized conditions.” 

2. Counter Taiwan separatism: The GPD notes 

that the PLA needs to do a good job at completing its 

“military combat preparations”26 in order to dissuade 

Taiwan from seeking independence. Furthermore, 

should peaceful means be exhausted, then the PLA 

needs to be ready to use military force to “thoroughly 

resolve the Taiwan issue.”

3. Counter domestic terrorism and ensure domestic stability: According to the GPD, the PLA should 

actively guard against terrorism and ethnic separatism, and prevent these groups from joining up with 

“hostile western forces.” The PLA should also assist 

with preventing domestic problems from destabilizing China.

Mission 3: Provide a Powerful Strategic Support for 

Safeguarding National Interests.

The third mission requires the military to protect 

China’s expanding national interests. Referred to as 

the need for the military to “provide a powerful strategic support for safeguarding national interests” 

(“为维护国家利益提供有力的战略支撑”), this mission 

focuses on the need to defend China’s expanding national interests in three realms: maritime, space, and 

cyberspace.27 Chinese writings state that the justification for the broadening of national security interests 

lies with the expansion of China’s national interests. 

As described in an article from China’s official news 

agency, Xinhua, when China was at an earlier stage 

of development, its national interests were confined 

within its geographic borders. Today, however, the 
48

effects of informatization (信息化) and globalization 

have led China’s national interests to gradually spread 

out into the ocean, space, and cyberspace.28 According 

to Hu:

The progress of the period and the development of 

China have caused our national security interests to 

gradually go beyond the scope of our territorial land, 

seas, and airspace; and continually expand and stretch 

towards the ocean, space, and [cyberspace]. Maritime 

security, space security, and [cyberspace] security have already become an important area of national security. [Emphasis added]

The GPD lessons expand upon this argument:

People’s understanding of the oceans and development of maritime capabilities continues to rise, causing 

the oceans to become an important area in international struggles of the 21st Century. The discovery and use 

of man-made satellites, spacecraft, and space shuttles 

has caused space to become the new area for national 

interests. The widespread use of electronic computers 

and information networks has again caused [cyberspace] to enter into the category of national interests. 

The development of modern national interests manifests the trends of developing from one dimensional of 

the past to the multidimensional and omnidirectional 

space of land, ocean, air, space, and [cyberspace].29

In other words, because China’s developmental 

interests have moved into these realms, so too should 

China’s security interests.

In order to carry out this task, Hu stated that the 

military must broaden its definition of national security to include protecting China’s newly expanded interests in the maritime, space, and cyberspace 

domains: 
49

We must expand our security strategy and our military 

strategic field of vision; not only should we pay close 

attention to and defend national survival interests, 

but also pay attention to and defend national development interests; not only should we pay attention to 

and defend the security of our territorial land, waters, 

and air; but also pay attention to and defend maritime 

security, space security, and [cyberspace] security; as 

well as other aspects of national security.30

As evidenced from the above quotes, this third 

mission focuses on three areas in particular where 

the PLA is required to develop the capabilities to 

safeguard China’s expanding interests: the maritime, 

space, and cyberspace domains. Each area is further 

detailed as follows.

Maritime Security.

The New Historic Missions note the growing importance of the oceans to China. According to Hu, 

“the ocean is the great route of international contact 

and a strategic resource treasure-house for the sustainable development of humanity.”31 The GPD asserts 

that “[a]long with our nation’s economic and social 

development, our national interests are continually 

expanding and extending into the maritime space.”32

China has two types of interests in the maritime region: economic and security interests.

Maritime Economic Interests. China has primarily 

two types of maritime economic interests: sea lanes 

(and the goods that traverse them) and maritime resources.33 The maritime environment is of increasing 

value to Beijing due to China’s growing reliance upon 

international sea lanes for China’s continued develop-
50

ment.34 In 2010, the World Bank estimated that the value of China’s total foreign trade (imports and exports) 

was equivalent to 55 percent of China’s gross domestic product.35 The majority of China’s foreign trade, as 

much as 90 percent according to one Chinese estimate, 

travels by sea.36 Furthermore, since 1993, China has 

been a net importer of oil, and in 2010 it imported over 

52 percent of its consumed oil.37 Maritime natural resources, such as petroleum, minerals, and fisheries, are 

also increasingly important to China’s economy. This 

importance, both realized and potential, is evident in 

the number of maritime development plans China has 

released in recent years. For example, at the national 

level, every Five Year Plan (FYP) since the 7th (1986-

90) has noted the need to develop China’s maritime 

resources, with the most recent, the 12th FYP (2011-

15), devoting an entire chapter to this issue.38 Table 

2-1 below contains a small sample of China’s national 

maritime development plans.

Table 2-1: Select Chinese National Maritime 

Economy Development Plans.

Plan Name (English) Program/Plan Name (Chinese) Year

7th-12th Five Year Plans N/A 1986+

The Development of China's Maritime 

Enterprises 中国海洋事业的发展 1998

Outline of the National Ocean Economy 

Development Plan, 2001-2010 全国海洋经济发展规划纲要 2003

The Maritime Engineering Equipment 

Manufacturing Industry Long Term 

Development Plan, 2011-2020

全国海洋经济发展规划纲要

海洋工程装备制造业中长期发展

规划 2012
51

Because of the importance China attributes to maritime economic interest, Beijing feels the need to be 

able to defend them if necessary. As the most recent 

Chinese Defense White Paper notes:

The seas and oceans provide immense space and 

abundant resources for China’s sustainable development, and thus are of vital importance to the people’s 

wellbeing and china’s future. It is an essential national 

development strategy to exploit, utilize and protect 

the seas and oceans, and build china into a maritime 

power. It is an important duty for the PLA to resolutely safeguard China’s maritime rights and interests.39

Maritime Security Interests. China also has maritime security interests in the region. According to 

the GPD: 

China has a large quantity of island jurisdiction and 

maritime rights disputes with peripheral countries. 

More than half of the maritime surface area over 

which China has sovereignty and jurisdiction is disputed by peripheral states. China has unresolved border demarcation problems in the Yellow, East China, 

and South China seas with some nations, and there are 

a lot of disputes over maritime resource development 

issues.40

Safeguarding these maritime interests requires the 

PLA to focus more on the maritime domain; failure 

to do so could negatively impact China’s continued 

economic and social development:

Safeguarding the maritime resources for supporting 

China’s continued economic development, developing and safeguarding the security of China’s foreign 

maritime trade shipping routes and petroleum lines, 

attacking the problems of maritime terrorism, piracy, 
52

smuggling, and transnational crimes, and building 

a peaceful and good regional maritime security order, are all China’s important maritime security interests, and concern the entire nation’s security and 

development.41

Space Security.

Like the maritime domain, China sees space as an 

increasingly important area for economic and security 

reasons. According to Hu:

space is the new area for contemporary international 

cooperation, competition, and confrontation; the development and use of space resources open up a broad 

prospective for the future development of human society. A few great powers are currently intensifying 

the pursuit of a military advantage in space, and the 

process of space weaponization is speeding up.42

Space has also become strategic terrain for China’s 

development and security. Chinese writings have frequently argued that space has become the new frontier in mankind’s development.43 The importance of 

developing space to the Chinese government is demonstrated by two components of the 11th Five Year 

Plan (FYP), which covers 2006 to 2010.44 The first is an 

11th FYP for space development, followed by an 11th 

FYP for aerospace development.45 Trends toward the 

militarization of space were also noted as justification 

for safeguarding space security:

The competition for space is more intense on a daily 

basis. Space is a very important national interest area, 

and it is also an endless area. The great value of space 

in military, economic, science and technology, and social areas is already giving daily rise to every nation’s 

attention.46
53

Chinese writings about how to defend China’s 

interests in space provide less details than some may 

like. The GPD, for example, only notes that the PLA 

must develop space defenses and improve its space 

capabilities, but lists few details: 

China has always advocated for the peaceful use of 

space and been against the weaponization of space. 

However, facing security threats from space, we must 

undertake suitable means to implement effective defenses, formulate scientific and rational long-term 

plans, strive to develop space technology, actively develop space, participate in international space cooperation, and strengthen the construction of space forces; 

thus ensuring that [our] national space interests are 

effectively safeguarded.47

Cyberspace Security.

The final domain specifically noted in the third 

task is cyberspace. As with the two previous domains, 

the Historic Missions also consider cyberspace important for both China’s development and security. In his 

speech, Hu states that: 

[cyberspace] is a material space that has gradually 

attracted humanity’s attention along with the widespread use of information technology; in military affairs it is the ‘fifth battlefield’ after the land, sea, air, 

and space battlefields.48
54

The GPD provides a bit more detail on this domain’s 

growing importance to China:

Along with the development of information technology—especially computer technology—the [cyberspace] has had an increasingly larger use in economic 

and social development. Each nation of the world 

places developing and vying for the initiative in [cyberspace] in a prominent position, and crucial S&T 

research areas of developed nations are [cyberspace]-

relevant information, communications, and superconductor technologies.49

In order to defend China’s interests in cyberspace, 

the PLA needs to increase its knowledge of cyber 

threats and improve its cyber security capabilities. Per 

the GPD:

We should closely follow security threats in [cyberspace] and undertake effective countermeasures to defend against them. We should closely track advanced 

global electronic and information technology developments, work with relevant central departments to 

strengthen the construction of information security 

support systems, and optimize security measures from 

a legal, administrative, and technical angle. We should 

extensively carry out education on [cyberspace] security, and raise and broaden the troop’s consciousness 

about and disposition towards safeguarding [cyberspace]. Through feasible means, we should ensure 

that national economic and social activities function 

normally, ensure that army building is carried out 

smoothly, and that we are victorious in future informatized wars.50
55

While firmly admitting that the absence of evidence 

is not the same as the evidence of absence, it is worth 

mentioning that at least in Hu’s speech and in the 

GPD’s lessons, there is no mention of offensive cyber 

capabilities. However, this is not to say that the PLA 

is not investigating how to conduct offensive cyber 

capabilities. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) 

2013 report on China’s military capabilities notes that 

China’s development of computer network operations capabilities are fungible for computer network 

attacks as well.51 Therefore, a more credible explanation for the lack of offensive cyber capabilities is that 

the topic is considered too sensitive to be discussed in 

open sources, and therefore discussions on this issue 

are likely not available for the drafting of this chapter. 

Mission 4: Give Play to the Important Use of Safeguarding World Peace and Promoting Common 

Development.

The final task of the Historic Missions requires the 

PLA to respond to international crises, since China is 

no longer isolated from outside events by geography 

alone. This task, “to give play to the important use of 

safeguarding world peace and promoting common 

development” (“为维护世界和平与促进共同发展发挥

重要作用”), is mainly driven by the Chinese perception that because of globalization, China is increasingly connected to the outside world, especially the 

global economy. As a result of this increased interconnectivity, China is no longer immune to overseas 

events—events only tangential to China’s interests 

could now adversely impact the Middle Kingdom. 

Furthermore, what happens in China also impacts the 

outside world.52 According to Hu:
56

Economic globalization trends continue to develop, 

causing the economies of the world’s nations to link 

tightly together like never before, making it difficult 

for any nation to develop in an isolated fashion by 

distancing itself from the global economy. Since the 

Reform and Development [Period], in order to promote the rapid development of our nation’s economy, 

we persisted on the basic policy of opening up to the 

outside, completely raising our level of openness to 

the outside, amply using both domestic and foreign 

markets, and earnestly realizing superior complementation and common development. Presently, China’s 

economy and the global economy form an overall 

situation of mutual dependence. China’s development 

cannot do without the world and the world’s development also cannot do without China.53

China maintains this view until today, as demonstrated in China’s recent Defense White Paper, which 

asserts that:

China’s security and development are closely connected with the peace and prosperity of the world 

as a whole. China’s armed forces have always been a 

staunch force upholding world peace and regional stability, and will continue to increase cooperation and 

mutual trust with the armed forces of other countries, 

participate in regional and international security affairs, and play an active role in international political 

and security fields.54

In order to fulfill this task, Chinese writings note 

that the PLA must be able to: 

• Contribute to international peacekeeping efforts: As the GPD points out, China is a permanent member of the United Nations Security 

Council (UNSC), and therefore shoulders a responsibility to the international community. As 
57

such, China requires a military that suits a nation that “directly participates in policies that 

affect global security and regional stability, and 

has a decisive role in international affairs.”55

• Respond rapidly to nonwar crises: According 

to the GPD, the final mission requires a PLA 

that has a rapid response capability so that it 

can handle crises before they develop into major conflicts. In addition, it states that the PLA 

should improve its ability to conduct “nonwar” 

(“非战争") activities during peacetime, such as 

humanitarian assistance and disaster response. 

The PLA should also improve its ability to coordinate with other People’s Republic of China 

(PRC) government agencies to effectively respond to crises.56

• Deter and contain war: Because of the growing 

destructiveness of modern warfare, the PLA 

should seek to prevent the outbreak of war or 

contain the escalation of war should it occur—

particularly a war that involves China. The 

GPD emphasizes that the PLA should “both 

pay close attention to planning and carrying 

out firm preparations for war and stress avoiding war through crisis control.”57 Other writings also emphasize the need to “strengthen 

[the PLA’s] strategic deterrence capability.”58

• Win a war, should it be necessary: Reflecting 

Trotsky’s aphorism that “you may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you,” the 

GPD states that “if war cannot be avoided, then 

we must crush the enemy’s schemes with swift 

and violent combat operations.” In particular, 

the PLA must be capable of defeating a superior opponent in a modern high-technology war, 
58

referred to in PLA parlance as a “Local War under Informatized Conditions.”59

SOME MANIFESTATIONS OF THE 

HISTORIC MISSIONS

So how have the Historic Missions influenced 

the PLA? Did Hu simply give a speech that the military promptly ignored? Or does the military simply 

provide lip service to the new requirements of these 

missions? This chapter argues that the missions have 

indeed been internalized by the PLA, strengthening 

some programs and policies that were already in place 

and creating new ones where nothing existed before. 

This section of the chapter provides an overview of 

some of the more likely Chinese military developments over the past 8 years that appear to strongly 

correlate with—if not directly flow from—the new 

mission set that Hu provided to the PLA. It is not a 

thorough discussion of everything that the PLA has 

done, or that could potentially be connected to the New 

Historic Missions. In particular, this section points 

out three developments: reinforcing PLA loyalty to 

the CCP, strengthening the PLA’s ability to defend 

China’s maritime territorial interests, and improving 

the PLA’s capabilities to safeguard China’s expanding 

overseas interests. Each is briefly discussed in turn.

Reinforcing PLA Loyalty to the CCP.

As demonstrated previously, the first—and likely 

most important—mission of the New Historic Missions calls upon the PLA to reinforce its loyalty to 

the Party. This idea of CCP control over the military 

is succinctly summarized in Mao Zedong’s statement 
59

at the 1929 Gutian Conference that “the Party commands the gun and the gun must never be allowed 

to command the Party.”60 At this conference, Mao 

and his supporters established a system whereby the 

CCP was thoroughly embedded within the PLA, and 

the PLA made subordinate to Party rule.61 Although 

a staple of civil-military relations in China for over 8 

decades, in recent years the call to ensure CCP control of the military seems to have strengthened. For 

example, a PLA Daily editorial claimed on the 85th 

anniversary (2012) of the founding of the PLA that 

“[w]e must more solidly and more effectively improve 

ideological and political building, guarantee that the 

forces will resolutely obey the party’s command and 

be absolutely loyal and reliable.”62 In a 2012 article in 

the CCP’s premier journal, Qiushi (求是), Du Jincai, 

deputy director of the GPD, emphasized the need “to 

strengthen ideological and political education within 

the PLA,” and asserted that the priority tasks for the 

PLA are to “firmly follow the Party’s instructions and 

show absolute loyalty to the Party.”63 Not all of these 

calls come from military sources, either. Interestingly, 

China’s 12th Five Year Program notes the emphasis on 

strengthening the PLA’s loyalty to the Party:

We will enhance the army’s ideological and political 

building; persist in the basic principle and system of 

the Party’s absolute leadership over the army; persist 

in the fundamental purpose of the people’s army; 

greatly carry forward the excellent tradition of following the command of the party, of serving the people, 

and of being brave and of good at fighting; and nurture the core value concept of the contemporary revolutionary army men.64
60

Many of these calls to strengthen CCP control over 

the PLA simultaneously emphasize the need to resist 

attempts to separate the PLA from the Party. This notion is captured under the oft-seen calls to resist the 

“erroneous thinking” to “remove the Party [from 

the military]” (非党化), “de-politicize [the military]” 

(非政治化), and “nationalize [the military]” 

(国家化)—in other words, to make the military ultimately beholden to the state and not the CCP.65

Strengthening the PLA’s Ability to Defend China’s 

Maritime Territorial Interests. 

Several high profile developments over the last 

year show the development of PLA capabilities to 

safeguard China’s disputed maritime territories in the 

East and South China seas. Three are noted below:

1. Increasing PLA Navy (PLAN) patrols of disputed maritime territories: Demonstrating the ability 

to safeguard China’s disputed maritime territories in 

the East China Sea, a PRC Ministry of National Defense spokesman stated in September 2012 that the 

PLAN would patrol disputed maritime areas such as 

the Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands, asserting that “it is entirely proper and lawful for Chinese naval vessels to 

carry out routine combat-readiness patrols and training in waters under our jurisdiction.”66 China’s 2013 

Defense White Paper clearly asserts that the PLA has a 

role to play in both defending China’s maritime interests in the region, as well as backing up other Chinese 

government agencies tasked with the same mission—

such as China’s civil maritime forces.67 Recent media 

reports of PLA Navy vessels patrolling the waters 

near the Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands demonstrate that 

these are not simply empty statements.68
61

2. Coordination with civilian maritime enforcement agencies: Answering a question about PLA 

responses to the ongoing Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands 

tensions with Japan, a Chinese Ministry of National 

Defense (MND) spokesman stated that:

the Chinese military cooperates closely with the marine surveillance, fisheries administration, and other 

such departments, providing security support for the 

state’s enforcement of laws at sea, fisheries production, 

oil and gas development, and other such activities.69

This statement was further developed in China’s 

most recent Defense White Paper, which, for the first 

time ever, contained a section detailing how the PLAN 

is coordinating with and reinforcing efforts by civilian 

maritime forces to safeguard “China’s maritime rights 

and interests.”70 A notable example of this coordination occurred during the 2009 “Impeccable Incident,” 

when a PLAN auxiliary general intelligence vessel 

and a PRC Bureau of Maritime Fisheries patrol vessel, 

a PRC State Oceanographic Administration patrol vessel, and two Chinese-flagged fishing vessels harassed 

the United States Naval Ship (USNS) Impeccable in the 

South China Sea.71

3. Development of a nascent aircraft carrier capability: Although China purchased its first aircraft carrier from the Ukraine prior to Hu’s Historic Missions 

speech, it is not difficult to see how the carrier could 

support the PLA’s requirement to defend China’s disputed maritime territorial claims and maritime economic interests. As a Xinhua article asserted shortly 

after the carrier was commissioned in September, “the 

legitimacy and necessity of developing the aircraft 

carrier technology to safeguard [China’s] national interests in the ocean is self-evident” [sic].72 Possession 
62

of an aircraft carrier would, among other benefits, 

provide the PLA the ability to better reach the more 

far-flung of China’s maritime territorial claims.

IMPROVING THE PLA’S CAPABILITIES 

TO SAFEGUARD CHINA’S EXPANDING 

OVERSEAS INTERESTS

As noted previously, the crux of the third mission 

is to expand the PLA’s focus on defending China’s 

national interests beyond the traditional geographic 

scope of China’s sovereign territory. According to this 

mission, the PLA should now also focus on defending China’s expanding national interests, particularly 

in three key areas: the maritime, space, and cyber 

domains.

Maritime Domain.

Two developments in particular exemplify top-level calls for the PLA to expand its ability to defend China’s maritime interests—the increased area of operations of the PLA Navy, and the ongoing PLA support 

to international antipiracy operations off the Horn of 

Africa. First, by all accounts, the PLAN is expanding 

its area of operations. As stated in China’s 2006, 2008, 

and 2010 Defense White Papers, the PLAN is attempting 

to expand its operating range.73 The 2013 Defense White 

Paper in particular describes how the PLAN is “developing blue water capabilities of conducting mobile 

operations, carrying out international cooperation, 

and countering non-traditional security threats, and 

enhances its capabilities of strategic deterrence and 

counterattack.”74 This statement is corroborated by 

DoD’s 2013 report on China’s military power, which 
63

notes that the PLAN continues to pursue blue water 

capabilities, although the report also asserts that the 

navy’s capabilities are “modest but growing.”75

Possibly the most obvious manifestation of the 

New Historic Missions in PLA activities, and most applicable to this hearing’s focus, is the PLAN’s ongoing 

participation in anti-piracy operations off the Horn of 

Africa. First dispatched in December 2008, the PLAN 

is now in its 14th deployment in support of this effort. Although the PLAN task forces are small in size, 

generally just three ships at a time, they have worked 

well with other international partners to escort civilian cargo ships sailing on important sea lanes in the 

region.76

Space Domain.

One of the more infamous activities that the PLA 

conducted as a demonstration of its ability to fulfill 

the Historic Missions is its 2007 antisatellite (ASAT) 

test. On January 11, 2007, China launched a variant of 

its Dongfeng-21 medium-range ballistic missile at one 

of its own weather satellites, successfully destroying it 

upon impact.77 According to one report, this test was 

not Beijing’s first. Prior to the successful 2007 ASAT 

test, the PLA conducted at least two unsuccessful tests 

in 2005 and 2006.78 This trend aligns with China’s 2006 

Defense White Paper, which states that improving space 

defense technology was a key goal for the national defense industrial complex.79 In addition the PLA’s nascent ASAT capability, the 2012 DoD report on China’s 

military power describes how “China is expanding its 

space-based surveillance, reconnaissance, navigation, 

meteorological, and communications satellite constellations.”80 The department’s 2013 report echoes this, 
64

and also notes that the PLA is “developing a multidimensional program to improve its capabilities to limit 

or prevent the use of space-based assets by adversaries during times of crisis or conflict.”81

Cyberspace.

There is little doubt that the PLA has internalized 

the requirement to improve its cyber capabilities. Reports of PLA cyber operations frequently appear in 

the media and foreign government reports. DoD, for 

example, notes that “authoritative [Chinese] writings 

and China’s persistent cyber intrusions indicate the 

likelihood that Beijing is using cyber network operations as a tool to collect strategic intelligence.”82 The 

department’s 2011 report is even harsher, asserting 

that the PLA is developing a full suite of cyber operations, to include computer network attack, computer 

network exploitation, and computer network defense. 

Furthermore, according to the report, “[t]he PLA has 

established information warfare units to develop 

viruses to attack enemy computer systems and networks.”83

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

So what does this all mean for China and the PLA? 

This chapter concludes with two observations. First, 

while it appears that the Chinese military is actively 

attempting to fulfill the requirements of the New Historic Missions, it is unclear how well the military can 

accomplish them. In order to fulfill the missions, the 

PLA requires much more than simply bright shiny 

new equipment. Much more difficult is the softer side 

of military modernization—the training, reorganizing, 
65

and developing of new norms and cultures—so that 

the military officers and troops can effectively and efficiently carry out the tasks assigned to them. If the PLA 

solely focuses on acquiring new equipment, weapons, 

and platforms, it likely will be incapable of fully realizing the capabilities required by the New Historic 

Missions. Furthermore, many of these requirements, 

such as the ability to conduct blue water operations, 

will only be acquired over time, as lessons from actual 

operations are distilled, deconstructed, and internalized as lessons learned. Any bureaucracy is difficult 

to adjust to new changes, and the PLA is no exception. Its large size and various parochial interests will 

throw up road blocks to the smooth transition from a 

territorial-based military, to the global force that the 

CCP apparently desires the PLA to become. This is 

not to say that the PLA will not become global. On 

the contrary, this author would argue that the PLA is 

already an inchoate global military, as demonstrated 

by its naval and peacekeeping operations around the 

world. However, how far and how quickly it will 

progress to becoming a true global military remains 

to be seen.

One indication that things may not be going as 

smoothly as the CCP and PLA leadership might like 

is the frequent reference to the “two incompatibles” 

(“两个不相适应”).84 First mentioned in 2006, the two 

incompatibles refers to the notion the PLA does not 

have the capabilities to fight a modern war as perceived by PLA leadership, and that the PLA is unable 

to fulfill its historic missions. In the words of the original PLA Daily article: 

the principal contradictions that the modernization level 

of our armed forces has yet to meet the requirements for 
66

winning local wars under informatized conditions, and that 

the military capabilities of our armed forces are yet to live 

up to the historical mission they are shouldering at the present new stage in the new century.

85 (Emphasis added.)

Since then, the two incompatibles have received 

a steady drumbeat from PLA senior leadership, most 

recently in a December 2012 article published in China’s premier military journal, China Military Science.

86

While it remains to be seen whether the two incompatibles survives into the Xi era, it is clear that, until 

that time, the PLA leadership feels that the PLA has 

not fully reached the level that the leadership believes 

necessary to successfully carry out the New Historic 

Missions. In the meantime, PLA modernization efforts 

likely will continue to stress developing capabilities 

suited to implementing these missions.

Second, looking toward future PLA development, 

it is worth noting that there is a bit of tension contained 

within in the New Historic Missions. On the one hand, 

the first two missions require the PLA to focus on its 

traditional, historical tasks, namely, devoting overall 

loyalty to the CCP and defending China’s sovereign 

territory. These missions have been at the heart of 

what the PLA has done since at least China’s founding in 1949, if not earlier. One could argue that at the 

end of the day, this is the core focus of the PLA and 

its modernization efforts. Yet on the other hand, there 

is a new demand signal which is requiring the PLA to 

think as a global military confronting multiple types 

of missions, some of which are not even true combat 

operations, such as counterpiracy and peacekeeping 

missions. The expanded geographic requirement and 

new focus on nontraditional military missions require 

new skills, knowledge, and capabilities that the PLA is 
67

only now beginning to develop. 

Simultaneous development of the capabilities 

necessary to fulfill both the PLA’s traditional requirements and newly emerging ones will be difficult for 

the PLA (as it would for any military). While many 

capabilities are fungible for both sets of operations, 

just as many, if not more, are not, and require developing separately. Despite enjoying yearly increases in 

its budget, PLA resources are still finite. Funding used 

to develop and procure the hardware to implement 

an anti-access/area denial strategy means less money 

to purchase underway replenishment ships to support 

blue water operations. Emphasis on training for major 

combat operations, such as territorial defense, is very 

different than practicing for stability operations—as 

the U.S. military has discovered over the past decade. 

Developing personnel with a global understanding 

requires different curriculums than understanding 

how to conduct campaign operations. While none of 

this is beyond the ability of the PLA to do, it will likely 

either lengthen the time required to develop the skills, 

or result in a misbalanced approach whereby the PLA 

emphasizes one capability set, but only gives lip service to the other. It may even result in a PLA that actually can do neither well, since focusing on more than 

one core competency has been the downfall of many 

previous organizations.

Policy Implications for the United States.

This chapter offers several policy implications for 

the United States. First, given the New Historic Missions emphasis on defending China’s sovereign territory, the United States should expect China to take an 

increasingly stronger position on perceived violations 
68

of China’s territorial claims. In particular, the PLA is 

likely to play a more active role in defending China’s 

disputed maritime claims in the East and South China 

Seas. For over 8 years, the PLA has internalized the 

requirement to safeguard China’s territorial interests. 

As a result, the PLA has been focusing on developing 

the capabilities to do just that. Recent incidents with 

Japan and the Philippines demonstrate that the PLA is 

likely to push the boundaries in order to demonstrate 

to these two U.S. treaty allies—and to the United 

States—that the PLA is serious about defending China’s claims. Furthermore, the development of China’s 

maritime, space, and cyber capabilities will likely instill the PLA with confidence in its ability to defend 

China’s interests in these domains, further galvanizing the PLA to take a hard line on Beijing’s behalf.

Second, so long as the CCP and PLA leadership 

subscribe to the belief that the PLA is currently incapable of fulfilling the New Historic Missions, the 

United States can expect that the PLA will continue to 

develop its maritime, space, and cyberspace capabilities. As past events have demonstrated, the PLA has 

made significant progress in these areas. The development of China’s nascent blue water capabilities, a 

space and counterspace capability, and near-constant 

reports of PLA cyber activities reflect the influence of 

these missions. However, the continued existence of 

the “two incompatibles” likely provides ammunition 

to those within the Chinese leadership and PLA who 

desire for the military to continue to develop its capabilities. Observers of the Chinese military should not 

be surprised in the future when the PLA demonstrates 

further progress in any of these areas. 

Third, reflecting the influence of the final mission, 

the United States should anticipate that in the future, 
69

the PLA will continue to increase its global presence. 

The PLA is already operating outside of China’s immediate peripheral area, albeit on a limited scale. In 

the coming years, this phenomenon is only likely to 

increase. As the PLA gains the confidence and ability to operate overseas and China’s overseas interests 

continue to expand, the PLA will increase its presence 

around the world. What form of activities the PLA 

undertakes remains to be seen. However, at the very 

least, the United States should anticipate that the PLA 

will continue to partake in international peacekeeping 

and humanitarian assistance/disaster relief operations, as well as other international presence activities, 

such as port calls and international exercises. The PLA 

may also act more parochially to defend China’s overseas interests, should Beijing feel the need. The PLA’s 

participation, however small, in the 2011 evacuation 

of Chinese citizens from Libya is one example. 

Fourth, given the inherent tension in the missions 

between the emphasis on traditional defensive operations and the need for the PLA to go global, the United 

States should seek to encourage the latter. To date, the 

PLA’s global activities have been largely in line with 

and supportive of international norms. The PLA has 

participated in international military activities to defend the global commons and maintain freedom of 

navigation, such as PLAN Horn of Africa operations. 

Of the five permanent members of the UNSC, China 

provides the largest number of people to peacekeeping operations. In recent years, the PLA has begun 

conducting humanitarian assistance operations. These 

trends should be supported and encouraged. The 

PLA, after nearly 3 decades of reform and modernization, is at a crossroads between becoming a military that actively contributes to operations benefitting 
70

the common good and one that aggressively defends 

China’s interests regardless of where those interests 

are located. Clearly the former is better for both the 

United States and the region.

ENDNOTES - CHAPTER 2

1. Xi also became president of China, although this was not 

officially announced until after the annual meeting of China’s 

highest legislature, the National People’s Congress, in March 

2013. With that position, Xi now occupies all three seats of power 

in Beijing. 

2. Although Hu assumed leadership of the CCP and state in 

2002, he did not gain final control over the military until his predecessor, Jiang Zemin, retired from the CMC in 2004.

3. Russell Leigh Moses, “Now Sharper, Xi Jinping’s ‘China 

Dream’ Marks Departure from Past,” China Real Time (Wall Street 

Journal), April 3, 2013, available from blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/04/03/now-sharper-xi-jinpings-china-dream-marks-departure-from-past/. 

4. It is important to recognize that these new missions were 

provided to all of the Chinese armed forces, to include the PLA, 

the paramilitary People’s Armed Police, and the militia. However, this chapter focuses solely on how these missions impacted 

the PLA.

5. Although often translated as the “historical missions”—to 

include in Chinese English-language writings—it is this author’s 

opinion that “historic missions” is a more accurate translation. 

According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, “historical” refers “to whatever existed in the past, whether 

regarded as important or not.” The term “historic,” however “refers to what is important in history: the historic first voyage to 

the moon.” Since it is likely that Hu did not provide a retrospect 

on the PLA’s past missions, the “historic missions” is therefore a 

better translation. 

6. See for example, “China: Beijing Holds Forum on Army 

Building, Military Thinking,” Xinhua, July 25, 1997, as translated 
71

in World News Connection (WNC), document Foreign Broadcast 

Information Service (FBIS)-CHI-97-209; “China: Chi Haotian 

on National Defense,” Xinhua, August 2, 1997, as translated in 

WNC, document FBIS-CHI-97-214; and “China: Fu Quanyou on 

1998 Military Work,” Xinhua, December 22, 1997, as translated in 

WNC, document FBIS-CHI-97-356. 

7. As far as this author can tell, this switch may have officially 

occurred in July 2003, when the CMC ratified a GPD-produced 

“outline” (纲要) to study Jiang Zemin Thought on National Defense 

and Army Building. Since then, Chinese military writings have 

solely referred to Jiang’s input as a “thought.” “中央军委发出通

知:学习江泽民国防军队建设思想” (“CMC Issues a Notice: Study 

Jiang Zemin Thought on National Defense and Army Building”), 

China News Network (中新网), July 31, 2003, available from www.

china.com.cn/chinese/PI-c/376434.htm. According to this article, 

the name of the notice was “江泽民国防和军队建设思想学习纲

要” (“Outline on Jiang Zemin Thought on National Defense and 

Army Building”). 

8. Cao Zhi (曹智), “郭伯雄:学习胡锦涛关于我军历史使命的

重要论述” (“Guo Boxiong: Study Hu Jintao’s Important Expositions on Our Military’s Historic Missions”), Xinhua, September 

27, 2005.

9. General Political Department (GPD) (总政部), “第一讲: 新

世纪新阶段我军--历史使命提出的重大意义” (“Lesson 1: Our Military in the New Century of the New Period—The Great Significance Raised by the Historic Missions”), August 9, 2006, available 

from www.ycgfjy.com/article_show.asp?articleID=2280. Hereafter 

referred to as GPD, “Lesson 1.” 

10. Information Office of the State Council, China’s National 

Defense in 2006, Chap. II, December 2006; Information Office of the 

State Council, China’s National Defense in 2008, Chap. II, January 

20, 2009; Information Office of the State Council, China’s National 

Defense in 2010, Chap. II, March 31 , 2011; and Information Office 

of the State Council, The Diversified Employment of China’s Armed 

Forces, Chap. I, April 16, 2013.

11. Information Office of the State Council, China’s National 

Defense in 2010, Chap. II, March 31, 2011.
72

12. Hu Jintao, “Hold High the Banner of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics and Strive for New Victories in Building a 

Moderately Prosperous Society in all,” Report to the Seventeenth 

Party Congress of the Communist Party of China, October 15, 2007, 

available from www.china.org.cn/english/congress/229611.htm.

13. Constitution of the Chinese Communist Party (in English), 

amended and adopted at the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, October 21, 2007, available from www.bjreview.com/cn/document/text/2007-12/13/content_90532.htm.

14. “牢牢把握党在新形势下的强军目标” (“Firmly Adhere to 

the Party’s Objective of Strengthening the Military under the New 

Situation”), PLA Daily (解放军报), March 19, 2013, p. 1. 

15. Hu Jintao (胡锦涛), “认清新世纪新阶段我军历史使命”

(“See Clearly our Military’s Historic Missions in the New Century of the New Period”), December 24, 2004, available from gfjy.

jiangxi.gov.cn/yil.asp?id=11349.htm. Hereafter, referred to as Hu, 

“Historic Missions.”

16. Ibid.

17. Ibid.

18. The following is drawn from GPD (总政部), “第二讲: 为

党巩固执政地位提供重要的力量保证” (“Lesson 2: Provide an 

Important Force Guarantee for the Party to Consolidate its Ruling Position”), August 9, 2006, available from www.ycgfjy.com/

Article_Print.asp?ArticleID=2281. Hereafter referred to as GPD, 

“Lesson 2.”

19. Jiang Zemin, “Building a Well Off-off Society in an AllRound [sic] Way and Create a New Situation in Building Socialism with Chinese Characteristics,” Jiang Zemin Report to 16th Party 

Congress, section III, November 8, 2002, available from english.

peopledaily.com.cn/200211/18/eng20021118_106983.shtml.

20. GPD (总政部), “第三讲: 为维护国家发展的重要战略机遇

期提供坚强的安全保障 (“Lesson 3: Providing a Strong Security 

Guarantee for Safeguarding the Important Strategic Opportuni-
73

ty Period of National Development”), August 9, 2006, available 

from www.ycgfjy.com/Article_Print.asp?ArticleID=2282. Hereafter 

as GPD, “Lesson 3.”

21. Hu, “Historic Missions.”

22. Ibid.

23. The following is derived from GPD, “Lesson 3.”

24. Hu, “Historic Missions.”

25. The following is derived from GPD, “Lesson 3.”

26. The term “military combat preparations” (军事斗争准备) 

refers to the “type of warfare the PLA must be prepared to fight.” 

See David M. Finkelstein, “China’s National Military Strategy: 

An Overview of the ‘Military Strategic Guidelines’,” Roy Kamphausen and Andrew Scobell, eds., Right Sizing the People’s Liberation Army: Exploring the Contours of China’s Military, Carlisle, PA: 

Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College, September 

2007, p. 90. 

27. Although the Chinese term used translates directly as 

“electromagnetic space” (电磁空间), a closer reading of Hu’s 

Historic Mission speech and other supporting materials shows 

that a more accurate translation of the concept implied is with 

the English term “cyberspace.” Therefore, this report will use 

“cyberspace” throughout. See Hu, “Historic Missions;” and GPD 

(总政部), “第四讲: 为维护国家利益提供有力的战略支撑” (“Lesson 4: Provide a powerful strategic support for safeguarding national interests”), August 9, 2006, available from www.ycgfjy.com/

Article_Print.asp?ArticleID=2283.

28. “人民解放军为维护国家利益提供有力的战略支援” (“PLA 

to Provide a Powerful Strategic Support for Safeguarding National Interests”), Xinhua, October 20, 2005, available from news.

Xinhuanet.com/mil/2005-10/20/content_3652447.htm.

29. GPD (总政部), “第四讲: 为维护国家利益提供有力的战略

支撑” (“Lesson 4: Provide a powerful strategic support for safeguarding national interests”), August 9, 2006, available from 
74

www.ycgfjy.com/Article_Print.asp?ArticleID=2283. Hereafter referred to as GPD, “Lesson 4.”

30. Hu, “Historic Missions.”

31. Ibid.

32. GPD, “Lesson 4.”

33. Ibid.

34. Sun Kejia, Liu Feng, Liu Yang, and Lin Peixiong, eds., 

Zhongshi Luxing Xinshiji Xinjieduan Wojun Lishi Shiming (Faithfully 

Carry Out Our Military's Historic Missions in the New Period of the 

New Century), Beijing: Haichao Publishing, 2006, pp. 67-81; and 

GPD, “Lesson 4.”

35. The World Bank, “China-Trade as Percentage of GDP,” 

World Bank Data Bank, n.d., available from databank.worldbank.org/ddp/html-jsp/QuickViewReport.jsp?RowAxis=WDI_

Ctry~&ColAxis=WDI_Time~&PageAxis=WDI_Series~&Page

AxisCaption=Series~&RowAxisCaption=Country~&ColAxisC

aption=Time~&NEW_REPORT_SCALE=1&NEW_REPORT_

PRECISION=0&newReport=yes&ROW_COUNT=1&COLUMN_

COUNT=5&PAGE_COUNT=3&COMMA_SEP=fales. 

36. Yang Jiamian, “Freedom and Safety of Navigation in the 

South China Sea and Its Importance to the Economic Development and Prosperity of East Asia and the World,” website of the 

Shanghai Institute of International Studies, December 15, 2011, 

available from www.siis.org.cn/en/zhuanti_view_en.aspx?id=10116. 

37. Energy Information Administration, “Country Analysis Briefs: China,” November 2010, available from www.eia.gov/

EMEU/cabs/China/pdf.pdf. 

38. State Council (China), “第十四章:推进海洋经济发展” 

(“Chapter 14: Push Forward the Development of the Maritime 

Economy”), 国民经济和社会发展第十二个五年规划纲要” (The 

12th Five Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development), March 16, 2011, available from www.ndrc.gov.cn/fzgh/ghwb/

gjjh/P020110919592208575015.pdf. 
75

39. The Diversified Employment of China’s Armed Forces.

40. GPD, “Lesson 4.”

41. Ibid.

42. Hu, “Historic Missions.”

43. Sun Kejia et al., p. 73; GPD, “Lesson 4.” 

44. Ling Zhu, “China’s Space Program Seeks New Breakthroughs in 5 Years,” Xinhua, March 7, 2006, available from english.gov.cn/2006-03/07/content_220680.htm.

45. See Xinhua, “China Approves Five-Year Space Development Plan,” May 14, 2007, per Space Daily, available from www.

spacedaily.com/reports/china_approves_five_year_space_development_plan_999.html; and CCTV, “11th Five-Year Plan for Aerospace Program,” October 20, 2007, available from www.china.org.

cn/2007-10/content_1229001.htm.

46. GPD, “Lesson 4.”

47. Ibid.

48. Hu, “Historic Missions.”

49. GPD, “Lesson 4.”

50. Ibid.

51. Office of the Secretary of Defense, Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2013, Washington, DC: Department of Defense, 

May 2013, p. 36.

52. GPD (总政部), “第五讲: 为维护世界和平与促进共同

发展发挥重要作用” (“Lesson 5: Play an Important Role in Upholding World Peace and Promoting Common Development”), 

August 21, 2006, available from www.ycgfy.com/article_show.

asp?articleID=2284 (hereafter: GPD, “Lesson 5.”); and Sun Kejia 

et al., pp. 81-91.
76

53. Hu, “Historic Missions.”

54. The Diversified Use of China’s Armed Forces, Chap. V.

55. GPD, “Lesson 5.”

56. Ibid.

57. Ibid.

58. Sun Kejia et al., p. 90.

59. GPD, “Lesson 5.”

60. Mao Zedong, “Problems of war and strategy,” Selected Works, Vol. II, Beijing, China: Foreign Languages Press, 

1975, p. 224.

61. Larry Wortzel, “The General Political Department and the 

Evolution of the Political Commissar System,” James C. Mulvenon and Andrew N. D. Yang, eds., The People’s Liberation Army 

as Organization: Reference Vol. 10, Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 

2002, p. 225.

62. “社论:满怀信心喜迎党的十八大” (“Editorial: Joyfully 

Meet the Opening of the 18th CPC National Congress with Full 

Confidence”), PLA Daily (解放军报), August 1, 2012, available 

from www.sznews.com/zhuanti/content/2012-08/03/content_7027396.

htm. See also “China Voice: Why CPC Upholds Absolute 

Leadership over China’s Military,” Xinhua, August 1, 2012, 

available from www.china.org.cn/china/Off_the_Wire/.../content_

26095036.htm.

63. Du Jincai (杜金才), “适应新形势新任务新要求大力加强

和改进部队思想政治教育” (Energetically Strengthen and Improve Unit Ideology and Political Education to Adapt to the 

New Requirements of the New Situation and New Tasks), 

求是 (Seeking Truth), No. 18, 2012, available from www.qstheory.cn/

zxdk/2012/201218/201209/t20120912_181090.htm. 

64. “中华人民共和国国民经济和社会发展第十二个五年规划

纲要” (Outline of the 12th Five-Year Program for National Eco-
77

nomic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China), Xinhua, March 16, 2011, available from news.Xinhuanet.com/

politics/2011-03/16/c_121193916.htm. 

65. For one Western author’s take on this phenomenon, see 

Andrew Scobell, “China’s Evolving Civil-Military Relations: 

Creeping Guojiahua,” Armed Forces & Society, Vol. 31, No. 2, 

pp. 227-244. For recent examples of this call, see “牢牢把握建军

治军经验的基本结论” (“Firmly Grasping Basic Conclusion of 

the Experience in Army Building and Army Management”), 解

放军报 (PLA Daily), August 6, 2007, p. 1; “更加注重从思想政治

上建设部队” (Putting Greater Emphasis on Ideological, Political Building of Armed Forces), 解放军报 (PLA Daily), March 18, 

2011, p. 1; “China Voice: Why CPC Upholds Absolute Leadership over China’s Military,” Xinhua, August 1, 2012, available from www.china.org.cn/china/Off_the_Wire/2012-08/02/content_26095036.htm; Du Jincai (杜金才), “适应新形势新任务新要

求大力加强和改进部队思想政治教育” (Energetically Strengthen 

and Improve Unit Ideology and Political Education to Adapt to 

the New Requirements of the New Situation and New Tasks), 

求是 (Seeking Truth), No. 18, 2012, available from www.qstheory.cn/

zxdk/2012/201218/201209/t20120912_181090.htm; “总政治部:散布

军队非党化者别有用心” (“General Political Department: Disseminators of Removing the Party from the Army have Ulterior Motives”), China National Radio (国际在线), July 31, 2012, available 

from news.163.com/12/0731/10/87O3CHOO00014JB5.html.

66. Ministry of National Defense (国防部), “2012年 9国防部例

行记者会” (“Ministry of National Defense Routine Press Conference, September 2012”), Sina.com, September 27, 2012, available 

from mil.news.sina.com.cn/2012-09-27/1643702337.html. 

67. Damien McElroy, “Chinese Media Warns of War with 

Philippines,” The Telegraph, May 10, 2012, available from www.

telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/philippines/9258225/Chinesemedia-warns-of-war-with-Philippines.html; “Five PLA vessels approaching the Philippines: Duowei,” Want China Times, May 16, 

2012, available from www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.as

px?cid=1101&MainCatID=11&id=20120516000008. 

68. See, for example, Ida Torres, “China Sends Naval Ships to 

Patrol Waters near Disputed Senkakus,” Japan Daily Press, April 
78

17, 2013, available from japandailypress.com/china-sends-navalships-to-patrol-waters-near-disputed-senkakus-1727188.

69. Ministry of National Defense (国防部), “2012年 9国防部例

行记者会” (“Ministry of National Defense Routine Press Conference, September 2012”), Sina.com, available from September 27, 

2012, available from mil.news.sina.com.cn/2012-09-27/1643702337.

html. 

70. The Diversified Employment of China’s Armed Forces, Beijing, 

China: Information Office of the State Council, April 16, 2013.

71. Jonathan G. Odom, “The True ‘Lies’ of the Impeccable Incident: What Really Happened, Who Disregarded International 

Law, and why Every Nation (Outside of China) Should be Concerned,” Michigan State Journal of International Law, Vol. 18, No. 3, 

2010, p. 6. During the March 8, 2009, “Impeccable Incident,” five 

Chinese vessels shadowed and harassed the USNS Impeccable, a 

U.S. ocean surveillance ship, while the vessel “was conducting 

routine operations” in the international waters of the South China 

Sea. Fox News, “RAW DATA: Pentagon Statement on Chinese 

Incident with U.S. Navy,” March 9, 2009, available from www.

foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/09/raw-data-pentagon-statement-chinese-incident-navy/#ixzz28qrjokdf. 

72. “Commentary: China’s Aircraft Carrier Poses No Threat to 

World,” Xinhua, China Daily, September 25, 2012, available from 

www.chinadaily.com.cn/Xinhua/2012-09-25/content_7104384.html. 

73. China’s National Defense in 2006, Beijing, China: Information Office of the State Council, December 29, 2006; China’s National Defense in 2008, Beijing, China: Information Office of the 

State Council, January 20, 2009; and China’s National Defense in 

2010, Beijing, China: Information Office of the State Council, 

March 31, 2011. 

74. The Diversified Employment of China’s Armed Forces, 

Chap. II.

75. Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s 

Republic of China 2013, p. 38.
79

76. Thom Shanker and Ian Johnson, “In China, Panetta Says 

American Focus on Asia Is No Threat,” The New York Times, September 18, 2012, available from www.nytimes.com/2012/09/20/

world/asia/panetta-meets-with-xi-easing-doubts-on-chinese-leader.

html?_r=0.

77. Joseph Kahn, “China Confirms Test of Anti-Satellite Weapon,” The New York Times, January 23, 2007, available from www.

nytimes.com/2007/01/23/world/asia/23cnd-china.html?hp&ex=116961

4800&en=d9317a9a60f6aebb&ei=5094&partner=homepage&_r=0. 

78. See, for example, Shirley A. Kan, “China’s Anti-Satellite 

Weapon Test,” CRS Report for Congress Washington DC: CRS, 

April 23, 2007, p. 5.

79. “China’s National Defense in 2006.”

80. Office of the Secretary of Defense, Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2012, Washington, DC: Department of Defense, 

May 2012, pp. 8-9.

81. Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2013.

82. Ibid., p. 9. 

83. Office of the Secretary of Defense, Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2011, Washington, DC: Department of Defense, 

May 6, 2011, p. 37. 

84. The author is indebted to Dennis J. Blasko for pointing 

this out.

85. “牢牢把握国防和军队建设的重要指导方针” (“Firmly Grasp

the Important Guidelines for National Defense and the Army 

Building”), PLA Daily (解放军报), January 1, 2006, available from 

news.Xinhuanet.com/mil/2006-01/01/content_3995828.htm. 
86. Tang Xiaohua and Li Jie, “进一步推进我军军事训练转变

的 方法论思考” (“Reflections on Further Promoting the Transformation of Our Military’s Training Methods and Theory”), China 

Military Science (中国军事科学), No. 6, 2012, pp. 110-111.

80
81

CHAPTER 3

THE EVOLUTION OF CORE CONCEPTS:

PEOPLE’S WAR, ACTIVE DEFENSE, AND

OFFSHORE DEFENSE

Dennis J. Blasko

This chapter examines the continuing relevance of 

People’s War, Active Defense, and Offshore Defense 

to People’s Liberation Army (PLA) doctrine, organization, and operations. The principles of People’s War 

and Active Defense, along with its naval component, 

Offshore Defense continue to be the basis for Chinese 

military organization, doctrine, and operations. All 

have been adapted and modified for the 21st century.

People’s War principles are evident in the distribution of personnel among the services in the People’s 

Liberation Army (PLA), its equipment inventory, the 

structure of the chain of command at Military District 

level and below, and the continuing emphasis on mobilization of the public and economy to support the 

military. 

Active Defense is based on the premise of “striking only after the enemy has struck,” but will employ 

offensive operations at all levels of war and at all stages of conflict. Deterrence is the preferred method of 

achieving political objectives, with warfighting to be 

used only if deterrence fails. Even then, prudence and 

caution are advised before initiating the first battle 

and preparations must be made for protracted conflict. The PLA Navy (PLAN) currently is considered 

capable of executing Offshore Defense while it begins 

to explore and practice operations in distant waters, 

focusing first on “cooperation” missions.
82

China’s military leaders constantly evaluate the 

capabilities of their forces and officially see themselves as lagging behind the capabilities of advanced 

militaries.

POLICY IMPLICATIONS

• As an element of China’s efforts to become 

more transparent, a robust official Chinese literature on these strategic concepts exists.

• Chinese doctrine does not seek to initiate war; 

rather, warfighting is to be undertaken only if 

deterrence fails.

• Principles of People’s War, Active Defense, and 

Offshore Defense can be found in China’s “assertive” behavior in sovereignty and territorial 

disputes underway in the South and East China 

Seas since 2009 in what could be called a modern, maritime People’s War.

People’s War is a form of organization of war, 

and its role has nothing to do with the level of 

military technology. The concept of People’s 

War is not confined to the war of low technology only.

 Active defense is the essential feature of 

China’s military strategy and is the keystone 

of the theory of China’s strategic guidance.1

INTRODUCTION

Since September 2004, even as the PLA has modernized, mechanized, informationized, and assumed 

new missions under Hu Jintao, its fundamental strategic foundation has continued to be the principles 

of People’s War (人民战争) and Active Defense (积
83

极防御), and, as a subset of Active Defense, its naval 

component, Offshore Defense (近海防御). All of these 

concepts have been adapted and modified for the 21st 

century and have proven to be compatible with Hu’s 

Scientific Development Concept and “Historic Missions.” They continue the basic military principles 

established by Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, and Jiang Zemin. As might be expected, Hu did not revolutionize PLA military thinking, instead,traditional core 

concepts have evolved as conditions changed.

This chapter examines each of these concepts and 

illustrates their ongoing influence on PLA doctrine 

and force structure. Based on analysis of these principles, they have been applied in the Chinese government’s multiagency actions in asserting its claims 

to sovereignty in the three China Seas during Hu’s 

tenure as Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC). With 20-20 hindsight, we can see that the 

Chinese government foreshadowed in a number of 

official publications many of the “assertive” actions 

undertaken from 2009 to the present.

PEOPLE’S WAR AND ACTIVE DEFENSE—THE 

BASICS, CIRCA 1937

People’s War and Active Defense are two interrelated concepts based upon Mao Zedong’s writings 

during the wars against the Kuomintang (KMT) and 

the Japanese in the 1930s.2 Mao described numerous 

strategic, operational, and tactical lessons learned 

through the Red Army’s early battlefield experience 

in several essays that formed the basis for his military 

thought. Much of the content of these essays discusses situations particular to the campaigns against the 

KMT and Japanese that are of mostly historical inter-
84

est for the modern PLA today. Other lessons endure 

and form the foundation for China’s military strategy 

and operational concepts into the 21st century.

Perhaps the three grand principles of Mao’s military thought embedded in People’s War and Active 

Defense that have endured are 1) the strategically 

defensive posture forced upon a weak China and 

the Chinese Communist Party (CCP); 2) the need to 

involve the entire country through mobilization to 

achieve military objectives defined by the Party; and 

3) the requirement for the loyalty of all the Chinese 

armed forces to the Party.3

Mao saw the existence of the CCP threatened first 

by the KMT and later by the Japanese occupation of 

China. The young Party and Red Army were politically, economically, and militarily weaker than their 

enemies and forced into rural soviets to survive. The 

Party and Army sought to build upon the strength of 

China’s large landmass and population as it assumed 

a strategically defensive posture before going on the 

offense to achieve its political objectives. After the 

CCP took control of the country, China was weaker 

economically and militarily than the United States 

and the Soviet Union. Beijing’s perception of relative 

weakness justifies the most fundamental element of 

current Chinese doctrine: its strategically defensive 

posture. This assessment of military weakness, especially relative to the United States, has begun to 

change as China’s economy has grown and its military 

has modernized, but it still remains as a fundamental 

reality in China’s perception of its “comprehensive 

national power.”

Despite the strategically defensive nature of PLA 

doctrine, Chinese military leaders understand fully 

the need for offensive actions at the tactical and opera-
85

tional levels of war and, when conditions demand, at 

the strategic level. In 1936, Mao used the term “Active 

Defense” to illustrate this concept:

Active defense is also known as offensive defense, 

or defense through decisive engagements. . . . the only 

real defense is active defense, defense for the purpose 

of counter-attacking and taking the offensive. . . . Militarily speaking, our warfare consists of the alternate 

use of the defensive and the offensive.

4

 (emphasis 

added)

As the weaker power, the key was to shape the 

battlefield so that China’s strengths would allow them 

to take the offensive even if only in limited, specific 

areas. Mao expected initiative, flexibility, and good 

judgment from his commanders (“We do not permit 

any of our Red Army commanders to become a blundering hothead”5

) and for them to employ deception 

and stratagem to achieve victory. Commanders analyzed mistakes and adapted their methods of operation and were encouraged to maintain awareness of 

themselves, their troops, the enemy, and the “objective material foundations, i.e., the military, political, 

economic and natural conditions.”6 This multidimensional outlook presaged the concept of “comprehensive national power” that Beijing uses to measure 

China’s standing in relation to other nations.7

The need for mobilization was illustrated in one of 

the earliest references to People’s War in 1937:

Throughout the War of Resistance Chiang Kai-shek 

opposed all-out people’s war in which the entire people are mobilized . . . thus his actions completely violated his own Lushan statement that ‘once war breaks 

out, every person, young or old, in the north or in the 

south, must take up the responsibility of resisting Japan and defending our homeland.’8
86

This idea continues in modern PLA doctrine in 

the mobilization of the people, economy, science and 

technology, and the emphasis on military-civil integration (军民融合) in military operations and combining military with civilian requirements in the defense 

industries (军民结合).

Loyalty of all the Chinese armed forces to the Party 

can be traced back to Mao’s words: “Every Communist 

must grasp the truth, ‘Political power grows out of the 

barrel of a gun.’ Our principle is that the party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed 

to command the party.”9 Party control of the military 

was reinforced in the first element of Hu Jintao’s “Historic Missions,” which requires the armed forces to 

“provide an important source of strength for consolidating the ruling position of the Communist Party of 

China.”10 In the years since Hu issued this guidance, 

this principle has been underscored by the repeated 

campaigns to oppose “removing the party from the 

military” (“军队非党化”), the “de-politicization of the 

military” (“军队非政治化”), and the “nationalization 

of the military” (“军队国家化”).11

Mobilization and political loyalty are often linked 

together by the slogans that the PLA is both the “People’s Army” and the “Party’s Army.” In order for it 

to be successful, the PLA needs the support of people 

just as it must always be a servant of the CCP. But the 

PLA must also respect the people, and after the rupture caused by the PLA’s actions in 1989, the military 

has worked hard to reestablish its image as a “People’s Army” through its support to national economic 

construction and particularly in its contributions to 

disaster relief operations throughout the country.
87

Another way to look at the relationship of the military to the people and CCP is through the “unity between the PLA and the government and between the 

PLA and the people” (“军政军民团结”). As Mao wrote 

in 1945 in the essay, “On Coalition Government”:

The sole purpose of this army is to stand firmly with 

the Chinese people and to serve them whole-heartedly. . . . Internally, there is unity between officers and 

men, between the higher and lower ranks, and between military work, political work and rear service 

work, and externally, there is unity between the army 

and the people, between the army and government 

organizations, and between our army and the friendly 

armies. It is imperative to overcome anything that impairs this unity.12

These exact themes were repeated in a staff commentator article, “Always Care About the Safety and 

Well-being of the Masses,” PLA Daily, in September 

2012, which also mentioned the problems of a certain 

“small number of party members”:

The roots, the bloodline, and the strength of our party 

lie among the people. . . . under a condition of holding the governing status for a long time, in the environment of reform, opening up, and developing the 

socialist market economy, a small number of party 

members did not adhere to the party’s fundamental 

principle, did not keep in mind the party’s mass-related viewpoint and mass line, became indifferent to the 

difficulties and sufferings of the people. The danger of 

being divorced from the masses is more salient than 

any time before. . . . Practice shows that only when we 

truly care about the masses will the masses care about 

us; only when we treat the masses as our family members will the masses also treat us as their kinfolk.13
88

“On Coalition Government” also acknowledged 

that the Army had created “a system of strategy and 

tactics which is essential for the people’s war” and had 

become skilled in both guerrilla and mobile warfare, 

depending on battlefield conditions. Additionally, 

Mao noted the Army was divided into two parts: main 

forces and regional forces, “the latter concentrating on 

defending their own localities and attacking the enemy there in co-operation with the local militia and 

the self-defense corps.”14

Many of the concepts in Mao’s early writings on 

People’s War are found within the texts of White Papers on National Defense issued over the past decade 

and in the most recent edition of The Science of Military 

Strategy.

15 Moreover, the same basic organizational 

structure still exists for the PLA and militia as Mao 

described in 1945.

PEOPLE’S WAR AND ACTIVE DEFENSE—

ADAPTED FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

In order to understand the continuity and change 

in the concepts of People’s War and Active Defense 

during the period of Hu Jintao’s CMC chairmanship, 

a review of status of these concepts just prior to him 

assuming that position is useful. The continuation of 

many Maoist principles is apparent in the 2002 White 

Paper on National Defense—before Hu became Chairman of the CMC. The section on “National Defense 

Policy” states:

China implements a military strategy (军事战略) of 

active defense. Strategically, China pursues a principle featuring defensive operations, self-defense and 

attack only after being attacked. In response to the 

profound changes in the world’s military field and the 
89

requirements of the national development strategy, 

China has formulated a military strategic guideline

(军事战略方针) of active defense in the new period.16

(emphasis added)

For terminology buffs, in a single paragraph, Active Defense is called both a “military strategy” and 

“military strategic guideline.” This discrepancy in terminology persists in subsequent White Papers.

Furthermore, the “guideline” appears to encompass the “concept” (or “thought,” 思想) of People’s 

War as it explains: 

This guideline is based on winning local wars under 

modern, especially high-tech conditions . . . stresses 

the deterrence of war [遏制战争, often translated as 

“containment of war”] . . . [and] highlights and carries 

forward the concept of people’s war (人民战争思想).17

People’s War is explained as:

In the face of new changes in modern warfare, China 

persists in relying on the people in national defense 

building, enhancing the popular awareness of national 

defense, and instituting an armed force system of combining a small but capable standing army with a powerful reserve force; upholds the principle of combining 

peacetime footing with wartime footing, uniting the 

army with the people, and having a reserve among 

the people, improving the mobilization mechanism 

with expanded mobilization scope, and establishing a 

national defense mobilization system in line with the 

requirements of modern warfare; and adheres to flexible applications of strategies and tactics, creating new 

ways of fighting so as to give fuller play to the strength 

of a people’ s war.
90

The 2002 White Paper clearly enumerates the basic 

fundamentals of China’s military strategy: strategically self-defensive; emphasizing deterrence of war in 

general, not only nuclear war; and combining military 

with civilian factors through mobilization. Furthermore, it stresses the flexible application of People’s 

War strategies and tactics and specifically identifies 

“creating new ways of fighting” within these parameters. In short, Active Defense and People’s War are 

concepts adaptable to changing conditions.

The modification of terminology for these principles is seen in the 2004 White Paper, issued just a few 

months after Hu assumed the chair at the CMC. Because Hu had been the civilian Vice Chairman since 

1999, he undoubtedly was involved in the formulation 

and approval of these changes during the consensusbuilding, study-driven process of decisionmaking 

within the CMC. The 2004 White Paper repeats (in the 

English version) that “China adheres to the military 

strategy of active defense” (though the Chinese used 

“military strategic guideline”) and adds for the first 

time in a White Paper “and works to speed up the 

RMA [Revolution in Military Affairs, 中国特色军事

变革] with Chinese characteristics.”18 This latter term 

is explained in its own chapter that begins with the 

sentence:

The PLA, aiming at building an informationalized 

force and winning an informationalized war, deepens 

its reform, dedicates itself to innovation, improves its 

quality and actively pushes forward the RMA with 

Chinese characteristics with informationalization at 

the core.
91

The section on the RMA with Chinese characteristics contains details of the PLA’s force structure; personnel policies; command and leadership structure; 

and developments in logistics, education, training, 

and equipment modernization. Thus, from the PLA’s 

perspective, the concept of the RMA with Chinese 

characteristics entails all aspects of army building

in general and includes more than integrating new 

weapons and systems into the force and developing 

new methods of fighting.

People’s War is mentioned multiple times, particularly in the same paragraph that introduces the 

concept of winning “local wars under the conditions 

of informationalization” (“打赢信息化条件下的局部战

争”). The 2004 White Paper speaks of developing the 

strategies and tactics of People’s War, along with giving priority to developing new weapons and equipment and building integrated joint operational capabilities (indicating “People’s War is not confined to the 

war of low technology”). Moreover, the chapter on national defense mobilization and reserve force building 

begins with the statement:

China adheres to the principle of having all people 

engaged in national defense with an aim at giving 

full play to the overall advantages of the present-day 

people’s war so as to promote the national defense 

mobilization and reserve force building on the basis of 

the overall national strength. (emphasis added) 

Mobilization of the national economy is identified 

as a “powerful deterrence to war” (once again 遏制战

争 is used). Mobilization of national economy includes 

mobilization of “industry, agriculture, communication and transport, post and telecommunications, science and technology, medical care and health, urban 
92

construction, commerce and trade, and finance”—literally all aspects of society. Taking note of 2002 guidance on strengthening urban militia work, the White 

Paper states the urban militia should be prepared for 

winning “people’s wars under high-tech conditions,” 

not yet under the “conditions of informationalization” 

the active force is preparing for.

The 2006 White Paper uses Active Defense only 

once as a section heading “Implementing the military 

strategy of active defense” (once again using “军事战

略方针,” “military strategic guideline”). This section 

mentions preparation for military struggle (军事斗争

准备), winning local wars under conditions of informationization, and upgrading and developing: 

the strategic concept of people’s war, and work for 

close coordination between military struggle and 

political, economic, diplomatic, cultural, and legal 

endeavors, uses strategies and tactics in a comprehensive way, and takes the initiative to prevent and 

defuse crises and deter conflicts and wars (遏制冲突

和战).19

The section on “The People’s Liberation Army” 

adds a very important modification to the concept of 

People’s War stating: 

The Navy is enhancing research into the theory of naval operations and exploring the strategy and tactics 

of maritime people’s war under modern conditions

(现代条件下海上人民战争).

The White Paper does not further explain this statement; however, as will be seen, a similar idea had been 

discussed in the 2001 Chinese edition of The Science of 

Military Strategy and in the English-language translation available to foreign analysts.
93

The 2008 White Paper repeats the same verbiage 

as in 2002: “China implements a military strategy of 

active defense” and ends the paragraph referring to 

Active Defense as a “military strategic guideline.” The 

paragraphs that follow are very similar to the 2002 

White Paper’s discussion of local war (this time under 

“conditions of informationization”), deterrence, and 

People’s War, but also add for the first time a paragraph on “diversified military tasks” (“多样化军事任

务”) and military operations other than war (MOOTW, 

非战争军事行动). This section concludes with a longer 

section about the relationship of the PLA to the people 

and national economic development adding a new 

wrinkle to People’s War.

China is striving to make innovations in the content 

and forms of people’s war, exploring new approaches 

of the people in participating in warfare and support 

for the front, and developing new strategies and tactics for people’s war in conditions of informationization (信息化条件下人民战争). Moreover, the People’s 

Liberation Army (PLA) subordinates its development 

to the overall national construction, supports local 

economic and social development, and consolidates 

the unity between the PLA and the government, and 

between the PLA and the people.20 (emphasis added)

This is the first appearance of the term “people’s 

war in conditions of informationization” in a White 

Paper. It had appeared at least once before in the PLA 

Daily in a November 2007 article about military civilian integration21 and has appeared only a few times 

afterwards, but not in later White Papers.

The 2010 White Paper repeats the formulation “China implements the military strategy of active defense 

of the new era” (using the Chinese for “military stra-
94

tegic guideline”) only once and then speaks of implementing Active Defense as one of the responsibilities 

of the State National Defense Mobilization Commission or Committee (国家国防动员委员会). Interestingly, People’s War under any type of conditions is not 

mentioned at all. The White Paper on “The Diversified 

Employment of China’s Armed Forces,” published 

in April 2013 mentions the military strategy Active 

Defense only once and reminds readers that the PLA 

constantly brings “forward new ideas for the strategies and tactics of people’s war.”22 Thus, references 

to People’s War continue to be found in the Chinese 

military literature, but perhaps the most extensive explanation of its content is found in the 2001 Chineselanguage edition of The Science of Military Strategy and 

its 2005 English translation.

PEOPLE’S WAR À LA THE SCIENCE OF MILITARY 

STRATEGY—IMPORTANT DETAILS

As can be seen in the excerpts from the White Papers, the general components of People’s War and Active Defense are consistent with the principles Mao 

described over 50 years ago. The Science of Military 

Strategy adds important detail to those general principles, looking at past conflicts and projecting how 

future wars may be fought.

Despite the association of People’s War and Active Defense with Mao, The Science of Military Strategy 

credits Friedrich Engels with their theoretical origins:

In 1849, Engels definitely suggested the concept of 

people’s war...Defensive war does not exclude attacking action. After the enemy starts war, the side that 

is forced to make response is fully entitled to take 

active action to fight back until the enemy is totally 

defeated.23
95

Shortly thereafter, Engels also is cited as the source 

of the idea that “technology determines tactics” (“技

术决定战术”) in the statement, “The development of 

science and technology led to the change of mode 

and way of operations.”24 The evolutionary process 

of technology shaping operational methods is implicit 

in the terminology surrounding People’s War and Local War as these concepts shift from a basic condition 

with no modifiers to “under modern conditions” to 

“under high technology” to “under informationized 

conditions” as circumstances have changed.

Mao’s military strategic theory (军事战略理论) is 

called “a China style Marxist strategic theory” firmly 

rooted in “Chinese traditional strategic culture.” Its 

most important parts are the “strategic guiding principles (“战略指导原则”) of people’s war and the strategic thinking (战略思想) of active defense.”25 From this 

formulation, People’s War and Active Defense would 

appear to have equal status is the hierarchy of Chinese military terminology. However, the pride of first 

reference goes to Active Defense in Chapter 1 where 

“China’s national military strategy in the new era” is 

summarized as:

Strategy (or military strategy) in China’s new periods [sic] 

is taking the national comprehensive power as its foundation, the thought (思想) of active defense as its guidance (指导); and winning local war under high-tech conditions as its basic point to construct and exercise military 

strength; and carrying out the overall and whole-course 

operation and guidance of war preparations and war for the 

purpose of protecting national sovereignty and security.

26

(Italics in original, bold added)
96

People’s War is not mentioned directly but is implicit in the inclusion of the concept of comprehensive 

national power. The text explains this paragraph by 

reminding readers of the strategic defensive nature of 

China’s military strategy, that comprehensive national 

power involves more than military strength, and that 

strategy applies both to warfighting and to deter (威

慑), prevent (防止), and constrain (制约) war. Later in 

the chapter, Active Defense is defined as China’s military strategy (军事战略), which is composed of service 

strategies (军种战略), among them the PLAN strategy of Offshore Defense.27 The first chapter ends by 

pointing out that military force can be used for both 

warfighting (实战使用) and “nonwar-fighting utilization” (“非实战使用”), or noncombat uses, and that 

the “main pattern” (“主要样式”) of war has become 

“high-tech local war,” but the “exploration of the guiding laws” of this new form of war “should be a major 

field for studying the laws of strategic guidance.” Specifically, the science of strategy must address “How 

a developing country like China wages people’s war 

under modern circumstances with fairly backward 

military technology to defeat superiority by inferiority and prevail over the high-technically [sic] equipped 

opponent.”28

This appears to be the first use of People’s War in 

The Science of Military Strategy focusing on the PLA’s 

inferiority to advanced militaries. In the years after 

the book’s publication, many of these concepts have 

evolved, as seen in the previous discussion of the 

White Papers. For example, the “main pattern” of war 

has become “local wars under conditions of informationization,” and the concept of “non-warfighting 

utilization” has evolved into MOOTW and the range 

of contingencies expanded.29 Under Hu, MOOTW 
97

became an important component of the PLA’s 

operational focus.

People’s War and Deterrence.

Throughout the remainder of The Science of Military Strategy, the principles of People’s War and Active 

Defense are major themes, both as the book discusses 

China’s calculus of deterrence and as it addresses 

warfighting doctrine. We turn first to Chapter 9 on 

“Strategic Deterrence” to examine the role of People’s 

War in China’s deterrence posture, acknowledged as a 

preferred method to achieve Sunzi’s objective of “subduing the enemy without fighting.”

The chapter opens with the sentence, “Warfighting 

and deterrence are two major functions of the armed 

forces.”30 Deterrence is based on possessing an “adequate deterrent force,” having the will to use that 

force, and ensuring the opponent understands China’s 

capabilities and will. Deterrence may be employed to 

dissuade an opponent from taking an action or it may 

be used to persuade an opponent to do something. In 

peacetime, “the principal role of strategic deterrence 

is to delay or curb outbreak of war by employing the 

strategic strength of national military, politics, economy, culture, and diplomacy, etc.”31 In war, deterrence 

may be used to demonstrate to the enemy the dangerous situation he is in or to display strength through a 

“small war” or “surgical strike” (not specified here as 

such, but such actions fall within the concept of Active 

Defense32). Based on the premise that “China’s strategic deterrence is self-defense in essence,” The Science of 

Military Strategy outlines deterrence goals that go well 

beyond nuclear deterrence:
98

the role of China’s strategic deterrence is chiefly to 

deter foreign invasion, defend the sovereignty, rights 

and interests, and to deter the conspiracies of internal and external rivals for separating and subverting 

China, so as to protect the stability of national political situation, defend territorial integrity and national 

unification.33

People’s War has a major role in this multilevel deterrence strategy of nuclear, conventional, space and 

information deterrence:

China currently has a limited but effective nuclear deterrence and a relatively powerful capability of conventional deterrence and a massive capacity of deterrence of people’s war. By combining these means 

of deterrence, an integrated strategic deterrence is 

formed, with comprehensive national power as the 

basis, conventional force as the mainstay, nuclear 

force as the backup power and reserve force as the 

support.34 (emphasis added)

China’s “integrated strategic deterrence” depends 

on all elements of comprehensive national power, not 

just military strength. However, “deterrence may fail” 

and “war or war escalation may be triggered if one 

mishandles the complex situation.”35 Therefore, caution must be taken in decisionmaking and “complete 

analysis and measurement of the advantages and the 

disadvantages” made. Strategic deterrence is considered a means of attaining both military and political 

objectives as “its risks and costs are less than strategic 

operation.” The Science of Military Strategy repeatedly 

emphasizes prudence in making the decision to go to 

war and recommends that warfighting be used “only 

when deterrence fails and there is no alternative.”
99

In the end, “strategic deterrence is based on warfighting. . . . The more powerful the warfighting capability, the more effective the deterrence.” Military 

forces must be capable and well prepared; “those 

making purely bluffing threats and intimidations 

hardly can afford deterrence.”36 Deterrence is not omnipotent, and war planners must “examine the worst 

and the toughest scenarios and be well prepared in 

advance, so as to steadily and effectively cope with 

the opponent in case of failure of deterrence.”37 Other 

chapters highlight the fighting principles to employ if 

deterrence fails.

People’s War and Warfighting.

Chapter 3, “Evolution and Laws of Strategic Theories,” reviews Mao’s military strategic theory based 

on combat in the 1930s and 1940s. It uses several pages 

to discuss the strategic principles of People’s War and 

the strategic thought of Active Defense.38 In a section 

on “The Military Strategy in the New Age,” it states 

People’s War “as a fundamental strategy, is still a way 

to win modern war.” After quoting Deng on its relevance, Jiang Zemin emphasizes “At no time should 

we drop the idea of people’s war. We should insist on 

the magic weapon (法宝) of peoples’ war. . . .”39

Later in Chapter 10, “Principles of Strategic Action,” Mao’s theories are stated to have “absorbed the 

quintessence of strategic theories at all times and in 

all countries” and briefly lists 10 principles of People’s 

War.40 This list of principles is different than that 

found in Chapter 3, but has many areas of overlap. 

The former list includes items specifically related to 

the revolutionary war period (for example, the reference to base areas), while the latter begins with Sunzi’s 
100

guidance to “Know the enemy and know yourself” 

and adds important operational details about command and use of all Chinese capabilities. Figure 3-1 

compares the two lists of principles (with commonalities highlighted in bold). Assuming further evolution 

of PLA doctrine, many of these principles are certain 

to be continued, as are other operational details found 

in the 2001 edition of the book.

Figure 3-1. Principles of People’s War,

The Science of Military Strategy.

Strategic Guidance Principles of 

People's War, Chapter 3

Strategic Principles for People's War, 

Chapter 10

1. To Preserve Ourselves and Annihilate the Enemy

2. Founding Base Areas and Creating 

Battlefield Are Strategic Tasks

3. Change That's Timely to the Main 

Forms of Operations in Accordance 

with the Development and Changes of 

War

4. Fight No Battle Unprepared and Not 

Sure to Win, and Formulate Strategy 

Beforehand Based on Worst Condition

5. You Fight in Your Way and We Fight 

in Ours. We Will Fight If There Is a Possibility to Win; If not, We Will Move

6. Concentrate Superior Forces to Annihilate the Enemy Forces One by One

7. The Main Target Is to Annihilate the 

Enemy’s Effective Strength Regardless 

of the Gain or Loss of One or Two Cities 

or Places

8. Be prudent in the First Battle 

and Fight the Decisive Battle to Our 

Advantage

1. Knowing ourselves and the enemy

2. Preserving ourselves and destroying the enemy

3. Striving for the initiative and avoiding 

the passive

4. Employing military forces and tactics 

flexibly

5. Combining closely the three battle 

forms of mobile war, positional war, 

and guerrilla war

6. Concentrating superior forces and 

destroying the enemy one by one

7. Fighting no battle unprepared, 

fighting no battle you are not sure of 

winning

8. Being prudent in fighting the initial 

battle

9. Unifying command and being coordinated and united

10. Closely coordinating military and 

non-military struggles, etc
101

These principles are directly related to the “five 

combinations” of People’s War which mix 1) regular 

troops with the masses, emphasizing China’s inland 

and coastal border regions; 2) regular naval warfare 

with guerrilla warfare on the sea and develop the strategy and tactics of People’s War on the Sea (海上人民

战争); 3) “trump card” (“杀手锏”) weapons with flexible strategy and tactics, especially in playing “hide 

and seek” with the enemy; 4) high-tech weapons with 

common weapons, understanding that the “phenomenon that several generations of weapons and equipment” will “coexist” for a long time; and 5) military 

warfare with political and economic warfare to present the widest front possible to the enemy.41 People’s 

War on the Sea includes tactics of “sparrow warfare” 

and sabotage, ambush, and covering operations.42

The guidance, “You fight in your way, and we fight 

in ours,” is a common theme in PLA doctrine and is 

linked with “striving for full initiative.”43 These ideas 

allow Chinese strategists to form a straw man from the 

differences between Chinese and U.S./Western strategic thinking. Under the “Laws of Strategic Thinking,” 

The Science of Military Strategy accurately states that, 

“Creativity is the soul of strategic thinking.”44 However, it then goes on to present a false dichotomy that 

“Stratagem type thinking emphasizes winning by 

strategy and force type thinking emphasizes winning 

by strength.”

The idea of winning victory by stratagem has always 

been the main idea of traditional Chinese strategic 

thinking. It means the use of limited force to achieve 

victory or realize the aim of the war. . . . Western 

strategic thinking pays more attention to the contest 

of strength, emphasizing direct confrontation. . . . 

The modern American strategy is a typical strategic 
102

thinking model of force type, with superior military 

strength as its basis. . . . US strategic thinking has not 

shaken off its traditional model of attaching importance to strength and technology.45

Though the author of this chapter probably exaggerated the difference between stratagem and force 

type thinking for effect, he fails to acknowledge that 

both approaches can and should be integrated. As the 

PLA modernizes, it becomes more tied to strength and 

technology, while certainly retaining its penchant for 

stratagem. Likewise, there are numerous recent examples of U.S. and allied forces using stratagem and 

deception in the wars since 1990-91. Perhaps a more 

sober examination of the interaction between stratagem and strength will be forthcoming in a new edition 

of The Science of Military Strategy.

AN EVOLUTIONARY STEP FOR ACTIVE 

DEFENSE

Throughout the book, the main principle of the 

Active Defense, “striking only after the enemy has 

struck,” is repeated and is the basis for China’s claim 

that it will always have the legal and moral high 

ground if forced to fight. However, while it stresses 

China’s strategically defensive posture, the chapter 

on “Strategic Guidance of High-tech Local War” provides justification for operational or tactical preemptive strikes:

Under high-tech conditions, for the defensive side, the 

strategy to gain mastery by striking only after the enemy has struck does not mean waiting for enemy’s 

strike passively. ‘Striking only after the enemy has 

struck’ in strategy is based on the ‘victory in advance’ 

of comprehensive national defense construction. It is 
103

the means to win political and moral initiatives. . . . 

‘the first shot’ on the plane of politics and strategy 

must be differentiated from ‘the first shot’ on the 

plane of tactics. . . . if any country or organization 

violates the other country’s sovereignty and territorial 

integrity, the other side will have the right to ‘fire the 

first shot’ on the plane of tactics. The military counterattacks may be taken by the following options: to 

drive the invaders out of the territory; or to launch the 

same attacks on the enemy’s homeland; or to attack 

the enemy’s foreign military bases, targets at sea or in 

the air.46 (emphasis added)

Clearly, the red line of what is “‘the first shot’ on 

the plane of politics and strategy” will vary according 

to the adversary and the issue under contention. However, the key is that before firing “‘the first shot’ on the 

plane of tactics,” there will be some period of increased 

political tensions, and an adversary will have taken 

some sort of action that China can interpret as violating its sovereignty or territorial integrity. The Chinese 

propaganda and legal machinery will work in concert 

to prove such actions were provocation for whatever 

steps China then takes. In other words, “striking only 

after the enemy has struck” does not require China 

to have actually suffered a physical first blow; Active 

Defense provides the basis for preemptive action.

The Science of Military Strategy’s final chapter takes 

preemption a step further by proposing an active 

strategic counterattack on exterior lines.47 While reiterating that Active Defense is the essential feature 

of China’s military strategy, “it is necessary to adjust 

our way of thinking and enrich the contents of active 

defense on the basis of the characteristics and laws of 

the modern local war.” The active strategic counterattack differs from other preemptive actions because it 
104

is taken at the strategic level of war and conducted 

at the beginning of a war. It is alleged not to be “a 

component of the expansive and extrovert offensive 

strategy, but a strategically defensive and active selfdefense counterattack.” The book does not specify exactly how such an operation would be conducted or 

exactly what its main targets would be (other parts of 

the book detail generic target lists). Rather, this passage ends by stating the PLA should “choose the unexpected time, place, and pattern of war which the enemy finds most reluctant and difficult to deal with.”48

An historic example of active strategic counterattack 

might be Doolittle’s 1942 raid on Tokyo rather than 

the “bolt from the blue” Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The PLA has not conducted such a joint attack at 

strategic depths in its history, with the closest example 

perhaps being the covert movement of “volunteers” 

into Korea in the fall of 1950. Trends in PLA modernization over the past 15 years have greatly increased 

China’s options for this kind of operation with the potential for cyber attacks, long-range missile (ballistic 

and cruise) attacks against land and sea targets, and 

the use of special operations forces at considerable 

distance from China’s shores.

Finally, future military operations (including deterrence operations) are divided into three types:

1. Preventive strategic action or operations that 

seek to prevent a situation from deteriorating, which 

may include exercises, raising alert status, establishing no-fly/no navigation zones, or low intensity operations, such as use of special operations forces or 

small-scale joint operations.

2. Controllable operations to restore and stabilize 

the situation, of medium- or of medium-low-intensity, 

such as regional blockade, missile assault, air attack, 
105

island attack or defense, frontier counterattack, and 

medium- or large-scale joint operations.

3. Decisive operations to protect the country’s 

fundamental national interests and are usually medium-large scale, medium-high intensity operations 

that usually are decisive and “therefore must be sure 

to win.”49

These classifications emphasize both deterrence 

and warfighting, perhaps unrealistically seek to overcome the uncertainty of war, and provide a standardized method for planning and training and employing troops based on a correct estimate of the situation. 

The Science of Military Strategy does not rule out the 

possibility that the goal of fighting a quick and decisive could evolve into a long-term confrontation or 

protracted war.50 This thought process emphasizes a 

professional attitude toward training and attaining 

operational readiness, but urges caution in making 

the decision to go to war.

Therefore, imprudent decision to use force is never 

permitted. . . . The reason for the existence of the army 

is to prevent and win a war. . . . We may not launch 

a war in a hundred years but we can never be unprepared for war for even one day. . . . Only when an 

army is fully prepared for war, can it be prudent to 

start a war and react quickly in war.51

As PLA capabilities improve, should circumstances demand and the Party leadership so orders, 

the PLAN is likely to be involved in any long-range, 

strategic operation at the beginning of a war, along 

with the Air Force and Second Artillery. Therefore, 

the doctrinal foundation for the PLAN’s actions have 

become of greater interest to the world.
106

OFFSHORE DEFENSE—A RELATIVELY 

NEW CONCEPT

In 1985, the CMC approved Offshore Defense as 

the naval component of the Active Defense strategic 

guidelines.52 As such, it conforms to the basic tenets of 

Active Defense and People’s War described previously. The impetus for creation of the Offshore Defense 

concept is attributed to Liu Huaqing, commander of 

the Navy in 1982, when he ordered research to begin 

on the topic.

Liu considered Offshore Defense to be a regional 

defensive strategy focusing its operations first, and 

“for a relatively long time,” in the Yellow, East China, 

and South China Seas, or within the First Island Chain. 

He expected the PLAN’s operational areas to expand 

gradually to the northern Pacific and out to the Second 

Island Chain. No timeframe was mentioned for this 

gradual expansion in operational area. Liu rejected 

that the PLA was to become a “blue water” offensive 

force like those of the United States or Soviet Union.54

Liu regarded Offshore Defense as more than a 

coastal defense strategy. Though no official minimum 

or maximum distances were associated with the concept, analysis published by the U.S. Office of Naval 

Intelligence in 2007 stated that for many PLAN officers, the Navy’s operational reach is a function of the 

PLA’s land-based aircraft and the Navy’s antisubmarine warfare capabilities.55

Despite the fact that Offshore Defense has been 

an official component of PLA doctrine for multiple 

decades, the authors of the Defense White Papers have 

been inconsistent in its characterization. In 2000, the 

Navy was said to have “acquired the capability of 

offshore defensive operations (近海防御作战).”56 The 
107

term was not used in 2002, but in 2004, the Navy was 

reported to have “expanded the space and extended 

the depth for offshore defensive operations.”57 In 2006, 

the English version said the “Navy aims at gradual 

extension of the strategic depth for offshore defensive operations,” but the Chinese characters called it a 

strategy (近海防御的战略).58 In 2008, the most fulsome 

description was included, reporting the realization 

of “a strategic transformation” to an offshore defensive strategy, and a new concept mentioned, “distant 

waters” (“远海”):

Since the1980s, the Navy has realized a strategic transformation to offshore defensive operations (近海防御的战

略). Since the beginning of the new century, in view of 

the characteristics and laws of local maritime wars in 

conditions of informationization, the Navy has been 

striving to improve in an all-round way its capabilities 

of integrated offshore operations, strategic deterrence 

and strategic counterattacks, and to gradually develop

its capabilities of conducting cooperation in distant waters and countering non-traditional security threats, so 

as to push forward the overall transformation of the 

service. . . .

In line with the requirements of offshore defense strategy, 

the Navy . . . enhances integrated combat capability 

in conducting offshore campaigns and the capability of 

nuclear counterattacks.59 (italics and bold added)

In 2010, the strategy was mentioned only once, but 

an important translation error was made concerning 

capabilities in distant waters:

In line with the requirements of offshore defense strategy, 

the PLA Navy (PLAN) endeavors to accelerate the 

modernization of its integrated combat forces, enhanc-
108

es its capabilities in strategic deterrence and counterattack, and develops its capabilities in conducting operations in distant waters and in countering non-traditional 

security threats. . . . By organizing naval vessels for drills 

in distant waters, it develops training models for MOOTW 

missions.

60 (emphasis and bold added)

The original Chinese about developing capabilities 

in distant waters (逐步发展远海合作与应对非传统安全

威胁能力) is the same in both years (except in 2010, the 

word “gradually” [逐步] is dropped), but the word 合

作 is mistranslated in 2010 as “operations” instead of 

“cooperation” as found in 2008.61

The 2013 White Paper stated, “the PLAN endeavors to accelerate the modernization of its forces for 

comprehensive offshore operations” and is developing “blue-water capabilities of conducting mobile operations, carrying out international cooperation, and 

countering non-traditional security threats.”62 This is 

the first White Paper translation of “远海” as “bluewater,” though the old form of “distant sea waters” 

is also found. The White Paper also specifically states 

the objective of developing mobile “blue-water” operational capabilities in addition to international cooperation and MOOTW tasks.

Clearly an evolutionary transition is underway, 

with distant waters operations linked primarily to both 

warfighting and nontraditional security/MOOTW 

missions. The PLAN’s successful prosecution of the 

anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden has had a 

major impact and apparently is influencing doctrinal 

development. Nonetheless, Offshore Defense remains 

the doctrinal basis for PLAN operations while the shift 

to operations in distant waters takes place. Operations 

in distant waters require capabilities only now beginning to enter the PLAN inventory, such as carrier op-
109

erations, and the improvement of existing, but weak, 

capabilities such as anti-submarine warfare, area air 

defense, and long-distance supply and transport.63

ANALYSIS

Despite personnel reductions and force structure 

changes over the past decade, the PLA is still organized according to People’s War concepts. The landoriented, continental defense structure is observable 

in the distribution of personnel among the PLA services: army, approximately 1.6 million; navy, 235,000; air 

force, 398,000; Second Artillery, 100,000 (estimated).64

Over 500,000 PLA reservists and eight million militia 

personnel may support the active-duty force. The PLA 

is further broken down into mobile and local forces, 

which, along with the militia, is a structure similar to 

that of the Red Army.

Over 60 percent of active-duty personnel are Army. 

Likewise, the majority of personnel in the reserves and 

militia support the army.65 Border and coastal defense 

is the primary mission for hundreds of thousands of 

army, navy, and People’s Armed Police (PAP) personnel. Out of a total of over 350 naval combatants (including some 71 submarines of all types, 78 destroyers 

and frigates, and over 200 patrol and coastal combatants), the patrol and coastal component comprises 

nearly 60 percent of the force by number.66 The largest 

numerical growth of all PLAN ships has been in the 

Hubei Type 022 missile patrol boat fleet, whose “limited endurance” gives it an operational range of about 

300 nautical miles from China’s coast.67 The Hubei

force would likely be employed in conjunction with 

PLAN ground-based, anti-ship cruise missile coastal 

defense regiments and many legacy surface combat-
110

ant and submarine units that also have limited operational ranges. Local air defense is the main mission for 

about half of Air Force and Naval Aviation fighters,68

Army and Air Force anti-aircraft artillery and surfaceto-air missile units, and over one-third of the reserves.

Over the past 15 years, Army helicopter and special operations forces (SOF) units have expanded, 

though they are still small for such a large force. More 

impressive has been the expansion of Second Artillery 

conventional missile (both short- and medium-range) 

units and the evolution of information/cyber warfare 

units capable of intelligence collection, defense, and 

attack in all the services and the reserves/militia.69 In 

total, these weapons and units have increased dramatically the distance the PLA, supported by even longerrange information/cyber operations, can strike.

Nonetheless, the majority of PLA units are optimized for continental and coastal defensive missions 

and the ability of the PLA to project significant military forces beyond a few hundred miles from China’s 

borders is limited by long-range air and sea transport. 

Civilian capabilities are being developed to augment 

air and sea transport capacities, and new civilian 

transportation infrastructure, such as roads, rail lines, 

airports, and ports, are frequently designed for dualuse national defense purposes.

PLA force structure also conforms to the “five 

combinations” of People’s War as its units mix older 

weapons and equipment with newer weapons and 

high technology equipment. In general, for nearly all 

categories of weapons in the PLA, only about 50 percent or less of the inventory is considered modern by 

standards defined by the U.S. Department of Defense 

(DoD).70 Over time, these percentages are changing as 

older weapons are retired and newer weapons intro-
111

duced. The 2010 White Paper described this situation 

as “The PLA is working to improve the quality and 

optimize the composition of its weaponry and equipment. It has formed a system with second-generation 

equipment as the main body and third generation as 

the backbone.”71

People’s War focus on mobilization is reflected in 

the command structure existing below Military Region. Some 30 army-leader grade provincial Military 

District and Garrison headquarters oversee approximately 340 division-leader grade prefectural Military 

Subdistrict and Garrison headquarters which supervise roughly 2,800 regiment-leader grade county-level 

People’s Armed Forces Departments.72 At the bottom 

of this chain are grassroots (township, village, and 

large industrial unit) People’s Armed Forces Departments that probably number in the tens of thousands 

and are manned by local civilian government cadre. 

This hierarchy is responsible for commanding local 

forces (including border and coastal defense units) 

and the militia, as well as for conscription, demobilization, and mobilization (military-civil integration) 

work. Such an extensive, manpower intensive headquarters structure was necessary in previous decades 

before China’s transportation and communications 

infrastructure was modernized. However, with cell 

phones, computers, the Internet, and automobiles 

now available to cadre at all levels of government, the 

efficiency of the old system is open to question. This 

indeed is a People’s War command structure that may 

have outlived its utility.

People’s War mobilization principles are further 

implemented as all elements of the Chinese armed 

forces supported by civilian agencies and enterprises 

routinely respond to disaster relief efforts throughout 
112

the country. Local forces of all types are first responders then, depending on the need, they are often augmented by units from distant regions.

Operationally, People’s War concepts have been 

demonstrated in Chinese government activities as it 

seeks to assert its sovereignty over disputed maritime 

territories and deter foreign military operations in its 

exclusive economic zones (EEZ). During the tenure of 

Hu as CMC Chairman, the civilian Maritime Surveillance Force; Maritime Safety Administration; Fisheries Bureau; Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau; and the 

maritime elements of the PAP Border Security Force 

(known as “China Coast Guard”) have all been modernized and given lead roles in protecting and asserting Chinese sovereignty in China’s “three seas.”

In 2009, civilian fishing vessels and ships from 

China’s law enforcement agencies backed up by 

PLAN ships and aircraft harassed two U.S. Military 

Sealift Command ocean surveillance ships operating 

in international waters in China’s EEZ in what were 

almost certainly coordinated actions (though the precise level of government directing these activities is 

unclear). In these and other incidents, Chinese civilian fishing boats operated in close proximity to foreign vessels using tactics that could be categorized as 

a modern version of “sparrow warfare” in a maritime 

People’s War. Similar, but less physically dangerous, 

tactics have continued, exemplified by coordination 

between fishermen and Maritime Surveillance ships 

at the Scarborough Shoal and the dispatch of Maritime Surveillance ships and aircraft to patrol around 

the Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands in 2012.73 In the first 4 

months of confrontation over the Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands (September through December 2012), according 

to Japanese reporting, Chinese maritime surveillance 
113

vessels entered Japanese territorial waters surrounding the islands 20 times, often for multiple days.74

China sent a maritime surveillance aircraft to the islands for the first time on December 13.75 Meanwhile, 

according to Chinese sources, PLAN ships independently conducted three patrols in the area.76 This pattern demonstrates the leading role of China’s civilian 

law enforcement agencies in executing this strategy, 

while leaving no doubt that the military is ready to 

respond if required.

As China attempts to defend its sovereignty in disputed areas, the decision to put civilian law enforcement assets on the front line is a somewhat less provocative measure than using PLAN ships in that role, 

adding steps to the crisis escalation ladder, and complicating other governments’ reaction, especially for 

countries with primarily military options available in 

the region (like the United States), with weak militaries (like the Philippines), or smaller law enforcement 

fleets (like Japan). However, as demonstrated by the 

Impeccable and Victorious incidents, maritime People’s 

War tactics (like all People’s War tactics) decrease in 

effectiveness the farther from China’s mainland they 

are implemented. Moreover, they could (and do) fail 

and escalation ensues. Even when successful, People’s 

War tactics may prolong a conflict or standoff and 

may not achieve China’s political objective. If executed 

without adequate provocation (from the perspective 

of those outside China), such tactics also violate the 

basic precept of Active Defense, “striking only after 

the enemy has struck.” In many circumstances, People’s War may not be as “magic” as the Chinese claim 

it still to be. Moreover, some Chinese leaders (most 

likely civilians) may confuse political enthusiasm with 

military competency and misjudge the PLA’s actual 

operational readiness.
114

CONCLUSIONS

People’s War and Active Defense remain the fundamental basis for the organization and operations of 

the Chinese armed forces. Offshore Defense remains 

the current naval component of the military strategic 

guideline of Active Defense. As China’s economic conditions improve, domestic and international environments change, and military modernization results in 

increased capabilities, all three concepts are subject to 

adaptation. Evidence of this adaption during the CMC 

chairmanship of Hu Jintao can be found in the government’s series of White Papers and other authoritative 

military publications. Even greater doctrinal change 

may occur when China’s calculations of Comprehensive National Power shift in its favor, though the 2010 

White Paper states, “China will never seek hegemony, 

nor will it adopt the approach of military expansion 

now or in the future, no matter how its economy 

develops.”77

As demonstrated previously, the number of references to People’s War and Active Defense in the externally oriented White Papers have decreased even 

while their organizational and operational principles 

are still influential. Meanwhile, the terms are still used 

regularly by the internally directed Chinese-language 

PLA Daily, albeit to a lesser degree than a decade ago 

for People’s War. Figure 3-2 charts the appearance of 

these two terms in PLA Daily from 2002 to 2011.78
115

Figure 3-2. Number of References to People’s War

and Active Defense in PLA Daily.

As the PLA becomes more technologically advanced, perhaps the most important tenets of People’s 

War—the principles of the support of the people and 

the need for the mobilization of all of China’s strengths 

to achieve its political objectives—are unlikely to 

change. China’s leaders understand that the armed 

forces must be filled by willing and capable personnel, even if many are still conscripted. Both the PLA 

and the central and local governments therefore continue to expend significant effort in a national defense 

education program to inform the populace of the military’s missions and encourage young people to volunteer their service. Part of this program includes the 

annual military training given to more than 17 million 

students in 2,000 colleges and universities and 22,000 

high schools.79
116

In the event that China’s leaders perceive the need 

to use military force, they will seek to mobilize the 

people politically to support any such action. Political mobilization also applies to psyching up the troops 

through demanding training, emphasizing physical 

stamina, and political indoctrination.80 But there is a 

limit to the military effectiveness of political mobilization. Political enthusiasm does not stop bullets, guide 

missiles, or detect submarines and stealth aircraft.

More practically speaking, mobilization of civilian 

transportation is essential for military operations both 

within and beyond China’s borders in compensation 

for acknowledged PLA weaknesses. PLA and PAP 

forces are increasingly deploying on training missions 

within China using chartered civilian aircraft, and also 

routinely deploy in small numbers on overseas peacekeeping and training missions. Military use of civilian 

shipping is being enhanced by the commissioning of 

the 23,000-ton Qingshandao civilian passenger, rollon/roll-off ship, the first of several of its type, which 

was designed with military needs in mind.81

However, in a rapidly developing, high-technology situation, the mobilization of the economy and 

especially the science and technology sector may 

not be as reliable as the people’s political and civilian transportation support. Given the differences in 

modern advanced weapons systems compared to 

their industrial era predecessors, it may not be as easy 

to shift industrial production to weapons as it was 

70 years ago. Though mobilization of the economy 

and of science and technology is part of the theory 

of People’s War, it may be less relevant in practice 

now than in decades past, especially in missions the 

PLA may undertake outside the borders of China. On 

the other hand, in performing MOOTW, economic 
117

mobilization may still use civilian materials, such as 

food, water, living supplies, etc., but the items do not 

need to be produced to the same standards as 

military-use items.

As military professionals, PLA leaders are unlikely 

to disassociate themselves from Sunzi’s guidance (and 

the People’s War principle) to “Know the enemy and 

know yourself.” The PLA’s institutional drive to study 

and learn from other militaries’ organizations, operations, and doctrine is apparent from even a cursory 

reading of The Science of Military Strategy. But more 

important is their own assessment of where the PLA 

stands with respect to the capabilities of other militaries in the region and world. With foreign counterparts, 

PLA leaders often state, as did Defense Minister Liang 

Guanglie in 2011: 

I also firmly believe that in terms of the level of modernization of the PLA, we can by no means call ourselves an advanced military force. The gap between 

us and that of advanced countries is at least 2 to 3 

decades.82

For internal consumption, since 2006 a variety of 

official military and Party publications have repeatedly referred to the “major contradiction” (“主要矛

盾”) of the “two incompatibles” (“两个不相适应”) attributed to Hu Jintao that:

Currently, our military’s level of modernization is 

incompatible with the requirements of winning local 

war under informatized conditions and that our military capability is incompatible with the requirements 

of carrying out its historic missions at the new stage of 

the new century.83
118

This assessment is intended to encourage the 

troops to continue the efforts necessary in the PLA’s 

multidecade process of modernization and may also 

be used to justify increasing defense budgets. This 

judgment of the senior PLA leadership from the CMC 

down to Military Region and operational unit leaders 

contrasts with the much more publicized, often aggressive, words of military pundits such as Luo Yuan 

(罗援), Liu Mingfu (刘明福), and Dai Xu (戴旭). It suggests that the senior military leadership may be more 

“prudent in fighting the initial battle” than some civilian leaders, military media analysts, and nationalistic 

elements in society might prefer. In the end, however, 

according to Mao’s principle that the “Party commands the gun,” the military leadership will obey the 

orders of the Party, even if some civilian CCP leaders 

may not be fully schooled in PLA doctrine.

As PLA capabilities improve and its technology 

advances, additional modifications to force structure 

and doctrine are expected. Some changes may appear 

to break with the tenets of People’s War and Active 

Defense, but as long as the PLA is a Party Army, the 

Marxist “scientific world outlook” and reverence to 

the leadership and wisdom of Mao, Deng, Jiang, and 

Hu will continue. What started as “making a virtue 

out of necessity” in the 1930s will endure, as China always will have a large population and large landmass 

to protect.

Foreign policymakers should seek to understand 

China’s concepts of People’s War and Active Defense 

as they will continue to have relevance to PLA operations, though their prominence may decline from the 

highs of previous decades. When speaking of People’s 

War and Active Defense, the Chinese may be more 

transparent than is the conventional wisdom.
119

ENDNOTES - CHAPTER 3

1. Peng Guangqian and Yao Youzhi, eds., The Science of Military Strategy, Beijing, China: Military Science Publishing House, 

2001 (Chinese edition), 2005 (English edition), pp. 454, 459. All 

quotes are from the English edition.

2. According to M. Taylor Fravel, “The Evolution of China’s 

Military Strategy: Comparing the 1987 and 1999 Editions of Zhanlüexue,” James Mulvenon and David Finkelstein, eds., China’s 

Revolution in Doctrinal Affairs: Emerging Trends in the Operational 

Art of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Alexandria, VA: CNA, 

2005, pp. 83-84, according to the authors of the PLA National Defense University’s 1999 version of Science of Military Strategy, “two 

of Mao’s most important strategic ideas are Active Defense and 

People’s War. . . . Mao’s other strategic ideas that are less prominent today including protracted war (持久战) and guerrilla war 

(游击战争) among others. In Western military thought, the analog 

of strategic ideas are the writings of strategists such as Clausewitz 

or Liddell Hart, whose concepts to this day remain a part of modern strategic thinking even [though] their implications for military operations may have changed.” In that same volume, David 

Finkelstein (p. 17) observes:

The official military strategy of the PRC and PLA remains embedded in what is known as the ‘National 

Military Strategic Guidelines for the New Period’ 

(‘新时期国家军事战略方针’), which is the closest Chinese 

analogue to the U.S. National Military Strategy. This highestlevel national military guidance in China has two main components. The first component is operational, and it remains 

the ‘Active Defense’ (‘积极防御’) as adjusted for prosecuting 

‘Local Wars Under Modern High-tech Conditions.’ The second of the two components concerns the myriad reform and 

modernization programs in both software and hardware the 

PLA is undergoing. It is generically referred to by the PLA 

as ‘army building’ (‘军队建设’) or ‘new period army building’ (‘新时期军队建设’).

3. The Chinese armed forces currently include the active and 

reserve forces of the PLA, the PAP, and the militia.
120

4. Mao Zedong, “Problems of Strategy in China’s Revolutionary War,” December 1936, available from www.marxists.org/

reference/archive/mao/works/1936/12.htm#s5-1.

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid.

7. U.S. Department of Defense, “Annual Report On The Military Power Of The People’s Republic Of China,” June, 2000, available from www.defense.gov/news/Jun2000/china06222000.htm.

8. Mao Zedong, “The Period Of The War Of Resistance 

Against Japan (1),” July 23, 1937, available from www.marxists.org/

reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-2/mswv2_01.htm.

9. Mao Zedong, “Problems of War and Strategy,” November 6, 1938, available from www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/

selected-works/volume-2/mswv2_12.htm.

10. “National Defense Policy,” China’s National Defense in 

2006, December 2006, available from www.china.org.cn/english/

features/book/194485.htm.

11. “No nationalization of military in China: senior PLA officer,” Xinhua, June 20, 2011, available from news.xinhuanet.com/

english2010/china/2011-06/20/c_13940229.htm.

12. Mao Zedong, “On Coalition Government,” April 24, 1945, 

available from www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selectedworks/volume-3/mswv3_25.htm#p6.

13. Jiefangjun Bao (JFJB) Commentator on Studying Hu Jintao’s Speech to Leading Provincial Cadres (9) CPP20120907787004 

Beijing Jiefangjun Bao online in Chinese, September 7, 2012, p. 1, 

translated by the Open Source Center (OSC).

14. Mao, “On Coalition Government.”

15. Links to English-language translations of all Chinese government White Papers are found at english.gov.cn/official/2005-08/17/

content_24165.htm. Chinese language versions are found at www.
121

gov.cn/zwgk/2005-06/02/content_3618.htm. It is likely a new edition 

of The Science of Military Strategy has been prepared to update the 

2001 Chinese edition and the 2005 English-language translation 

used here. The 2001 edition was written before the PLA adopted 

the concepts of “Revolution in Military Affairs with Chinese Characteristics,” informationization, “Three Warfares,” and MOOTW. 

A new edition would probably incorporate these concepts and 

other new terminology into the book while maintaining most 

fundamental doctrinal principles from decades past, adapted as 

necessary to account for the country’s economic and technological 

modernization as well as the development of new military capabilities. The 2005 English-language translation was an important 

step in transparency. Let us hope the Chinese government sees 

the benefit of that effort and provides an official translation of the 

new edition whenever it is published. It is useful to compare both 

the English and Chinese texts of this volume, however, as there 

sometimes are discrepancies between the two texts. For example, 

and perhaps of interest to the topic of Hu Jintao’s leadership, in 

the English version section on “The Military Strategy in the New 

Age” (pp. 117-118), Deng is directly quoted twice and mentioned 

a third time. In the Chinese version (pp. 125-127), Jiang Zemin 

is referenced supporting each of Deng’s three statements. However, the English text does not include Jiang’s name as found in 

the Chinese text. Jiang, of course, was CMC Chairman when the 

Chinese text was written, but had stepped down by the time the 

English-language edition was issued.

16. China’s National Defense in 2002, December 2002, available 

from english.gov.cn/official/2005-07/28/content_17780.htm.

17. Ibid.

18. All quotes from the 2004 White Paper are found at China’s 

National Defense in December 2004, available from english.gov.cn/

official/2005-07/28/content_18078.htm.

19. “National Defense Policy,” China’s National Defense in 

2006, December 2006, available from www.china.org.cn/english/features/book/194485.htm.

20. “National Defense Policy,” China’s National Defense in 2008, 

January 2009, available from english.gov.cn/official/2009-01/20/content_1210227_4.htm.
122

21. Chai Yongzhong, “军民融合:国防可持续发展的必由之

路” (“Civil-military Integration: The Only Way for the Sustainable Development of National Defense”), PLA Daily, November 

8, 2007, available from www.chinamil.com.cn/site1/zbxl/2007-11/08/

content_1010161.htm.

22. China’s National Defense in 2010, March 2011, available 

from english.gov.cn/official/2011-03/31/content_1835499.htm.

23. The Diversified Employment of China’s Armed Forces, April 

2013, available from eng.chinamil.com.cn/news-channels/chinamilitary-news/2013-04/16/content_5301637.htm.

24. Peng and Yao, The Science of Military Strategy, p. 102.

25. Ibid. The statement “technology determines tactics” is also 

found in the 2000 and 2006 editions of the National Defense University’s Science of Campaigns (战役学). For additional information 

on this subject, see Dennis J. Blasko, “‘Technology Determines 

Tactics’: The Relationship between Technology and Doctrine in 

Chinese Military Thinking,” Journal of Strategic Studies, Vol. 34, Issue 3, June 2011.

26. Ibid. p. 104. By now, it should be readily apparent that the 

Chinese are not consistent in their use of the terminology associated with the concepts of People’s War and Active Defense.

27. Ibid., pp. 12-13.

28. Ibid., p. 23.

29. Ibid., p. 35.

30. The Science of Military Strategy included “military deterrence, military diplomacy, arms control and disarmament, military conflict of low intensity, and border and coastal struggle 

in peacetime” as “non-warfighting utilization.” MOOTW also 

emphasizes anti-piracy, disaster relief operations, international 

peacekeeping, domestic security, and public health emergencies, 

along with other noncombat missions. Some of these tasks might 

have been considered as “low intensity” operations a decade ago.
123

31. Ibid., p. 213.

32. Ibid., p. 215.

33. The direct link between deterrence and Active Defense is 

found in Xu Guangyu, “积极防御的第一功能是防御性威慑” (“The 

First Function of Active Defense is Defensive Deterrence”), PLA 

Daily, August 23, 2012, available from chn.chinamil.com.cn/ll/2012-

08/23/content_5000970.htm.

34. Ibid., p. 217.

35. Ibid., p. 222.

36. All quotes in this paragraph from Ibid., p. 224.

37. Ibid., p. 228.

38. Ibid., p. 229.

39. Ibid., pp. 103-117.

40. Ibid., p. 117. The Chinese-language text (p. 126) notes Jiang’s emphasis; the English-language text omits his name here 

and two more times in the following paragraphs.

41. Ibid., pp. 230-231.

42. Ibid., pp. 456-457.

43. According to Lin Biao, “Long Live the Victory of People’s War!” available from www.marxists.org/reference/archive/linbiao/1965/09/peoples_war/ch05.htm, 

Sparrow warfare is a popular method of fighting created 

by the Communist-led anti-Japanese guerrilla units and 

militia behind the enemy lines. It was called sparrow 

warfare because, first, it was used diffusely, like the flight 

of sparrows in the sky; and because, second, it was used 

flexibly by guerrillas or militiamen, operating in threes 

or fives, appearing and disappearing unexpectedly and 
124

wounding, killing, depleting and wearing out the enemy 

forces.

44. Peng and Yao, The Science of Military Strategy, p. 452.

45. Ibid., p. 133.

46. Ibid., pp. 135-136.

47. Ibid., p. 426.

48. All quotes about the active strategic counterattack on the 

exterior lines come from Ibid., pp. 459-461. This feature from The 

Science of Military Strategy was brought to the public’s eye by Anton Lee Wishik II, “An Anti-Access Approximation: The PLA’s 

Active Strategic Counterattacks on Exterior Lines,” China Security, Issue 19, pp. 37-48, available from www.chinasecurity.us/index.

php?option=com_content&view=article&id=487&Itemid=8.

49. Ibid., p. 461.

50. Peng and Yao, The Science of Military Strategy, p. 470.

51. Ibid., p. 466.

52. Ibid., p. 468.

53. Office of Naval Intelligence, China’s Navy 2007, Suitland, 

MD: Office of Naval Intelligence, 2007, p. 24.

54. Office of Naval Intelligence, The People’s Liberation Army 

Navy: A Modern Navy with Chinese Characteristics, Suitland, MD: 

Office of Naval Intelligence, 2009, pp. 5-7.

55. Office of Naval Intelligence, China’s Navy 2007, p. 26. As 

new capabilities are added to the PLA, such as may be provided 

by an aircraft carrier, this operational reach will expand.

56. China’s National Defense in 2000, September 2000, available 

from english.gov.cn/official/2005-07/27/content_17524.htm.

57. China’s National Defense in 2004.
125

58. China’s National Defense in 2006.

59. China’s National Defense in 2008.

60. China’s National Defense in 2010.

61. The term “distant waters operations” (“远海作战”) has 

appeared on several occasions in Chinese-language PLA Dailyassociated publications since 2007. 

62. The Diversified Employment of China’s Armed Forces.

63. For a concise review of the PLAN’s main focus on “building a navy to handle a high-intensity conflict close to home,” see 

Andrew Erickson and Gabe Collins, “China’s Real Blue Water 

Navy,” August 30, 2012, available from thediplomat.com/2012/08/30/

chinas-not-so-scary-navy/.

64. For the first time ever, The Diversified Employment of China’s 

Armed Forces provided the manpower strengths for the Navy and 

the Air Force, but not for all of the Army and Second Artillery. For 

Army and Second Artillery estimates, see James Hackett, ed., The 

Military Balance 2012, London, UK: The International Institute for 

Strategic Studies, 2012, pp. 233-237.

65. Based on the funding levels for the reserves and militia 

listed in the 2010 White Paper, the actual combat readiness of these 

forces is subject to question. About 1 percent (about $700 million) 

of the entire announced defense budget is allotted to the reserves 

(of 500,000+ personnel) with about 2.8 percent (about $2 billion) 

allocated to the militia (with eight million personnel). Additional 

funds from local governments would be necessary for any militarily significant training to take place. Even with local funding, 

the money available to these forces is probably exponentially less 

than is available to the active-duty PLA. Limited training results 

in limited capabilities to support the active forces. This situation 

points to a discrepancy between the theory of People’s War and 

its actual implementation in force structure.

66. The Military Balance 2012, pp. 231-232.
126

67. The Military Balance 2012 assesses over 65 Type 022s in 

the force; another estimate increases that number to 100, with an 

operational range estimated at 500 nautical miles. See “Type 022 

FAC Page,” available from www.jeffhead.com/redseadragon/newfac.htm. Andrew S. Erickson, “Chinese Anti-Ship Cruise Missile 

Firing as Part of Combined Arms Anti-Carrier Exercises in East 

China Sea, 30 June-5 July,” July 6, 2010, available from www.andrewerickson.com/2010/07/combined-arms-anti-ship-exercise-in-eastchina-sea-30-june-5-july/, provides the shorter operational range 

estimate.

68. The Military Balance 2012 counts nearly 800 J-7 and J-8 series out of some 900 total air defense fighters, while most new 

fighters, over 600 airframes (J-10, J-11. JH-7, and Su-30), fall into 

the fighter ground-attack category. The J-7/J-8 fleet accounts for 

about 51 percent of all fighters/fighter ground-attack aircraft. This 

percentage is likely to go down as new aircraft enter the force.

69. For discussion of PLA cyber capabilities, see Mark A. 

Stokes, Jenny Lin, and L. C. Russell Hsiao, “The Chinese People’s 

Liberation Army Signals Intelligence and Cyber Reconnaissance 

Infrastructure,” Project 2049 Institute, November 11, 2011; and 

James Mulvenon, “PLA Computer Network Operations: Scenarios, Doctrine, Organizations, and Capability,” Roy Kamphausen, 

David Lai, and Andrew Scobell, eds., Beyond the Strait: PLA Missions Other Than Taiwan, Carlisle PA, Strategic Studies Institute, 

U.S. Army War College, 2009, pp. 253-286. The series of U.S. DoD 

annual reports to Congress document the growth of the Chinese 

missile force. See also Ron Christman, “Conventional Missions 

for China’s Second Artillery Corps: Doctrine, Training, Escalation Control Issues,” Andrew S. Erickson and Lyle J. Goldstein, 

eds., Chinese Aerospace Power, Naval War Institute Press, 2011, 

pp. 307-327.

70. This fact is best illustrated by the chart in “Select PLA 

Modernization Areas, 2000-2009,” the Office of the Secretary of 

Defense Annual Report to Congress, Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2010, p. 45, which 

reports about 25 percent of naval surface forces, 50 percent of the 

submarine force, 25 percent of air forces, and 42 percent of air 

defense forces as modern in 2009. This conclusion can be corroborated by calculating percentages of old and new equipment listed 

in The Military Balance 2012.
127

71. China’s National Defense in 2010.

72. Numbers of Military Districts and Subdistricts can be tallied in the Directory of PRC Military Personalities October 2011. The 

numbers of the various government administrative divisions, as 

of 2005, can be found at “Villages, Towns, Cities, and Provinces,” 

available from www.cfguide.com/admdiv2.asp.

73. For a cogent analysis of China’s objectives in the South and 

East China Seas island disputes, see M. Taylor Fravel, “China’s 

Island Strategy: “Redefine the Status Quo,“ The Diplomat blog, 

November 1, 2012, available from thediplomat.com/china-power/

chinas-island-strategy-redefine-the-status-quo/.

74. “3 Chinese ships enter Japan’s territorial waters near 

Senkakus,” Kyodo, December 31, 2012, available from english.

kyodonews.jp/news/2012/12/202170.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_

medium=twitter.

75. “China sends marine surveillance plane to patrol Diaoyu 

Islands,” Xinhua, December 14, 2012, available from news.xinhuanet.com/english/photo/2012-12/14/c_132039802.htm.

76. “Chinese flotilla patrols waters near Diaoyu Islands,” Xinhua, December 10, 2012, available from www.chinadaily.com.cn/

china/2012-12/10/content_16003998.htm.

77. China’s National Defense in 2010.

78. The author thanks M. Taylor Fravel for compiling these 

statistics.

79. “17 mln students join military training annually,” Xinhua, 

September 26, 2012, available from news.xinhuanet.com/english/

culture/2012-09/26/c_131875203.htm. However, as the Global Times

reported the following day, a large percentage of those students 

attempt to avoid that training. See “Students dodge military 

training,” September 27, 2012, available from www.globaltimes.cn/

content/735806.shtml.
128

80. The physical toughness of PLA soldiers is often demonstrated by breaking bottles or bricks over their heads or with their 

hands, performing calisthenics in the mud or water, and in handto-hand combat techniques. Such training may be useful for morale, but it may also lead to a mistaken perception of their invulnerability or martial prowess.

81. “Advanced passenger ro-ro ship commissioned in 

Shenyang MAC,” PLA Daily, January 19, 2012, available from

eng.chinamil.com.cn/news-channels/photo-reports/2012-01/19/

content_4772483.htm.

82. U.S. Department of Defense, “Joint Press Conference with 

Secretary Gates and General Liang from Beijing, China,” 10 January 2001, available from www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.

aspx?transcriptid=4750.

83. Commentator, “更加坚定地贯彻落实科学发展观” (“More 

Firmly Implement the Scientific Development Concept”), PLA 

Daily, August 3, 2012, available from www.chinamil.com.cn/jfjbmap/

content/2012-08/03/content_11228.htm.
129

CHAPTER 4

WHAT’S IN A NAME:

BUILDING ANTI-ACCESS/AREA DENIAL 

CAPABILITIES WITHOUT 

ANTI-ACCESS/AREA DENIAL DOCTRINE

Christopher P. Twomey

While China has deployed significant anti-access 

and area denial (A2/AD) capabilities, its development of doctrinal concepts to wield those capabilities 

remains underdeveloped, although doctrinal developments in other directions have continued. These, 

along with many high profile Chinese weapons programs, suggest China’s view of modern maritime 

warfare continues to evolve and often are drawing 

on imported ideas that will prove challenging for the 

People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to internalize in the 

near term.

Central to China’s approach to facing American 

military capabilities in East Asia has been the development of what the United States has characterized as 

the Chinese A2/AD forces. While China does not use 

that term, several other alternative terms are thought 

to be relevant or related: Counterintervention, Assassin’s Mace, and Trump weapons; System of Systems; 

Active Strategic Counterattacks on Exterior Lines; and 

the “three non’s”—nonlinear, noncontact, nonsymmetric (or asymmetric). Upon closer examination, several of these concepts are less important than generally 

thought within PLA discourse. Others speak to rather 

different types of doctrinal developments in different 

directions from A2/AD. Nevertheless, Hu Jintao’s 

emphasis on “scientific development” has provided 
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rich rhetorical soil on which some of these approaches 

have grown, particularly the technologically demanding “system of systems” concepts.

POLICY IMPLICATIONS

• China’s deployment of A2/AD capabilities has 

outpaced the development of doctrine to manage the application of those capabilities. This 

shortcoming reduces the overall combat power 

these capabilities might create, and suggest a 

lack of consideration on the part of senior PLA 

leaders as to how military technology is changing and how these changes might impact naval 

warfare today.

— While this set of circumstances should not 

be viewed as an invitation for complacency 

on the part of the United States, it does suggest that continuing to monitor Chinese 

doctrinal deliberations will provide significant warning to foreign analysts and planners before any major improvements in this 

regard manifest.

• On the other hand, the PLA is more deeply 

considering the implications of the information 

technologies and networks for conflict. China is 

able to draw heavily on outside thinking about 

these implications, many of which are tried and 

tested by the United States in wartime.

— Still, the integration of new A2-AD capabilities with new doctrine will remain a challenging area for the PLA, given traditional 

bureaucratic rigidities.
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• China’s continued emphasis on more traditional naval doctrines (akin to sea control and sea 

lane patrols) will complicate U.S. diplomacy in 

the region.

INTRODUCTION

Since the 1995-96 Taiwan Straits Crisis, the PLA 

has endeavored to develop the capabilities that avoid 

impotence in the face of American naval—and particularly carrier—deployments in China’s nearby waters. As incidents such as the 2001 EP-3C collision, the 

2009 USNS Impeccable harassment, and concerns over 

contested claims over sovereignty in the South and 

East China Seas have intensified over the past decade, 

this aspiration toward military effectiveness serves 

broader Chinese interests than just the Taiwan issue.

Central to China’s approach to deterring such 

American deployments and preparations to defeat 

them in case of conflict has been the development of 

capabilities encapsulated under the moniker “antiaccess and area denial.”1

 Much ink has been spilled 

describing the dangers posed by China’s A2/AD capabilities. American responses to A2/AD (Air-Sea 

Battle [ASB], the 2012 Joint Operational Access Concept [JOAC], and the “rebalancing” toward Asia) are 

also well underway.2 The problem, well known to 

China watchers, of course, is that China does not use 

the term “anti-access and area denial” to describe its 

own military doctrine. 

Indeed, complicating the matter even further, the 

PLA does not use the term “doctrine” in the same sense 

that Western militaries do. However, the military science literature (such as Science of Military Strategy (战

略学) and Science of Military Operations [战役学]) and 
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campaign outlines (战役纲要) express roughly similar 

concepts on a range of topics. So what is the analogue 

to the “science of A2/AD” in those and related writings for PLA strategists?

This chapter attempts to assess several closely related doctrinal concepts that China does use: Counterintervention, Assassin’s Mace, and Trump weapons; 

System of Systems; Active Strategic Counterattacks on 

Exterior Lines; and the three non’s—nonlinear, noncontact, nonsymmetric (or asymmetric). Most of the 

effort will be aimed to clarify these concepts and their 

interrelation, but significant attention will also be paid 

to evaluating the role that President Hu Jintao has had 

on their development and incorporation into China’s 

strategic thought. 

Given the overall goals of this edited volume, the 

chapter will center its attention on the usage of these 

terms since 2004 when Hu Jintao took the leadership 

of the Central Military Commission (CMC) from Jiang Zemin. It should be noted that the closely related concept of “informationalization” was already in 

place at that point, with “local war under conditions 

of informationalization” having replaced “local war 

under high tech conditions” previously.3 Nevertheless, as discussed below, the use of the term accelerated under Hu, was facilitated by related ideological 

emphases such as the Hu’s use of the term “scientific 

development.” 

This analysis leads to the following six key conclusions. First, while it certainly is the case that China 

is developing military capabilities that serve the operational goals of denying access by foreign navies to 

the areas surrounding China, the PLA does not have a 

well-developed joint operational doctrine to integrate 

and guide the use of those capabilities. Second, many 
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of the related concepts that are discussed here are, in 

fact, imported from outside of China, rather than exemplifying Chinese “innovation.” Although there is 

some “localization” or addition of “Chinese characteristics,” the significance of the Chinese efforts should 

not be overstated. Third, although “counterintervention” receives much attention in the West, it has only 

limited currency within military circles in China. 

Fourth, “system of systems” is playing an increasingly 

large role in Chinese thinking. The use of this term 

suggests a shift away from an emphasis on “trump” 

weapons that might serve as silver bullets to a more 

integrated approach. Fifth, while the direct role of Hu 

in orchestrating these changes is challenging to assess, 

his emphasis on “scientific development” in many 

ways, but especially in China’s national defense modernization, has provided rich rhetorical soil in which 

the technologically demanding “system of systems” 

approach has grown. Sixth, some of the discussion of 

the central “system of systems” and three non’s remain constrained by traditional PLA organizational 

culture. These suggest a different emphasis from A2/

AD, and one that the PLA will struggle to internalize. 

The Tangible Elements of A2/AD in 

Chinese Capabilities.

The rest of this chapter will engage Chinese military discussions—or really, the lack thereof—of A2/

AD capabilities. But before turning to that assessment 

based on openly available Chinese publications, it is 

important to note that China possesses the hardware 

typically associated with such capabilities. One recent 

U.S. publication described A2/AD in general:
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While A2/AD ideas are not new—the desire to deny 

an adversary both access and the ability to maneuver 

are timeless precepts of warfare—technological advances and proliferation threaten stability by empowering potentially aggressive actors with previously 

unattainable military capabilities. A new generation 

of cruise, ballistic, air-to-air, and surface-to-air missiles with improved range, accuracy, and lethality is 

being produced and proliferated. Modern submarines 

and fighter aircraft are entering the militaries of many 

nations, while sea mines are being equipped with mobility, discrimination and autonomy. . . . In certain scenarios, even low-technology capabilities, such as rudimentary sea mines, fast-attack small craft, or shorter 

range artillery and missile systems render transit into 

and through the commons vulnerable to interdiction 

by coercive, aggressive actors, slowing or stopping 

free movement.4

According to the Department of Defense (DoD) 

annual report assessing China’s military capabilities, 

China is developing precisely such capabilities:

China’s leaders in 2011 sustained investment in advanced cruise missiles, short and medium range conventional ballistic missiles, anti-ship ballistic missiles, 

counterpace weapons, and military cyberspace capabilities which appear designed to enable anti-access/ 

area-denial (A2/AD) missions.5

As seen in Map 4-1, these capabilities provide China with the ability to conduct missile strikes—both 

shore-based ballistic missiles and air- or submarinelaunched cruise missiles—against naval forces that 

might be deployed in areas near to Chinese shores. 
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Source: Office of the Secretary of Defense, “Military and Security 

Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China: Annual 

Report to Congress,” Washington, DC: Department of Defense, 

May 22, 2012, p. 42.

Map 4-1. China’s Missile Capabilities.

Beyond this potent Chinese missile force, very quiet diesel submarines (imported Kilo- and indigenous 

Yuan-class SSKs), and numerous small missile boats 

(Houbei/Type 22) add additional dimensions to such 

threats.6 The PLA Navy (PLAN) now fields a modest 
136

number of heavy guided missile destroyers (such as 

the imported Sovremenny destroyers and indigenous 

Lu Zhou/Type 52C/D guided missile destroyers 

[DDGs]). All of these are capable of launching antiship cruise missiles, some of which are very capable, 

perhaps even against American Aegis-equipped vessels. Furthermore, there is increased emphasis on Chinese naval ships and air assets training in the “distant 

oceans” (远海).7 Chinese intelligence, surveillance, 

and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities increasingly 

provide relevant capabilities in these regions. There 

is also evidence that the PLA is beginning to exercise 

joint air and naval attacks at least against shore targets 

in “joint firepower attacks,” a tactic that receives some 

attention in Chinese writings.8

Putting all this together, it is easy to infer a set of 

operational strategies that aim to hold U.S. forces (or 

others) far offshore through deterrent threat and existential capability to attack forces at sea and in their 

staging areas. These would be targeted from multiple 

threat axes using different systems. Sequential attacks 

might be used early on to degrade an adversary’s 

defenses (i.e., missile defense ships, antisubmarine 

warfare [ASW] platforms). Then, the adversary’s key 

dependencies such as physical bases and low density/high demand logistics capabilities can be targeted. These possibilities are logical extrapolations 

of Chinese intent based on the capabilities China is 

fielding, as well as some of the exercises it is conducting. However, in order to better understand China’s 

approach, it would be critical to identify a relatively 

unified set of “military science” writings that lay out 

this ends-means chain (commonly known in the west 

as doctrinal writings). The existence of such doctrinal 

blueprint would help ensure that future PLA procure-
137

ment, training, exercises, organizational reforms, basing decisions, etc., would be made to serve the goals 

laid out in the doctrine.9 Doctrine would help us to 

understand how China views the nature of warfare 

in this era of military operations in which accurate 

long-range weapons are the most powerful and dominating capabilities. In particular, we want to know 

how Chinese military officers understand the way 

naval conflicts play out within the context of such a 

proliferation of effective missiles and how that affects 

traditional naval missions such as sea control, projecting power “from the sea,” and defending sea lanes of 

communications (SLOCs).

However, this chapter finds that there is very little 

coherent analysis in open source Chinese writings regarding these very real capabilities that are already 

being fielded by the PLA. The implications of this absence are taken up at the end of the chapter.

DEFINING TERMS

This section will discuss each of the following 

Chinese concepts related to A2/AD in turn: Counterintervention, System of Systems, Assassin’s Mace, and 

Trump weapons, Active Strategic Counterattacks on 

Exterior Lines, and the “three non’s” (or asymmetric). 

The bulk of the attention will be paid to system of systems, as befits what the author assesses to be its relative importance in terms of its breadth of use within 

PLA writings and what it signifies regarding directions and sources of Chinese doctrinal innovation.
138

Counterintervention.

In contrast to this author’s expectation, counterintervention does not seem to play a major role, at 

least in discussions of military operations. It also does 

not seem to play the role of explicitly setting the strategic context for such operational planning. 

The term has two renderings in Chinese: 反干涉, 

and less commonly, 反介入 (both stand for anti- or 

counterintervention). A range of U.S. sources emphasize that these two Chinese terms encompass elements 

of Chinese strategy. The 2012 DoD report notes that 

they are broader than A2/AD, but related: “For China, 

“counterintervention” refers to a set of operationally 

defined tasks designed to prevent foreign (e.g., U.S.) 

military forces from intervening in a conflict and preventing China from accomplishing its military objectives.”10 Other American analysts emphasize that the 

two Chinese terms serve as “A major tenet of China’s 

security strategy . . . to build anti-access capabilities to 

protect broader interests that it perceives threatened 

by a technologically dominant maritime power.”11

While the terms certainly appear in some Chinese 

sources, what is most striking is the rarity of such references. They do not appear in Chinese Defense White 

Papers, although framed as a reaction to an adversary, 

it remains plausibly consistent with Chinese propaganda regarding their defensive orientation. The two 

terms rarely occur in the official newspapers. While 

the U.S. Government Open Source Center (OSC) does 

not translate a comprehensive set of Chinese sources, 

given the importance placed on China’s overall military modernization program by U.S. Government analysts, one would expect the topic of counterintervention to be flagged for translation and thus that database 
139

would include more references to the term. Yet, from 

2004 to October 2012, there are only a handful of translations in OSC that capture the two Chinese terms.12

Similarly, in an admittedly nonexhaustive survey of 

a range of recent books published by military presses 

such as the PLA National Defense University (NDU) 

and Academy of Military Science (AMS), there were 

few mentions of the concept.13

To be sure, the above survey is not a comprehensive 

review of all such authoritative open writings. But it 

does suggest that viewing “counterintervention” as a 

Chinese expression of a broader strategy that encompasses “A2/AD” is overstating its importance in the 

Chinese discourse on military strategy. More broadly, 

the relative absence of the use of the terms raises questions about the degree to which China has engaged in 

doctrinal thinking to make use of its potent weapons 

systems. 

Active Strategic Counterattacks on Exterior Lines. 

Another term, which in Chinese conveys some 

aspects of the A2/AD notion, might be “active strategic counterattacks on exterior lines” (“积极的战略

外线反击作战”). A well-developed argument making this case is presented by Anton Lee Wishik II.14

This certainly is an appealing “A2/AD with Chinese 

characteristics” phrasing, encapsulating as it does elements of “active defense,” long a mainstay of Chinese 

strategic writings. Wishik’s article highlights its use 

in a few key Chinese texts such as The Science of Military Strategy, which was published in 2001 by the PLA 

AMS press, under the leadership of Major General 

Peng Guangqian (彭光谦). These sources, along with 

an important reference from the AMS journal, Military 
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Science (军事学术, perhaps the single most important 

openly published journal on Chinese military doctrinal thinking), are generally viewed as authoritative.

However, this term falls short as a useful way to 

understand Chinese thinking regarding its A2/AD 

capabilities for two reasons. First, use of the terminology has not spread widely in the Chinese literature. It 

appears an insignificant number of times in both PLA 

Daily web page and in the OSC archives. The material capabilities and associated training that lie at the 

heart of what outsiders refer to as A2/AD are widely 

discussed in such sources. One would expect that the 

military theory (or science) connecting those to operational goals would be discussed there as well.

Second, the substance laid out under that term is 

not particularly informative: At heart, it simply expands the geographic scope of “active defense,” long 

a core element of Chinese strategic policy. Indeed, that 

expansion goes beyond traditional A2/AD capabilities, as Wishik notes: 

In fact, the scope of these operations exceeds those 

formulated by an A2/AD strategy and represents an 

important amplification of the range of operations 

compared to those associated with A2/AD.15

When “active strategic counterattacks on exterior 

lines” calls for strikes against foreign military bases 

and potentially an adversary’s homeland, such an 

approach outranges the A2/AD systems that China 

fields today. Certainly, thinking about new ways to 

put at risk foreign militaries further from Chinese 

shores is an important change in the strategic thought 

of the PLA, and thus the article presents important 

findings. But those findings are not centrally about the 

set of capabilities listed earlier in this chapter.
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System of Systems. 

While the previous terms may have been overemphasized in the Western literature seeking to understand how China conceptualizes its A2/AD military 

capabilities, two other terms have been discussed less 

by Western analysts, but are nonetheless extremely 

important as China thinks about the evolving nature 

of warfare. These two terms, each of which is linked 

to some of the weapons technologies that could underpin an A2/AD doctrine, are still rather different in 

emphasis.

It is hard to overstate the importance of “systems 

of systems” in contemporary Chinese discourse on 

military affairs.16 The term “体系作战” might be cumbersomely rendered as “systematized warfare,” as 

has been done with other terms such as the equally 

awkward “informationalized warfare” term. Whatever the English term, at the heart, this relies on the 

integration through information networks of a wide 

range of military assets. One detailed discussion in the 

authoritative PLA Daily highlights these elements and 

is worth quoting at length.

Today’s [system of systems] operations, meanwhile, 

rely on information systems. They are guided by information and decision making, and connect the command systems and weapons platforms of numerous 

service arms and branches into a single, complete 

system of integrated capabilities through information 

networks, share a variety of battlefield information, 

jointly perceive the battlefield situation, accurately 

coordinate battlefield operations, and synchronously 

execute operational tasks, thereby translating an information advantage into an operational advantage. 

[They] release enormous power with the most attack 

effect on the highest-value target by the most effec-
142

tive operational force, and realize the maximization of 

operational efficiency. This is what the comprehensive 

combat of the past could not reach. Of course, such 

a decidedly important new field of knowledge as information systems should be elevated to such heights 

— whether or not one possesses robust information 

systems determines whether or not a military is able 

to condense different types of command systems and 

weapons platforms in dispersed deployment into a 

single system, as well as whether this system can release the maximum power. In this sense, information 

systems are the new engine for improving [system of 

systems] operation capabilities.17

Such an approach obviously requires deep integration of weapons, command and control (C2), and sensors (or more fully, ISR).18 The sum, however, of such 

integration is understood to be greater than the combination of the parts. This is referred to in several ways. 

One frequent phrasing is “1+1=2.”19 Another, perhaps 

more substantive, emphasizes the role of “systems of 

systems” in capturing network effects. Thus: 

System of systems [SoS] and their aggregate system’s 

contribution to combat systems: They obey Metcalfe’s 

Law, which is based on the combat effectiveness of information combat systems and are proportional to the 

square of the SoS and combat capability, that is to say, 

SoS and combat capability no longer follow a linear 

relationship, but exhibit an exponential relationship.20

Metcalfe’s Law is one of the classic expressions of 

network effects, noting that “the value of a network 

grows as the square of the number of its users.”21

Interestingly, the Chinese discussion of the value 

of a “system of systems” approach does not seem connected to ideas about removing the fog of war.22 In-
143

stead, it focuses more on enhancing the combat power 

or effectiveness of a combatant, albeit in a rather vague 

sense. For instance, it is said to facilitate transforming 

from “large-scale operations,” which focus on overall 

firepower and damage, to “information plus firepower” system attack precision strike operations.23

Many of the discussion of system of systems describe it as the practice of leading nations or the United States, specifically. This is clearly an imported idea 

and not cast as a Chinese innovation. Chinese military 

planners increasingly talk about “confrontation of 

entire systems,” thus further emphasizing that their 

adversary will also conduct warfare in this manner.24

All of this integration is recognized to be challenging: “the variables involved with this system are great 

in number and have extremely complex relationships. 

Various subsystems can only be integrated by relying 

on information systems.”25 Indeed, it is only just now 

beginning to be exercised by the PLA.26 Discussions of 

these exercises suggest that the PLA has struggled to 

make progress.27 One analyst, citing the PLA Daily’s 

treatment, concludes: “The lack of integration has, according to the PLA, caused the services to spin their 

wheels for many years, because of the inability to 

share a common operating picture and communicate 

laterally.”28

Furthermore, one might question the direction taken in the incorporation of such approaches within the 

PLA. Although some recognition of the importance 

of lateral communications exists, there seems to be 

an emphasis on ensuring communication continuities 

down a lengthy chain of command. 
144

The Army is a huge operation system, from the general headquarters on the top to companies, platoons, 

and squads to the bottom, the command relationships 

are overlapped and complex. The control nodes are 

interlinked. Vertical connectivity is of critical importance for the shaping of a “system of systems” in the 

Army.29

It is interesting that this is the goal (ensuring that 

the long chain is reliable) rather than a flattening chain 

of command, which such networked C2 technology 

would facilitate. This is suggestive that traditional 

PLA organization culture (with its links to Chinese 

Communist Party [CCP] style Leninist structures) 

runs somewhat counter to the technologic avenues 

opened by recent developments.30

The Three Non’s—Noncontact, Nonlinear, 

and Nonsymmetrical.

For PLA writers, the three non’s (三非)—noncontact (非接融), nonlinear (非线式), and nonsymmetric 

(非对称)—describe the nature of warfare in the current era. China views these concepts as having been 

displayed in recent conflicts; as such, China is trying 

to incorporate aspects already present in western, and 

in particular U.S., warfare. Thus:

Before the 1980’s, modes of war fighting were linear, 

contact-based, and symmetrical, and both sides of a 

conflict used weapons and equipment that were fundamentally at the same level. Following the new development of the revolution in military affairs, the gap 

between levels of military equipment in each country 

became quite large, exhibiting large differences, the 

manner of combat exhibited great changes, becoming 
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demonstrably more nonlinear, non-contact, and asymmetrical. Before the 1980’s, modes of war fighting were 

linear, contact-based, and symmetrical, and both sides 

of a conflict used weapons and equipment that were 

fundamentally at the same level.31

The three non’s are seen by Chinese analysts to 

characterize North Atlantic Treaty Organization 

(NATO) operations against Serbia as well as both Gulf 

Wars.32

Several sources note the link to the C2 networks 

that form the core of system of systems approaches.33

The wide use of information technology in the military will completely change the traditional styles and 

modes of warfare. In the evolution of mechanized and 

semi-mechanized warfare, the competition for information superiority will be focus of warfare, nonlinear 

and noncontact combat will be the main style of war 

fighting, and system confrontation will be the basic 

feature of war.34

Each will be discussed in turn, but it is important 

to note that the three are quite intertwined. To some 

extent, nonlinear and noncontact are insignificantly 

differentiated. They are often referred to together, 

and the specifics of each blend together at times (e.g., 

airpower is discussed in both, although more often in 

the latter).

Nonlinearity. 

Central to nonlinearity is an emphasis on the fluidity of the battlefield, and Chinese writings seem to acknowledge the substantial complexity this possesses 

for militaries operating in such a realm:
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As joint operations combat is a type of diversified 

large scale combat, combat style constitutes a complex and rapidly converting operational tempo. Also, 

because of the nonlinearity of the future high tech 

battlefield, battlefield mobility and firepower attack 

capability strength, battlefield situations change dramatically. As the struggle on the battlefield in areas 

such as reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance, 

interference and counter interference, destruction and 

counter-destruction, deception and counter deception all raise requirements for and increase the difficulty in providing effective combat support and stable 

reliability.35

To some extent, nonlinearity has a (tactically) defensive goal: McCauley, a close analyst of these debates, suggests that nonlinear warfare “seek[s] to intermingle forces rapidly on the battlefield in part to 

mitigate the effects of the enemy’s precision strikes.”36

Others emphasize airpower: “The purpose of nonlinear warfare lies in a strong aerial assault directed 

at the heart of the enemy’s ability to attack, thereby 

quickly disabling them in a surprising way (pulling 

the carpet out from under them).”37

Noncontact.

Noncontact warfare centers engaging an adversary 

from long distances.

Owing to the massive use of informatized and intellectualized weapons and equipment in the new form 

of war, the over-the-horizon and “non-contact” tendencies of future fighting will bring about profound 

changes in the way of fighting, which will replace 

traditional close-quarters fighting and directly aiming 
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at and shooting each others with “pushing-the-button 

operation” and long-range strikes.38

Central to this is airpower. “The purpose of nonlinear warfare lies in a strong aerial assault directed 

at the heart of the enemy’s ability to attack, thereby 

quickly disabling them in a surprising way.”39

Nonsymmetrical.

Much has been written on the role of asymmetric 

weapons, also called trump weapons or assassin’s 

maces.40 Indeed, there is certainly still attention on the 

utility of assassin’s mace/trump card weapons that 

can achieve victory or compel an adversary: “Firstly, it 

is the possession of powerful weapons. The ‘assassin’s 

mace’ type weapon, which can create massive damage 

for an enemy when used, can ‘defeat an enemy in one 

blow’, and thus can achieve a deterrence effect.”41 But 

even for that analyst, the term seems to have shifted 

from the way that Lewis and Xue wrote about 6 years 

ago, to contain more of a systemic influence. Thus, 

“conventional naval deterrence uses ‘assassin’s mace’ 

type power as its focus, using forces on the water, below the water, in the air, and on the coasts to provide 

a single comprehensive deterrent.”42

Increasingly, it appears, at least when discussed in 

the context of the three non’s, that the term can take 

a broader meaning than just silver bullet weapons. In 

some writings, it includes an overall “weak against 

strong” concept, not just a weapon to overcome that 

balance of power.43 Others use the term to describe 

cross service engagements, such as air attacks on 

ground forces in the Kosovo campaign.44
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Some discussions go so far as to emphasize the 

importance of avoiding over-reliance on a single 

“assassin’s mace” weapon that tries to integrate too 

many capabilities, and instead argue for the value that 

comes from the integration of many different components. For instance: 

The integration of key elements does not seek to diversify the functions of a single key element but to organically integrate different key elements with different 

functions in a system, with information as the link. . 

. . Working around the main theme and main line to 

push forward the scientific development of national 

defense and armed forces modernization is definitely 

not a simple matter of developing a few types of “assassin’s mace” with complete functions and tremendous might but the integration of key elements to form 

joint forces and raise the overall operational capability 

of a “system of systems.”45

We often think about how these and related asymmetric weapons pose challenges, given their specific 

capabilities. But it is critical to recognize that these 

need to be deeply integrated into the “systems of 

systems” that was discussed previously. Doing so 

is a challenge. When one considers how the DF-21D 

(anti-ship ballistic missile) might be used in an operational context, it becomes clear that employing the 

DF-21D will require deep integration into Chinese ISR 

networks in order to be effective. Thus, what is often 

viewed as the epitome of a trump card weapon system 

today is, in fact, a weapons system which depends 

entirely on a broad network of systems to ensure its 

operational capability.46

Interestingly, one source emphasizes the foreign 

origin of the term nonlinear but suggests a distinct 

Chinese interpretation: 
149

The biggest difference between the Chinese military’s 

definition and that of the American military is that for 

the Chinese, the battle line still continues to exist, even 

if this battle line is not clearly demarcated.47

Again, one might note that this suggests a more 

limited ability of Chinese military forces to envision 

the more fluid battlefields that characterize such contemporary operations.

Finally, it is worth noting that many aspects of 

these terms, both the three non’s in the aggregate and 

system of systems, depend heavily on joint, deeply 

integrated and informationalized approaches to warfare. There is a synergy between all those concepts: 

excellent ISR is a prerequisite for noncontact strikes, 

while a system of systems approach requires the integration of battle space awareness across platforms. 

This interconnection between these concepts is apparent in many of the Chinese writings.48

ASSESSING HU JINTAO’S INFLUENCE

As discussed by other chapters in the volume, Hu 

Jintao’s influence on certain areas of the PLA’s development since 2004 has been substantial. Most prominent among these is surely the promotion of the “New 

Historic Missions” for the PLA. More broadly in the 

People’s Republic of China (PRC), Hu has aimed to 

promote “scientific development.” There has been a 

move to elevate that concept to the same level as Maoist or Dengist influence, by including it in the roster of 

the Party’s leading ideology as in “with the important 

theories of Deng Xiaoping Theory and the ‘Three Represents’ as the guide, thoroughly applying the Scientific Outlook on Development.”49 It is important to emphasize, however, that these two ideological concepts 
150

are far more important to the PLA than those terms 

discussed earlier in this chapter. For instance, measuring influence by frequency of mention in China’s 

leading military daily newspaper, “scientific development” appeared in the text of PLA Daily newspaper 

articles 1,148 times in 2004, or more than three times 

a day.50 Similarly, discussion of the “new historic missions” appears frequently in a wide range of official 

speeches and White Papers. In contrast, the concept of 

the three non’s appears much less frequently. Figure 

4-1 compares the number of times each of the three 

non’s appears with the number of times the New Historic Missions are mentioned in the full text of PLA 

Daily for various years.

Source: Data collected from full text searches of the Jiefangjun 

Bao collection in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure 

(CNKI) available from the Library of Congress.

Figure 4-1. Number of Times Each of the Three 

Non’s Appears with the Number of Times the New 

Historic Missions Are Mentioned in the Full Text of 

PLA Daily for Various Years.
151

The basic picture is one in which the three non’s appear in a dozen or so articles a year. But New Historic 

Missions dwarfed that number upon its announcement in 2004, and “scientific development” was several orders of magnitude more frequently mentioned.

Beyond frequency analysis, however, there is a 

more substantive, if indirect, degree of influence of 

Hu’s policies on the previously mentioned developments in Chinese military thought. Hu’s signature and 

pervasive advocacy for “scientific development” in all 

aspects of China’s policy directly enables increased 

attention on the foundational elements of informationalization. This relationship is clearly borne out 

in speeches by top military leaders and authoritative 

“commentaries” in the PLA Daily.

51 As a direct part of 

the implementation of Hu’s initiative, there has been 

increased emphasis on making PLAN training more 

scientific in nature, and in particular, an acknowledgement that doing so facilitates jointness and deepening 

of informationalization.52

The links between “scientific development” and 

“system of systems” are quite strong as well. For instance, one article discusses Hu’s advocacy as head of 

the CMC, noting that he: 

explicitly pointed out that the scientific development 

concept is an important guiding principle for strengthening national defense and armed forces building, 

and that scientific development should be taken as the 

theme, quickening the transformation of the combat 

power generation model be taken as the main thread. 

... For the development strategy, he further made 

clear the strategic objective of “building informatized 

forces, winning informatized warfare,” emphasized 

the enhancement of the system of systems operation 

capability based on information systems.53
152

Thus, in that piece, the link from “scientific development” through “informationalization” and finally 

to “system of systems” is clear and direct. One quite 

authoritative article goes even further, noting Hu’s 

direct advocacy for improving “system of systems” 

approaches:

Chairman Hu clearly pointed out that it was necessary 

to promote a transformation of our military from an 

armed forces that was half-mechanized to an armed 

forces based on informatization that had composite 

development of mechanization and informatization 

and emphasized the need to improve capabilities in 

“system of systems” operations based on information 

systems as the basic focal point.54

Similarly, “Comrade Hu Jintao stressed, the basic 

form of combat effectiveness under informationalized 

conditions is information system-based ‘systems of 

systems’ operational capability.”55 Other articles also 

make similar, if less direct, note of such linkage.56

That said, the evidence presented here does not 

suggest a deep engagement by Hu Jintao with the 

concept of a “system of systems” approach in military 

operations. The discussion of these terms in Chinese 

writings is often quite superficial and consists merely 

of acknowledgement of Hu Jintao’s admonitions to 

develop such concepts. Indeed, often the concepts are 

absent: one article which broadly surveys Hu’s contributions in military affairs area does not refer to a “system of systems” approach at all, and neither does an 

article focused on Hu’s contributions to the PLA Air 

Force (PLAAF).57 Nor does there seem to be a direct 

link between the concept of the three non’s and Hu. 

But this may not be surprising, as those concepts are 
153

so far down into the details of warfare that they would 

be below the attention level of top-level leaders. 

Nevertheless, Hu’s advocacy for system of systems, informationalization, and “scientific development” more generally should bolster the importance 

of those concepts within the PLA. 

ASSESSMENT AND ANALYSIS

This preliminary assessment has summarized selective research into a range of strategic concepts that 

the PLA discusses. Each might plausibly be thought 

to encapsulate some element of the way the PLA talks 

about A2/AD. However, upon further such analysis, 

the connection seems less strong. 

First, despite this author’s own expectation, counterintervention is rarely used in Chinese military 

writings. Similarly, “active counterattacks on exterior lines” is also of limited, if authoritative, currency. 

“Joint firepower attacks” is used in a narrow and tactical perspective, and lacks the broader strategic context 

that A2/AD would impute. These findings—if they 

hold up under further research—will pose challenges 

for Americans who are used to discussing Chinese A2/

AD capabilities, and are looking to find an equivalent 

in Chinese discourse. The terms would have seemed 

to be close analogues, if a bit broader in political and 

diplomatic tone for the first two, but in the absence of 

their widespread use in Chinese, suggest they are not 

useful Chinese language proxies for the A2/AD term. 

The foregoing has substantial implications for the 

way outside observers should think about China’s 

potent and tangible A2/AD systems and military capabilities. In part, it serves to emphasize a point that 

Dennis Blasko has recently reminded us of: “most 
154

evidence from Chinese military sources indicates that 

for the PLA ‘technology drives doctrine’ or, as the 

Chinese say, ‘technology determines tactics’ (“技术

决定战术”).”58 Indeed, one can go further and note 

that technology in this case appears to have outpaced the development of military theory to shape its 

employment.

It is certainly possible that at some high level of 

classification within the PLA there exist such established doctrinal writings. Perhaps such classification 

has been effective at preventing the public discussions 

of these concepts. However, this author finds that argument to be unpersuasive for three reasons. First, 

as shown above, sensitive military conceptual frameworks surrounding the three non’s and system of systems have been discussed in detail in the open source 

literature. Second, if such a doctrine exists and is shaping, training, and procuring, it would be discussed as 

context in PLA press reporting of such steps, if only 

to publicly demonstrate the basis for conducting the 

exercises or the rationale for acquiring the systems 

under consideration. Finally, China is not engaging in 

deterrence based signaling with these capabilities, as 

would have been expected if there were a clear doctrinal plan for employing the capabilities. For instance, 

key capabilities such as submarines, core elements of 

A2/AD, are not being widely used to signal Chinese 

advancements:

The PLAN, although now more realistic and somewhat bolder in its training and exercises, as explained 

above, has not—with the possible exception of the 

2006 surfacing of a Song near the Kitty Hawk carrier 

strike group—touted or otherwise given evidence of 

rehearsals of encounters with simulated carrier strike 

groups hundreds of miles east of China, as it might do 

as part of a deterrence scheme.59
155

Publicly advertising such operational doctrine 

would serve to enhance Chinese deterrence, a concept 

that would serve China’s grand strategy of avoiding 

U.S. interference in Chinese military operations to (in 

Beijing’s view) defend her sovereignty.

Second, the terms that are in more widespread 

use—system of systems and the three non’s—are imported from outside China. They are descriptions of 

the way the United States and others have fought war 

in the past 2 decades. They are both somewhat vague, 

at least on the basis of currently conducted research, 

but do in part accurately describe the changing nature of warfare, whether one calls that revolution in 

military affairs or digitization or some other American 

term. The rarity with which “Chinese characteristics” 

are added to these is also notable. It is certain that 

challenges for the PLA in attaining an ability to make 

use of these concepts are regularly discussed, but the 

discussion of adapting them to Chinese conditions is 

limited.

That said, the evaluation of how far China was 

along the path to obtain these capabilities seems realistic. There is a clear recognition in the PLA that China 

has a long way to go, and that it cannot skip or leapfrog over developmental paths. It must first continue 

to mechanize its force before being able to informationalize and thereafter employ the various elements 

discussed previously. As one Chinese major general 

writes: 

at present, our army’s mechanized construction has 

not been fully accomplished, and informatization is 

still at the beginning phase. The objective law of military building and the practical situation of our army 

require us not to go all-out to emphasize informatization and totally overlook mechanization.60
156

Other sources emphasize the importance of integrated aviation assets to a joint, systematized force, 

and drone in particular, and bemoan the state of Chinese capabilities in both areas relative to the United 

States and Russia.61 Finally, as noted previously, some 

elements of the discussion of system of systems suggest that traditional biases toward hierarchical command and control continue to affect the way China 

thinks about system of systems. This will limit the 

PLA’s ability to incorporate the concept and lead to 

a more transformative effect on Chinese capabilities.

There also, as noted, seems to be something of 

an evolution in the role that “asymmetric weapons” 

might play. Most of the discussion of that third “non” 

was considerably broader than focusing on individual 

weapons, and indeed bled back in “system of systems” sorts of ideas emphasizing the importance of a 

network of weapons or the support structure for any 

individual weapon.62

Third, there is a degree of tension between system 

of systems (and to a lesser extent the three non’s) and 

traditional views regarding the efficacy of A2/AD. A 

core of A2/AD thinking is that a set of military capabilities makes denying access to the adversary militarily feasible. Both for the Soviets during the Cold War, 

and for Westerners interpreting China today, part of 

the attractiveness of an anti-access/area denial approach is its relative cost advantage: cheap missiles 

can threaten capital ships. However, the traditional 

maritime goal of “sea control” is not easily achieved 

through the same means that can bring about area 

denial (missiles and mines cannot hold space). While 

A2/AD explicitly has the goal to deny “sea control” to 

the adversary, choosing that strategy contains a tacit 

admission that achieving “sea control” for oneself 
157

is unattainable. (This is akin to Keegan’s concept of 

“empty oceans.”63)

Further, China has taken a number of costly steps 

that run counter to the notion that it is exclusively pursuing an anti-access/area denial strategy. Indeed, it is 

also pursuing some sea control capabilities. The high 

profile equipping of the former Soviet carrier, now 

christened the Liaoning, exemplifies this trend. The 

carrier, when finally equipped with a combat ready 

air wing, will not be a potent A2/AD asset. However, 

it may serve some utility in controlling seas against 

lower-tier threats. Discussions of a second carrier by 

the PLAN emphasize the continuing priority put on 

this capability, as does its prominent mention in the 

Chinese Defense White Paper released in 2013.64

Similarly, many writings over the past 5 years 

have emphasized the role of PLAN in securing broader Chinese naval interests, such as SLOCs and antipiracy patrols.

any of the writings on distant seas capabilities by Chinese military and civilian analysts tend to focus on 

what Chinese writers refer to as military operations 

other than war (MOOTW). . . . It is unclear whether, 

or how, the concept of “distant seas” will modify the 

concept of the offshore defense, which is still the official guiding concept for PLAN force development.65

Additionally, some of the discussions of the nature 

of warfare in a three-nons and system of systems era 

suggest that China expects to be able to assert a degree 

of control over the battlefield space. 

Therefore, under this premise of seizing freedom of 

battlefield mobility, we focus on improving the effectiveness of quickly moving through all battlefield 
158

dimensions in the proper directions, the important 

places and deceive moments of combat actions, so that 

we can make deep strikes on enemy targets and destroy or paralyze the enemy’s combat systems.66

Another example emphasizes the importance of Chinese naval assets operating deeply against potential 

attackers, but also, increasing air defense:

To respond to air strikes from the aircraft groups based 

on carriers, the Navy must strengthen the construction 

of an air defense system that integrates those based on 

the air, coast, and sea, and enhance the capability of 

naval formations in long distance interception, so as to 

achieve air supremacy on the sea with the alternative 

covers from the coast and warships. The Navy should 

gradually strengthen the capability of joint naval formations in charging to the rear of the enemy and striking the enemy’s capabilities in taking off and landing 

aircrafts, as well as warships leaving ports.67

Again, that is akin to sea control. Other sources, 

as discussed previously, can be read with this degree 

of optimism as well. This suggests Chinese strategic 

thinkers have not deeply accepted that contemporary 

military technology advantages denial over control.68

It suggests that China, instead of honing an A2/AD 

doctrine (whatever the term might be), is instead developing alternate ideas that will shape broader maritime and related strategy.

These conclusions have important implications for 

the United States. While it is certainly true that China 

has developed and in many cases deployed military 

weapons that serve to complicate U.S. abilities to 

place its own forces within many hundreds of miles of 

China’s coastline, the lack of a widely discussed A2/

AD doctrine to implement those capabilities likely re-
159

duces the overall threat they pose. Since doctrines do 

not change overnight (they shape training and coordination mechanisms, all of which require time to mature), this means Chinese capabilities are less potent 

than what their weapons suggest. It also suggests that 

a clear indicator in increasing those capabilities would 

be the emergence of exactly the sort of doctrine that is 

absent in the survey above. Given that sources such 

as those cited in this chapter do discuss other forms of 

doctrine, we can reasonably expect to see such developments there as well, if they ever occur.

Second, the main doctrinal discussions above center in imported concepts (from the Russians and the 

United States) on system of systems and the three 

non’s. This reliance on external models calls into question the capabilities for indigenous innovation in that 

regard within China. There are certainly important 

implications for the relative effectiveness of precision 

and long-range missiles on traditional naval warfare, 

and for projecting power from a limited number of 

bases. However, China has not developed a deep 

ranging strategic level discussion of those, either in 

terms of how it might use such capabilities or its own 

emerging blue water forces might be subject to attack 

from such.

However, the mirror image of that point should 

also be noted: China is drawing upon, and in some 

cases fairly deeply engaging in concepts regarding 

“net centric warfare” and the implications of information technologies for greatly enhancing the combat 

effectiveness of military forces. China is thus taking 

great advantage of the discussions in the United States 

and elsewhere, and continues to draw “lessons from 

other peoples’ wars.”69 Although it will need to adapt 

those lessons to the particular geostrategic context of 
160

its East Asian region, it will have a substantial foundation already laid out. 

Finally, the enduring discussions in Chinese security analyst circles regarding more traditional sea control, such as projecting power through naval surface 

ships (both carriers and surface action groups) suggests the PLAN, like many navies in the region (and 

the globe) will continue to compete in that sphere. 

This is likely to intensify Chinese operations beyond 

its littoral. Certainly, some of that activity will serve 

U.S. and global interests (such as anti-piracy and 

disaster relief). But in some cases, the activities will 

prove threatening, particularly to smaller states in 

the region. These developments will raise particular 

challenges to the diplomacy of the United States in the 

region, suggesting a deepening of military statecraft 

throughout the region, per “rebalancing” is necessary. 

Economic and political engagement will be insufficient for that task.

CONCLUSION

Thus, while the relevant terms that were considered in this chapter do not give us much insight into 

Chinese equivalents of A2/AD, they do, however, 

serve as valuable windows into how China is coming to terms with the radical changes taking place 

in modern warfare, as epitomized by the operations 

conducted by the United States, and this, may have a 

more enduring effect on the PLA, the region, and the 

United States.
161

ENDNOTES - CHAPTER 4

1. Roger Cliff et al., “Entering the Dragon’s Lair: Chinese Antiaccess Strategies and Their Implications for the United States,” 

MG-524, Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2007; Andrew 

F. Krepinevich et al., Meeting the Anti-Access and Area Denial Challenge, Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and Budgetary Analyses, 2003; Office of the Secretary of Defense, “Military and Security 

Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China: Annual 

Report to Congress,” Washington, DC: Department of Defense, 

May 22, 2012, p. iv.

2. The official U.S. position is that neither is aimed at China. 

Military technology in the missile age (and to a lesser and related 

extent, the development and proliferation of quiet diesel submarines) is a global phenomenon. Still, as seen in the General Norton Schwartz and Admiral Jonathan Greenert discussion of ASB 

and in the bibliography to the JOAC, China possesses the military 

that most stresses these. General Norton A. Schwartz and Admiral Jonathan W. Greenert, “Air-Sea Battle: Promoting Stability in 

An Era of Uncertainty,” The American Interest, 2012. The JOAC 

paper is available from www.defense.gov/pubs/pdfs/JOAC_Jan%20

2012_Signed.pdf.

3. Dennis J. Blasko, The Chinese Army Today: Tradition and 

Transformation for the 21st Century, New York: Routledge, 

2006, p. 16.

4. Air-Sea Battle Office, Air-Sea Battle: Service Collaboration to 

Address Anti-Access and Area Denial Challenges, Washington, DC: 

Department of Defense, May 2013, p. 2. See extensive discussion 

on A2/AD on pp. 2-4 of that report.

5. “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China,” p. iv.

6. For more discussion on this, see Christopher P. Twomey, 

“The Military-Security Relationship,” David L. Shambaugh, ed., 

Tangled Titans: The United States and China, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2013.
162

7. Zhao Feipeng “Twenty Thousand Li [Chinese miles] on 

the Seas,” 中国青年报 (China Youth News), February 22, 2013 

(CPP20130222787012). China has engaged in low level training 

(as low as 100 meters) with its B-6 bombers (old, but quite capable of launching modern anti-ship cruise missiles). See CCTVNews channel coverage on November 3, 2012. For a broader 

discussion of these capabilities, see Nan Li, “The Evolution of 

China’s Naval Strategy and Capabilities: From ‘Near Coast’ and 

‘Near Seas’ to ‘Far Seas’,” Philip Saunders, Christopher Yung, Michael Swain and Andrew Yang, eds., The Chinese Navy: Expanding Capabilities, Evolving Roles, Washington, DC: National Defense 

University, 2011.

8. Liu Hui, Li Xiao, Zhang Gang, and Wang Zhitao (刘晖,李

晓,张刚,王智涛): “海上利剑浪尖领舞-海军”石家庄”舰加强

全面建设纪实” (“A Sharp Sword at Sea Dances across the Crests 

of Waves—The Story of the Accelerating Comprehensive Construction of the Navy’s ‘Shijiazhuang’ Ship”), 人民海军 (People’s 

Navy), June 21, 2012. On the topic more generally, see Liu Yongming and Jin Zhenxing (刘永明,金振兴): “胡锦涛关于全面提高

以打赢信息化条件下局部战争能力为核心的完成多样化军事任务

能力重要论述研究” (“A Study of Hu Jintao’s Important Instructions on Enhancing Capabilities in Accomplishing Diversified 

Military Tasks with Winning Local Wars under the Informationized Conditions as the Core”), 中国军事科学 (China Military Science), Vol. 6, No. 120, 2011, pp. 5-6.

9. For more on the utility of such “ideological” homogeneity regarding approaches to military operations, see Christopher 

P. Twomey, The Military Lens: Doctrinal Differences and Deterrence 

Failure in Sino-American Relations, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University 

Press, 2010, Chapter 2.

10. “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China,” p. 21.

11. Cortez Cooper, “Joint Anti-Access Operations: China’s 

‘System of System’ Approach,” Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 

January 2011 (CT356).

12. This is the case regardless of a variety of search syntax 

(furthermore, one of spare few results is a recycling of a piece au-
163

thored by Abe Denmark of NBR!). There are no references to “fan 

ganshe” or “fan jieru,” although such phrases are occasionally included in pinyin. 

13. Books surveyed include Wang Jun, Yang Liuqing, eds.

(王军,杨柳青): 信息化作战规律 (Rules of Informationalized Combat), 北京:国防大学出版社 (Beijing, China: National Defense 

University Publishing), 2006; Jiang Daohe and Liu Huimin, eds. 

(姜道洪,刘会民), 作战协同概论 (Operational Coordination Concepts),北京:国防大学出版社 (Beijing, China: NDU Publishing), 2004; Liu Xianyao et al. (刘显尧 等著):信息战争 (Information 

War),北京:解放军出版社 (Beijing, China: People’s Liberation 

Army Publishing), 1998; Wang Shiqiang, Gao Xinsheng, et al (王

士强 高新生 等著),中外海防发展比较研究 (Comparative Study of 

Chinese and Foreign Naval Defense),北京: 军事科学出版社 (Beijing, 

China: Military Science Publishing Company),2011; Ji Xueren, 

Zhu Jianxin, et. al. (纪学仁 朱建新 主编),核化生防御战略问题研

究 (Research Questions in Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense 

Strategy), 北京:国防大学出版社 (Beijing, China: NDU Publishing), 2006; Dong Zifeng (董子峰), 战斗力生成模式装变 (The Changing Means of Producing War Fighting Strength), 北京:军事科学出

版社 (Beijing, China: Academy of Military Science Press),2010; 

Liu Zhaozheng, editor (刘兆忠), 联合作战综合保障研究 (Summary 

of Integrated Support of Joint Operation), 北京:解放军出版社 (Beijing, China: People’s Liberation Army Publishing), 2011.

14. Anton L. Wishik II, “An Anti-Access Approximation: The 

PLA’s Active Strategic Counterattacks on Exterior Lines,” China 

Security, No. 19, 2011, pp. 37-48.

15. Ibid., p. 19.

16. In addition to the following citations, it simply pervades 

Chinese discussions about facing the United States, and in particular, facing ASB and related concepts. For a lengthy discussion, 

see “Big Stick Being Wielded At China—Interpreting the New 

‘Air-Sea Battle’ Operational Concept of the US Military,” 现代兵

器 (Modern Weaponry; a journal published by an industrial military 

research institute), August 2, 2011 (OSC: CPP20120418090004). 

Also see the discussions in Timothy L. Thomas, The Dragon’s 

Quantum Leap: Transforming From a Mechanized to An Informatized 

Force, Foreign Military Studies Office, 2009).
164

17. Guan Lifeng, “Improving the Powerful Engine of System 

Operations Capabilities; Thoroughly Reviewing the Information 

Systems in Operational Systems,” PLA Daily, February 4, 2010, p. 

10 (OSC: CPP20100205710003).

18. Kevin McCauley, “The PLA’s Three-Pronged Approach to 

Achieving Jointness in Command and Control,” China Brief, Vol. 

12, No. 6, March 15, 2012.

19. Zhang Nenghua, Jie Lijun, and Wang Weiming, “Reporters Visit the Field Training Site of a Communications Regiment of 

the General Staff Department (GSD) and Take a Closer Look at the 

New Landscape of ‘System of Systems’ Operations—Joint Training: Today We Sit on the Mountain Top and Urge Tigers to Fight,” 

PLA Daily, August 2, 2012, p. 2 (OSC: CPP20120802787022). 

20. Dong Zifeng, 战斗力生成模式装变 (The Changing Means of 

Producing War Fighting Strength), p. 91.

21. Scott Kirsner, “The Legend of Bob Metcalfe,” Wired Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 11, November 1998. Metcalf had headed 3Com 

and helped pioneer the Internet.

22. William A. Owens, Admiral, USN, Ret., Lifting the Fog of 

War, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.

23. Zhang Zhiwei, Qiao Zhongwei, and Shen Jianhua, (张志

伟,乔忠伟,沈建华): “新型作战力量建设:引领陆军加速转型的核

心要素” (“Construction of New Combat Force: Leading the Army 

to Accelerate the Transformation of Core Elements”), 解放军报

(PLA Daily), March 3, 2012. 

24. Li Xuanliang, Xin Shihong, and Yang Yunfang, “Magnificent Scroll for Scientific Development — Record of Actual 

Achievements Made in National Defense and Army Building 

during ‘11th Five-Year Program’,” PLA Daily, December 16, 2010 

(OSC: CPP20110323090005). See also Kevin McCauley, “System of Systems Operational Capability: Key Supporting Concepts for Future Joint Operations,” China Brief, Vol. 12, No. 19, 

October 5, 2012.
165

25. Guan Lifeng, “Improving the Powerful Engine of System 

Operations Capabilities.” 

26. Kevin McCauley, “The PLA’s Three-Pronged Approach.”

27. David Chen, “Examining the New Aircraft Carrier 

Through the PLA’s Revolution in “Organizational” Affairs,” China Brief, Vol. 12, No. 19, October 5, 2012.

28. McCauley, “The PLA’s Three-Pronged Approach.”

29. Jiang Daohong: “Deeply Study General Secretary Hu’s 

Important Speech on 1 July, Implement the Important Strategic Thinking of the Main Theme and the Main Line, Aim at 

the ‘Five Goals of Transformation’, Advance the Transformation of Ground Force Building,” PLA Daily, July 14, 2011 (OSC: 

CPP20110714787012).

30. Making a similar point, see Andrew S. Erickson and Michael S. Chase, “Informationalization and the Chinese People’s 

Liberation Army Navy, “ in Phillip Saunders, Christopher Yung, 

Michael Swaine, and Andrew Yang, eds., The Chinese Navy: Expanding Capabilities, Evolving Roles, Washington, DC: National Defense University, 2011, pp. 267-272.

31. Wang Jun and Yang Liuqing, eds., 信息化作战规律 (Rules 

of Informationalized Combat), p. 145.

32. Sun Li Na (孙丽娜): “非对称战争经验再审视” (“Re-examination of Asymmetric Warfare Experience”), 国外坦克 (Foreign 

Tank), No. 12, 2008; and Wang Dao Cheng (王道成): “点评’三非’

作战” (“Commentary on the Non-contact, Non-linear, and Non 

Symmetric/Asymmetric Warfare”), 国防科技 (National Defense 

Science & Technology), No. 5, 2003, pp. 69-71. 

33. Kevin McCauley, “Developing a Framework for PLA Precision Operations,” China Brief, Vol. 12, No. 13, July 6, 2012.

34. Liu Zhaozheng, ed., 联合作战综合保障研究 (Summary of 

Integrated Support of Joint Operation), p. 165-166.

35. Ibid.
166

36. Ibid.

37. Miao Xin Xu, Wang Zhi Hua, and Chen Xin Jian (苗新旭, 

王治华, 陈新建): “非线式作战与空军财务保障准备” (“Non-linear 

Warfare and Financial Protection for Air Force Preparedness”), 军

事经济研究 (Military and Economic Research), No. 2, 2010, pp. 73-74.

38. Yang Hongjiang, Ling Shengyin, and Cao Bing: “Improve 

the Ability and Quality of Being Brave and Skillful in Battle”), 

PLA Daily, February 20, 2007 (OSC: CPP20070220705012).

39. Miao Xin Xu, Wang Zhi Hua, and Chen Xin Jian (苗新旭, 

王治华, 陈新建): “非线式作战与空军财务保障准备” (“Non-linear 

Warfare and Financial Protection for Air Force Preparedness”), 军

事经济研究 (Military and Economic Research), No. 2, 2010, pp. 73-74.

40. For the best discussion, see John J. W. Lewis and Xue Litai, 

China’s Strategic Seapower: The Politics of Force Modernization in the 

Nuclear Age, Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1994.

41. Zuo Liping (左李平), 国家海上威慑论 (The Theory of National Maritime Deterrence), 北京:时事出版社 (Beijing, China: 

Times Publishing), 2012, p. 63. Although the press is not particularly authoritative, the author is a naval officer and graduate of 

the PLA’s Academy of Military Science.

42. Ibid, p. 78.

43. Dou Chao (窦超), “强者的[大棒] 弱者的[杀手锏]—’三非’

作战与我军建设” (“Noncontact, Nonsymmetric, Nonlinear Operations and Our Army Countermeasure”), 舰载武器 (Shipborne 

Weapons), November 2009, pp. 74-75.

44. Wang Xiaohua (王孝华): “从空袭看美军非对称作战” 

(“A Study of American Asymmetric Warfare from the Perspective of Air Raids”), 现代军事 (Modern Military Affairs), January 

2000, pp. 15-16.

45. “JFJB Looks at Functions Integration From Downing of 

US Chinook Copter,” PLA Daily, September 8, 2011, p. 12 (OSC: 

CPP20110913088001).
167

46. On the challenging requirements to manage this kill chain, 

see Owen R. Cote, Jr., “Assessing the Undersea Balance Between 

the United States and China,” Thomas G Mahnken, ed., Competitive Strategies for the 21st Century: Theory, History, and Practice, 2012.

47. Dou Chao (窦超), “强者的[大棒] 弱者的[杀手锏]—’三非’

作战与我军建设” (“Noncontact, Nonsymmetric, Nonlinear Operations and Our Army Countermeasure”), 舰载武器 (Shipborne 

Weapons), November 2009, pp. 74-75. This is a nonmilitary affiliated publication, although the work unit is a state owned, military ship building firm.

48. In addition to the above citation, see Zhan Yu (战玉) “一体

化联合作战理论探要” (“Explorations on the Theory of Integrated 

Joint Operations”), 中国军事科学 (Chinese Military Science), No. 6, 

2007, pp. 11-20.

49. See Hu Jintao speech to PLA, July 2011.

50. Selected other years are listed below; beyond that time 

period further research is required, but in the incomplete Open 

Source Center database, several hundred articles a year continue to mention the term to date. Data below taken from full text 

searches of the Jiefangjun Bao collection in the China National 

Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI).

Year 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Mentions 245 400 736 1,148 363

51. Zhang Yanzhong and Wu Xu, “Chen Bingde at Conference on General Staff Department Grassroots Construction Work 

Stresses: Conscientiously Study, Implement the Spirit of General Secretary Hu’s Important Speech, Work Hard To Raise GSD 

Grassroots Construction to a New Level,” PLA Daily, August 1, 

2012 (OSC: CPP20120801787007); staff commentator, “Attain a 

New Realm in Keeping the Firm Ideal and Conviction—Deeply 

Study and Implement General Secretary Hu’s ‘7.23’ Important 

Speech,” PLA Daily, October 5, 2012 (OSC: CPP20121005704001); 

and staff commentator, “Making New Gains in Deepening Comprehension—Deepening Study and Implementation of the Important ‘23 July’ Speech by Secretary General Hu,” PLA Daily, September 30, 2012 (OSC: CPP20121003718001).
168

52. “从体制内容方法上求变革—二谈大力推进新世纪新阶段

海军军事训练创新发展” (“Make Changes to the Training Mechanisms, Contents, and Methods—Second on Promoting the Innovation and Development of Military Training in the Navy in the 

New Stage of the New Century”), 人民海军 (People’s Navy), July 

28, 2006, p. 1.

53. Center for the Study of the Theory System of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics at the National Defense University: “Promote the Scientific Development of PLA Building From a New Starting Point,” PLA Daily, July 30, 2012 (OSC: 

CPP20120730787008).

54. Editorial Department: “Accelerating the Promotion of Informatization—Discussing the Necessary Route for Accelerating 

the Transformation of the Combat Capability Production Model,” 

PLA Daily, May 10, 2011 (CPP20110510787009).

55. Liu Yongming and Jin Zhenxing, (刘永明,金振兴) “胡锦

涛关于全面提高以打赢信息化条件下局部战争能力为核心的完成

多样化军事任务能力重要论述研究” (“A Study of Hu Jintao’s Important Instructions on Enhancing Capabilities in Accomplishing 

Diversified Military Tasks with Winning Local Wars under the 

Informationized Conditions as the Core”), p. 5.

56. Shi Qingren and Li Wenbo (释清仁,李文波): “胡锦涛关

于军队现代化建设重要论述研要” (“A Study of Hu Jintao’s Important Instructions on the Modernization of the Armed Forces”), 中

国军事科学 (China Military Science), Vol. 6, No. 120, 2011, pp. 26-

31. Jiang Daohong: “Deeply Study General Secretary Hu’s Important Speech on 1 July, Implement the Important Strategic Thinking of the Main Theme and the Main Line, Aim at the ‘Five Goals 

of Transformation’, Advance the Transformation of Ground Force 

Building,” PLA Daily, July 14, 2011 (OSC: CPP20110714787012).

57. Zhang Shude, Dong Qiangqiang, and Zhao Weibo (张树

德,董嫱嫱,赵韦博): “胡锦涛关于军事改革创新重要论述研究” 

(“A Study of Hu Jintao’s Thinking on Military Reform and Innovation”),中国军事科学 (China Military Science), Vol. 6, No. 120, 

2011, pp. 18-25. The lead author is a Vice Political Commissar at 

the Dalian Naval Academy holding the rank of Senior Captain in 

the PLAN. Shang Jinsuo, Li Zhen, Li Liguang, and Wang Ping-
169

ping (尚金锁,李振,李黎光,王平平): “‘新世纪新阶段人民空军

建设发展的科学理论指南’—学习胡锦涛关于空军建设的重要论

述” (“‘A Scientific Theoretical Guide for the Development of the 

People’s Air Force in the New Stage in the New Century’—Studying Hu Jintao’s Important Instructions on Air Force Building”), 中

国军事科学 (China Military Science), Vol. 6, No. 114, 2010, pp. 9-16.

58. Dennis J. Blasko, “‘Technology Determines Tactics’: The 

Relationship Between Technology and Doctrine in Chinese Military Thinking,” The Journal of Strategic Studies, Vol. 34, No. 3, June 

6, 2011, pp. 355–381.

59. Eric A. McVadon, “China’s Navy Today: Looking Toward 

Blue Water,” Andrew Erickson, Lyle J. Goldstein, and Carnes 

Lord, eds., China Goes to Sea: Maritime Transformation in Comparative Historical Perspective, Washington, DC: Naval Institute Press, 

2012 p. 387.

60. Major General Tian Bingren, political commissar, Nanjing 

Army Command College: “The Scientific Development of the 

Historical Mission of Our Army in the New Phase of the New 

Century,” 中国军事科学(China Military Science), October 1, 2007 

(OSC: CPP20080123325001).

61. Jiang Daohong: “Deeply Study General Secretary Hu’s 

Important Speech on 1 July, Implement the Important Strategic Thinking of the Main Theme and the Main Line, Aim at the 

‘Five Goals of Transformation’, Advance the Transformation of 

Ground Force Building,” PLA Daily, July 14, 2011, p. 10 (OSC: 

CPP20110714787012).

62. It will be interesting to see how discussions of the carrier 

develop in this regard.

63. John Keegan, The Price of Admiralty: The Evolution of Naval 

Warfare, New York: Viking, 1989.

64. On the latter, see “The Diversified Employment of China’s Armed Forces,” China’s National Defense in 2012, White Paper, Beijing, China: The Information Office of the State Council, 

April, 2013.
170

65. Thomas J. Bickford with Heidi A. Holz and Frederic Vellucci, Jr., “Uncertain Waters: Thinking About China’s Emergence 

as a Maritime Power,” CRM D0025813.A1/Final, Washington, 

DC: Center for Naval Analyses, September, 2011, pp. 29-30. See 

also “Fifth Stroll Around the World Expo—A Blue Water Navy: 

Imaginings in the World Expo Garden,” Dangdai Haijun (Modern 

Navy), August 1, 2010, p. 28 (CPP20100928090014).

66. Yan Xin and Sun Qiangyin (阎新,孙强银): “着眼机动制

权,注重全域攻防战法设计” (“Focus on Freedom of Mobility, 

Focus on the Design of Global Attack and Defense Combat Methods”), 解放军报 (PLA Daily), April 9, 2013.

67. See also “Management of the Sea in the 21st Century: 

Whither the Chinese Navy?” 当代海军 (Modern Navy) June 1, 

2007, pp. 6-9 (CPP20070628436012).

68. For an American naval strategist making this point, see 

Jeffrey Kline and Wayne Hughes, “Between Peace and the Air-Sea 

Battle: A War at Sea Strategy,” Naval War College Review, Vol. 65, 

No. 4, Autumn 2012.

69. Andrew Scobell, David Lai, and Roy Kamphausen, eds., 

Chinese Lessons From Other Peoples’ Wars, Carlisle, PA: Strategic 

Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College, 2011.
171

CHAPTER 5

ASPIRING TO JOINTNESS:

PLA TRAINING, EXERCISES, AND DOCTRINE,

2008-2012

Wanda Ayuso

Lonnie Henley

The views expressed by these authors are their own 

and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense or the United States Government.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) continues its 

long transition toward truly “integrated joint operations” (“一体化联合作战”), but has made less progress 

to date than Chinese military leaders would wish. In 

the early-2000s, PLA leadership established a goal of 

achieving “major progress” toward “informatized 

armed forces” by 2020 and fully modernizing the force 

by the mid-21st century.1 In 2006, Hu Jintao issued 

guidance on transforming PLA training by training 

commanders and staff on joint operations concepts. 

PLA efforts toward joint operations since 2008 have 

centered on: developing faculty expertise in military 

educational institutions; getting PLA commanders to 

think in terms of joint training; and developing information systems to facilitate joint command. These efforts are not producing rapid results, and Chinese military leaders are aware that the PLA has not reached 

the level of joint operations development they seek. 

Nevertheless, the PLA has gained knowledge in joint 

operations from its interaction with other countries in 

bilateral and multilateral exercises. 
172

POLICY IMPLICATIONS

• PLA cadets have received theoretical training 

on joint operations but lack operational experience. Despite efforts to inculcate basic concepts 

of joint operations in an academic setting, commanders continue to fall short in their ability 

to lead joint operations involving actual forces. 

Outside the academic setting, only a handful of 

military exercises address issues of joint command.

• Joint operations concepts have been slow to 

develop since the military and its leadership 

have had to adapt to a radically different way 

of thinking about military conflict. Centralized 

training guidance, standardized equipment, 

and improvements to academics may provide 

the right tools to further the transformation to 

which military leaders aspire.

Achieving a modern standard of military effectiveness will require the PLA to internalize joint operations concepts and apply them in more realistic, multiservice training exercises.

People are the most energetic and dynamic element of 

combat power. When all is said and done, a confrontation in modern warfare is in essence a confrontation 

of talented individuals. Building a corps of talented 

individuals suited to the characteristics of integrated 

joint operations is a requirement for military modernization and is essential to the ability to fight and win 

future local wars under informatized conditions.2

Lieutenant General Hu Yongzhu

Director, Political Department

Chengdu Military Region
173

INTRODUCTION

In 2004, President Hu Jintao tasked the armed 

forces to undertake a transformation that would enable them not only to fulfill their primary mission to 

safeguard national sovereignty and meet the changing needs of national security, but also to take on “the 

new historic missions of our forces in the new century 

and new era.”3 Their aspiration is to develop a joint 

operational force that smoothly integrates all four military services,4

 employs a unified, networked information system, and acts under the unified command of 

a joint “command organ” (指挥机关), or headquarters 

in Western military parlance.5 The 2004 pronouncement accelerated a thrust launched a decade earlier 

when then-president Jiang Zemin added the requirement to fight “modern local wars under informatized conditions” to the “military strategic guidelines 

for the new period” in 1993.6 The expansion of PLA 

tasks inevitably requires a corresponding reform in 

military training, shifting from “military training 

under mechanized conditions” to “military training 

under informatized conditions.”7 Joint operations 

training is a clear demand and requirement for this 

transformation. 

Chinese military leaders are well aware that the 

PLA has not reached the level of joint operations development and training they seek, and that achieving 

that goal depends on changing the education, training, culture, and mindset of the officer corps. In their 

own words, “the development of joint operations in 

the PLA is at an initial stage and requires strengthening the integration of weapons, equipment and combat system of all services and arms and strengthening 
174

the integration of operations concepts and values of 

all services.”8 They needed to work harder, continue 

exploration, and come up with results that set the 

force on the right path.

Although the terms “joint operations” and “integrated joint operations” have been part of the PLA 

military terminology since at least the mid-1990s, the 

PLA did not issue the top-level doctrinal “outline” 

(gangyao) on joint operations until 1999. In the decade following 1999, military academics conducted 

theoretical studies of how to adapt the force for joint 

operations. Certain military units were identified as 

“whetstones” to test joint operations concepts in the 

field. Academic writing defined the concept and identified its characteristics and requirements. Articles like 

“Theory of Integrated Joint Operations Studied” and 

“Innovation in Joint Operations Theory,” by the commandant of Shijiazhuang Army Command Academy 

and the vice president of Academy of Military Science, respectively, are among the most detailed and 

authoritative articles on the topic of that period.9

Considerable exploration on joint operations occurred between 2006 and 2008. The results were incorporated into the revised Outline on Military Training 

and Evaluation (军事训练与考核大纲, OMTE) issued 

by the General Staff Department (GSD) in 2008, and 

its accompanying “codified joint operations training 

requirement.”10 That same year, President Hu and the 

General Headquarters issued two key documents, 

“Strategic Training Regulations for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army” (“中国人民解放军战略训练规

定”) and “Strategic Training Outline for the Chinese 

People’s Liberation Army” (“中国人民解放军战略训

练纲目”), which established a strategic training system that systematically standardized the joint opera-
175

tions theoretical framework.11 Headquarter elements, 

academies, and services moved beyond researching 

theory and definitions to begin exploring the impact 

of military transformation and new OMTE requirements on the force. The PLA review of 2009 military 

training noted that the majority of field exercises were 

“test-oriented” and “research-oriented.”12 One of the 

most significant exploratory exercises started around 

that time was the “LIANHE” series exercises. This exercise explored theater-based informatized training 

with real forces and made considerable progress in 

upgrading joint command concepts, commander proficiency and form.13 The results of those experiments 

and writings are slowly being incorporated into new 

combat methods for the force. 

The PLA has also gained some knowledge in joint 

operations from its interaction with other countries 

in bilateral and multilateral exercises. These have afforded the PLA lessons learned from others in the areas of command and control, military planning, and 

execution. The main focus of the exercises has been on 

counterterrorism, search and rescue, counterpiracy, 

and some air operations. We are less clear on how the 

lessons from those training events are formalized into 

PLA regular training or even incorporated into academic debates on concept development.14

One of the biggest challenges to overcome at that 

time, in the words of Chen Zhaohai, director of the 

Military Arms and Training Department of the General Staff Department, was the creation of the right 

operational environment to train joint operations, 

specifically one that included training under a realistic complex electromagnetic environment (CEME) 

and informatized environment. The PLA needed to 

transform from conducting traditional coordinated 
176

training to integrated informatized joint training that 

resembled close-to-actual-combat conditions.15 The 

PLA has modernized some of its combined arms and 

tactical training bases and national level training bases 

by fostering this type of complex environment as well 

as expanding the infrastructure to include simulation 

and online training.16

PLA effort toward joint operations since 2008 has 

centered on three areas: developing the expertise of 

academic faculty in the military educational institutions; getting PLA commanders and staff to think in 

terms of joint training rather than combined arms 

training; and developing information systems and 

material solutions to facilitate joint command. We will 

present specific examples where these developments 

are happening across China and provide, where available, specific training events illustrating how the PLA 

has put these developments into effect. After our assessment of joint operations developments across China, we will discuss where the Chinese see themselves 

in this long-term military transformation. We will 

conclude with some of the challenges they still face in 

standardizing the information systems and establishing and standardizing the formal training organizations and structures to push beyond service-specific 

training into true joint operations training.

INSTITUTIONAL CHANGES AND ACADEMIC 

REFORMS

In 2006, Hu Jintao issued guidance on transforming 

PLA training.17 One aspect of this guidance was improving and expanding the capabilities of command 

academies to train commanders and staff on joint operations concepts. For the most part, the curricula of 
177

PLA mid- and senior-level academic institutions still 

focused on training commanders for combined arms 

operations, and there were few experts on joint operations among the faculty.

In response, both service-level and national-level 

academies undertook modernization and upgrades. 

These included revising the curriculum to reflect joint 

operations emphasis; hiring instructors with the right 

experience; adding faculty who are able to translate 

joint operations into operational experience for a particular service; sending academics to participate in live 

training events, both to conduct hands-on training and 

to observe the challenges the force face in implementing joint operational concepts; and sending academics 

overseas to gain experience from other countries. Actions to implement this change include:

• The PLA Air Force Command Academy adopted new textbooks in 2008 and added courses on 

joint operations, air and space operations, and 

air force information operations. The academy 

also developed online courses for self-study on 

joint operations under informatized conditions 

and campaign confrontation under complex 

electromagnetic environments.18

• The Shijiazhuang Army Command College 

established a baseline curriculum on joint operational concepts, including courses on sister 

services equipment knowledge, operational 

theory, and joint operations command skills.19

Other potential reforms may be stuck in the 

proposal stage.

• The Director of the Teaching and Research Office for the Nanjing Army Command Academy 

offered suggestions in 2008 on how to consoli-
178

date resources, improve facilities, and resolve 

support problems for training of mid- and senior-level joint operations command personnel. 

He called for a teaching cadre that has mastered 

the joint operations concepts; assigning frontline soldiers into teaching positions, rather than 

career academics; and developing “blue teams” 

to portray opponent in simulation exercises.20

• Major General Cha Jinlu, from the Department 

of Operations Theory and Regulations Research 

at the Chinese Academy of Military Science, 

proposed sending faculty to units conducting 

warfighting experiments, which he felt would 

benefit both sides.21

• Wang Xibin, president of the National Defense 

University (NDU), wrote in 2009 about a number of initiatives to turn NDU into a multidiscipline joint command university. These included 

inviting renowned experts and famous professors to lead academic lectures; sending experts 

and professors to units for an extended period 

of time to find out the “reality and needs of the 

units” and promote inter-university cooperation; and extending the classroom to other institutions of learning outside of the Army.22

• Major General He Lei, director of the Department of Operation Theories and Doctrines 

Research of the Academy of Military Science 

(AMS) in 2010, also proposed inviting “wellknown experts” to share their knowledge of 

joint operations.23

Clearly the efforts are not producing rapid results, 

judging from continued calls for more improvement. 

In 2010, Hu Jintao exhorted NDU to step up the culti-
179

vation of officers for commanding joint operations, in 

the spirit of the guidelines of the Fifth Plenary Session 

of the 17th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central 

Committee.24 In the past 2 years, there has been less reporting on specific academy reform efforts and more 

on overall GSD guidance to reform military education 

institutions, optimize their structures, raise the quality of instruction, and intensify existing reforms.25 In 

2012, the CMC issued the “2020 Military School and 

Education Reform and Development Program Outline” (“2020 年前军队院校教育改革和发展规划纲要”), 

laying out the development of these institutions for 

the next 10 years.26

TRAINING JOINT COMMANDERS 

AND HEADQUARTERS STAFF

Commanders and staff are seen as the vital link 

in the PLA’s ability to fight under informatized conditions.27 The challenge is not in defining the qualities those commanders needed to possess, but rather 

transforming their modes of thought from concepts 

suitable for fighting wars under mechanized conditions to those suited to informatized conditions. Despite the efforts toward better academic instruction 

discussed above, Chinese leaders still do not feel confident that commanders and staff have the required 

level of expertise, and it remains a central point of emphasis at all levels of officer development. 

GSD published a number of policy documents 

in 2008 to set the standards for officer development, 

under rubrics such as “Measures for Deeply Pushing Forward the Cultivation of Talented Commanding Personnel for Joint Operations” (“深入推进联合

作战指挥人才培养的措施、联合作战指挥人才核心素
180

质能力培养模型”) and “Models for Cultivating Core 

Quality and Capabilities of Talented Commanding 

Personnel for Joint Operations” (“联合作战指挥人才

核心素质能力培养模型”). The 2010 “Notice about Carrying Experimental Joint Teaching and Joint Training” 

(“关于开展联教联训试点的通知”) required academies 

to continue experimenting and reforming the educational infrastructure to produce the appropriate sort 

of command personnel.28

The military academic world also developed assessments of the qualities required in joint operations 

commanders. In 2009, articles from the President of 

the Nanjing Army Command Academy and from 

Sun Naixiang, a researcher at AMS, discussed the 

characteristics desired of joint operations commanding personnel, both reaching the unsurprising conclusion that commanders cannot make proper use of 

operational forces and advanced weaponry without 

extensive knowledge of joint operations.29 Similar assessments appear in the political work system, which 

has responsibility for officer personnel issues in the 

operational forces. Cai Yongning, a professor at the 

Military Personnel Management Studies Department 

of the Xian Political Academy, wrote in 2011 about 

cultivating commanding officers for joint operations.30

An article on the desired characteristics of joint commanders written by the vice president of AMS in 2009 

suggests that having experiences in varied posts, being proficient in their service and relatively familiar 

with the specialties of other services, being exposed 

to the civilian sector and participating in international 

exchanges might assist commanders in embracing 

joint operations concepts.31 Looking at the PLA leadership in the last 10 years, particularly those that rose 

to the top levels in 2012, we see that most, if not all, 
181

have spent some time within their service, at a military region headquarters, and in one of the general 

departments, essentially meeting most of the characteristics spelled out in 2009. Some of these individuals 

have recent practical operational experience in dealing with internal crises. Fan Changlong led the rescue operations in the Yangtze River flooding in 1998, 

and Xu Qiliang led the rescue operations during the 

2008 Chinese blizzard in central and southern China. 

Li Shiming commanded the relief efforts during the 

2009 Wenchuan earthquake. Additionally, about half 

of the current leaders are graduates of the National 

Defense University.32 It does not appear that the PLA 

has this assignment pattern a formal requirement for 

promotion to the top echelons, but it does not seem 

farfetched that it could do so in the future.

Mid- and upper-level academies have implemented a variety of steps to instill a joint mindset in their 

students.

• In 2009, PLA NDU asserted that over 95 percent 

of the commanders at and above group army 

level have been trained by NDU and are therefore capable of commanding joint operations.33

The university requires students to participate 

in exercises with actual military units during 

which students from all military branches formulate joint operational plans.34

• In 2010, Major General He Lei, director of the 

AMS Department of Operational Theory and 

Doctrinal Research brought AMS experts to 

academic lessons to “impart joint operations 

knowledge to officers and men to help them 

further understand and grasp the features and 

patterns of joint operations.”35
182

• The Nanjing Military Region (MR) has organized concentrated training of “joint firepower 

coordinators” as a form of training for joint operation commanding personnel. Nanjing MR 

claims that by 2012, nearly 2,000 commanders 

had taken part in similar exercise organized by 

the region and that every combat unit at the division or brigade level in the Nanjing theater 

has two or more “joint staff officers” with such 

experience.36

One recent well publicized command and staff 

training event was the June 2012 exercise “Joint Education 2012-QUESHAN” (“联教2012-确山”). The goal 

of this exploratory exercise was to “enhance the joint 

operational capability of the military commanding 

personnel.” It involved students from 19 academies 

and included the use of an “integrated command 

information system” and a “live force drill” to promote joint practice.37 Outside the academic setting, 

we have observed a handful of military exercises that 

address issues of joint command. Exercise Mission Action 2010 (使命行动2010) emphasized joint campaign 

command, army and air force long-range maneuvers, 

joint firepower attack, comprehensive defense, and 

precision support.38

Even with the increased training emphasis on joint 

operations, the force still faces criticisms of the ability 

of commanders at lower levels to perform even “basic 

tasks” of joint command, according to lessons learned 

in the QUESHAN exercise.39 Another recent criticism 

comes from the President of the Shijiazhuang Army 

Academy, who laments that “cadets have theoretiocal training but lack the operational experience gained 

through joint exercises.”40 We read this as saying that, 
183

despite efforts to inculcate the basic concepts of joint 

operations in an academic setting, commanders and 

staff continue to fall short in their ability to lead joint 

operations involving actual forces.

INFORMATION PLATFORMS TO FACILITATE 

JOINT OPERATIONS

The PLA deems it necessary but not sufficient for 

commanding officers and staff to understand joint 

concepts and be able to apply them in actual operations. As important as the human dimension is, the 

PLA learned from observing U.S. operations that appropriate technology to support command functions 

is indispensable to the conduct of joint operations. In 

the 11th Five Year Plan (FYP), the PLA services and 

GSD explored material solutions to enable joint operations command. Some were intended to facilitate 

joint operations staff training in academies or field exercises, while others were intended to be operational 

command information systems for the force. Such 

systems, which the PLA calls “integrated command 

platforms” (一体化指挥平台, ICP), allow for real time 

mastery of the battlefield situation while simultaneously enabling commanders to command their forces. 

In addition to communications modes, command templates, and command decision aids, these systems integrate intelligence and reconnaissance data, weather 

and geospatial information, and other tools useful to 

the commander and his staff.41 The PLA conducted 

concept and equipment testing for newly fielded ICPs 

in a number of exercises in 2009, although initial production and deployment to the operational force does 

not yet appear complete.42 Many units that have received the new systems are not yet proficient in their 
184

use, and some have complained that the systems fail 

to meet expectation and that further improvements 

are needed.43

• Sometime before 2008, Major General Cha Jinlu of AMS noted that the foundation for joint 

training is that information networks must be 

interconnected, and discussed improvements 

needed to support such training.44

• A 2008 article on training with ICPs warned 

that: 

joint training must be carried out on the basis of 

a reliable information network, which should be 

made identical to the command information system to be used in wartime if possible.45

• An article on the 2009 military-wide joint training coordination conference hosted by GSD 

underpins the use of the integrated command 

platform. This platform: 

brings about evolutional changes for command 

methods; it is imperative that we give full play to 

the integrated command platform and advance 

the dynamic integration of all military branches, all operational units and all operational 

elements.46

• The director of the Training Department 

at the Nanjing Army Command Academy, 

when discussing key concepts of joint operations under informatized conditions in 2010, 

touted the ability of network systems to support the information sharing, command decisionmaking, overall joint actions, coordination 

and force groupings that are essential to joint 

operations.47
185

• Chen Rongdi, research fellow in the Operational Theory and Doctrine Research Department 

at AMS, discussed in 2010 the commander’s 

requirement for high technology systems that 

enable smooth, efficient and uninterrupted 

command.48

• In October 2010, the CMC issued the “Comprehensive Plan for Reform of Military Training 

in the Period of the 12th Five Year Plan” (“十

二五”时期军事训练改革总体方案), which arranges current and near future military training reform developments. In this document the 

CMC re-emphasizes the need for information 

system-based command and staff command 

training.49

The most concrete indications of the use of the 

command information systems are observed during 

exercise and training events starting in 2010. The advanced states of these platforms suggest that exploration and development of these systems have been 

ongoing and the PLA was now at the technology demonstration stages.50 We have seen what we believe are 

demonstration events for senior leaders, showing off 

not only the capabilities of the systems themselves, 

but also users’ ability to employ these systems to conduct operations.

• In exercise Vanguard 2010, the Jinan Military 

Region conducted a 5-day theater level exercise 

of air defense forces during which: 

via the theater-level integrated joint operational 

command platform they transmitted command, 

air intelligence, and enemy information to various locations and in real time, received information uploaded to all commanding elements.51
186

• The executive director of Exercise Mission Action 2010 and Deputy Chief of Staff of the Beijing MR said that the “application of the integrated command platform has removed a lot of 

intermediary links in issuing command documents, orders and instructions during Chinese 

military exercises in 2010.52

• Sun Dayong, chief of the operations and training section of a group army in Jinan MR, participated in a multi-service exercise during which 

“proposals formulated by the staff personnel 

of all the services, was sent to the commanders at the various level through the integrated 

platform.”53

• Joint-Education 2012-QUESHAN “reportedly 

used a new ‘integrated command information 

system’ for the first time.” 54

• A Lanzhou MR group army applied the integrated command platform to organize a drill 

in June 2012. The commander “opened the 

information command system in front of him 

and entered confrontational instructions.” He 

was also able to display “level and status of all 

battalion subordinate to the air defense group 

performance weapons and detection of air situation.” The goal of the exercise was to force 

commanders at all levels to make decisions 

based on information systems according to the 

group army’s chief of staff.55

• Chengdu MR forces conducted a multiservice 

exercise in August 2012 during which a brigade 

commander sent out “information through the 

integrated command platform.”56
187

These technical advances all focus on providing the 

strategic and operational level leadership with more 

information for decisionmaking but do not allow or 

facilitate the delegation of that decisionmaking to the 

lower levels. In the long run, these developments just 

create a force that is technologically advanced and 

more centralized but not agile enough to respond in 

crises.57 There is still some criticism, particularly at the 

senior-level schools, of commanders’ inability to use 

technology effectively in joint exercises. In 2012, the 

president of the Shijiazhuang Command Academy 

said the ongoing requirement for cadets to be “well 

versed in information technology and use the command information system to improve information 

system based command fighting skills” suggested 

that this is an area for further development within 

the force.58

THE FUTURE OF JOINT OPERATIONS 

IN THE PLA

At the end of 2010, China Central Television 

(CCTV) interviewed China’s Minister of National Defense, Liang Guanglie, about China’s military development. In this interview, Liang discussed the future 

of China’s army and lays out what he calls a “three 

step blueprint.” In this blueprint, China’s military will 

achieve major progress in informatization building by 

2020.59 According to this standard timeline, first articulated publicly in the 2006 Defense White Paper:

The first step is to lay a solid foundation by 2010, the 

second is to make major progress around 2020, and 

the third is to basically reach the strategic goal of 

building informationized armed forces and being capable of winning informationized wars by the mid21st century.60 
188

The PLA has made only modest progress toward 

achieving the 2020 goal, and has a number of hurdles 

yet to overcome to produce a force that can fight high 

technology wars. One major obstacle is the lack of 

standardized equipment that links all the service-specific information command platforms that have been 

developed to date. Second is the lack of a PLA-wide 

training structure, organization, and mechanisms to 

set the standards for joint operations skills. This section briefly explores these two challenges and forecasts the effect that overcoming them could have on 

the force.

The past 4 years have seen efforts by all services, 

branches, military regions, and academic institutions 

to develop, produce, and test equipment that meets 

the key requirement of interconnectivity in joint operations.61 As noted previously, there is still criticism 

among trainers and users about the equipment falling 

short of expectations. A Jiefangjun Bao article discussing theater joint training exhorted units to make good 

use of a theater information system to join together 

all individual combat forces, units, and elements and 

“break the information technology barriers that separate the armed forces in theater so that information 

systems are linked and interoperable.”62 According to 

a 2012 report in the Guangzhou Nanfang Zhoumo newspaper, Chinese armed forces have problems organizing and conducting training due to “restrictions of the 

organization structure and the command system,” 

and academies continue exploratory efforts to overcome that problem.63 During a 2012 Lanzhou MR exercise, commanders complained about inconvenience 

and instability in the new information systems.64 The 

chief of the GSD Training Department said in January 
189

2012, that further development and research is needed 

to formalize and standardize the equipment that has 

been fielded and to solve problems encountered using 

it in training.65

Until late-2011, most developments in joint operations theory, training and exercises were led by ground 

forces officers. Ground-centered development of joint 

operations theory has constrained the development 

of navy, air force, and Second Artillery joint doctrine. 

Multiservice participation in “joint” exercises has been 

limited and consists more of coordinated action than 

true integrated operations. According to Sun Dayong, 

chief of the operations and training section of a group 

army in Jinan MR, “in previous joint operations, the 

Army used to play the main role, and the Navy, Air 

Force, the Second Artillery just dispatched liaison officers as representatives to the Army command post 

to receive tasks assigned to them.”66 Multiservice joint 

training has not been the leading form of training for 

the force.67

PLA academics contend that to truly transform the 

force to meet the challenges of informatized warfare, 

joint operations development needs to become a multiservice effort. In early-2012, PRC leadership reorganized and renamed the GSD Military Training and 

Arms Department—formerly focused solely on ground 

forces training—to the Military Training Department, 

overseeing all services in order to “strengthen the centralized and unified management of training.”68 The 

reorganization is intended to address the problem of 

joint operations concept development and training being too “army centric” and too focused on combinedarms rather than true joint training.69 The promotion 

of four nonground officers to the CMC in 2012—Admiral Wu Shengli, General Ma Xiaotian, General Wei 
190

Fenghe, and General Wu Qiliang—is another reflection of Beijing’s effort to embrace the diversity and 

benefits of a truly joint force.70 As of early-2013, there 

is little reporting of what effect this reorganization has 

had on training reform and training execution in 2012. 

This may be addressed in the annual GSD training 

wrap-ups normally published early in the year. 

Along with establishing a central group to lead 

joint operations development and training, ostensibly 

operating above the interests of any single service, the 

PLA also needs to normalize training mechanisms to 

ensure the entire force trains to the same standards. 

Prior to creation of the Military Training Department, 

joint training was executed independently within the 

services, with few all-service, all-element joint exercises. Regional service-specific training facilities and 

tactical training bases adopted their own experiments 

to train their units in joint operations.71 There have 

been many calls for mechanisms to normalize training across the services.72 Over the last 2 years, all elements within the PLA intensified research and exploration of joint training under informatized conditions 

to come up with a multi-service, all-element training 

requirement.73

Chen Zhaohai, then director of the Military Training and Arms Department, said in 2010 that within 

5 years the PLA would “basically establish a training systems under informatized conditions and have 

regularized training under close to actual war conditions.”74 GSD Military Training Guidance for 2012 

specified that joint training structures, organizational 

management, and operating mechanisms were to be 

built and perfected this year.75 The impact of this centralization and standardization will likely be reflected 

in the execution of more GSD- or MR-led multiservice 

training events in the next few years.
191

Can They Get There?

Joint operations concepts have been slow to develop in China as the military and its leadership had 

to adapt to a radically different way of thinking about 

military conflict. Centralized training guidance and 

standardized equipment, along with the improvements to academic training for command and staff 

personnel, may provide the right tools and environment to further the transformation to which military 

leaders aspire. Even then, catching up to world standards of military effectiveness will require the PLA to 

internalize joint operations concepts and apply them 

in more realistic, multiservice training exercises, even 

on a small scale. Until they do, their aspiration of 

more jointness and integration, major progress in informatization by 2020, and full modernization for national defense and the military by 2050, will remain a 

distant goal. 

ENDNOTES - CHAPTER 5

1. Information Office of the State Council, China’s National Defense in 2006, Bejing, China: People’s Republic of China, December 

2006, available from www.china.org.cn/english/features/book/194421.

htm. 

2. Hu Yongzhu 胡永柱, “建设适应一体化联合作战需要的人才

队伍的几点思考” (“A Few Thoughts on Building a Corps of Talented Individuals for Integrated Joint Operations”), 新世纪阶段

国防和军队建设 (National Defense and Armed Forces Building in the 

New Century and New Age), Military Affairs, Vol. 1, Beijing, China: 

Military Yiwen Press, 2008, pp. 100-103. Article selected from Military Art Journal 军事学术, date unknown. 
192

3. Zhou Sen 周奔, “胡主席提出新世纪新阶段我军历史使

命” (“Hu Jintao Put Forward the New Historic Missions of Our 

Forces in the New Century and New Era”), PLA Daily online, 

October 8, 2008, available from www.chinamil.com.cn/site1/xwpdxw/2008-10/08/content_1502152.htm. 

4. Technically, three services (军种) and one branch (兵种) 

that enjoys the status of a service.

5. Zhan Yu 战玉, “A Study of Integrated Joint Operations,” 中

国军事科学 (Military Science), June 2007, pp. 11-21.

6. Chen Bingde 陈炳德, “Intensify Study of Military Theory 

To Ensure Quality Army Building: Learning From Thought and 

Practice of the Core of the Three Generations of Party Leadership 

in Studying Military Theory,” 中国军事科学 (Military Science), 

3-1997, August 20, 1997, pp. 49-56. 

7. Liu Xiaohua 刘孝华, Wu Dilun 吴弟伦, Liu Feng’an 武天敏, 

and Wu Tianmin 武天敏, “具有战略意义的深刻变革—我军军事

训练从机械化向信息化条件下转变综述” (“Profound Reform that 

Possesses Strategic Significance—Summary of the PLA’s Military 

Training Transforming from Mechanization to Being Under Informatized Conditions”), PLA Daily, September 2, 2009, available 

from chn.chinamil.com.cn/xwpdxw/2009-09/02/content_4032116.

htm; Mei Wanshan 糜万山, “深化信息化条件下联合训练需在四

个关节上求得突破” (“In Order to Intensify Joint Training Under 

Informationized Conditions We Must Strive for Breakthroughs 

in Four Key Areas”), in 新世纪阶段国防和军队建设 (National Defense and Armed Forces Building in the New Century and New Age), 

Military Affairs, Vol. 1, Beijing, China: Military Yiwen Press, 2008, 

pp. 533-536. 

8. Wang Xiaohua 王晓华 and Sun Yefei 孙晔飞, “On Problems 

of Cultural Development for Joint Operations with PLA Characteristics,” 中国军事科学 (Military Science), April 2011, pp. 92-100. 

9. Zhou Xiaoyu 周晓宇 and Peng Buwen 彭希文, eds., 联合

作战新论 (A New Theory of Joint Operations), Beijing, China: National Defense University Press, 2003, pp. 212-236; Zhan Yu 战玉, 

“A Study of Integrated Joint Operations”; Wang Jianmin, 王建民

“Footprints of the Forerunner,” Zhanqi Bao 战旗报 (Chengdu Mili-
193

tary Region), February 16, 2006; Liu Jixian 刘继贤, “Innovation 

and Development in the Research of Basic Issues of Joint Operations,” 中国军事科学 (Military Science), March 2009, pp. 1-17.

10. Liu Feng’an 刘逢安 and Wu Tianmin 武天敏, “新一代 

《军事训练与考核大纲》颁发” (“New-Generation ‘Outline of 

Military Training and Evaluation’ Promulgated”), PLA Daily online, July 25, 2008, p. 1, available from www.chinamil.com.cn/site1/

xwpdxw/2008-07/25/content_1378839.htm; Liu Feng’an 刘逢安 and 

Hu Junhua 刘逢安, “提高基于信息系统体系作战能力—创建信息

化条件下训练新模式; 全军深化军事训练改革会议召开; 陈炳德出

席” (“Enhance the Information-System-Based System of Systems 

Operation Capability, Create New Training Models Under Informatized Conditions—PLA Holds Conference on Deepening Military Training Reform; Chen Bingde Attends the Meeting”), PLA 

Daily online, March 29, 2011, available from www.chinamil.com.cn/

jfjbmap/content/2011-03/29/content_53681.htm.

11. Gao Xiaoping 高效文 et al. “星垂平野阔 月涌大江流 回眸

2010年全军联合作战演练” (“Stars Shine Down on the Vast Flat 

Lands and the Moon Floods the Great Rivers: Looking Back on 

the 2010 Military-Wide Joint Combined Operations Exercise”), 解

放军画报 (Jiefangjun Huabao), January 6, 2011, p. 6, available from 

www.plapic.com.cn/txt/201101b/20110104B.htm.

12. Li Yun 黎云 and Liu Feng’an 刘逢安, “在演习中学习

打仗;从2009年中国军演透视解放军训练改革之路” (“Studying 

warfare in the midst of exercises; understanding the course of 

military training reform from the perspective of Chinese military exercises since 2009”), Xinhua News Service online, December 10, 2009, available from news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2009-12/10/

content_12625541.htm.

13. China Central Television News Channel broadcast, July 4, 

2012; San Li 孙利 and Fu Kaiqiang 傅开强, “解放军战区联合训练

进入常态化运行阶段” (“People’s Liberation Army Theater-Based 

Joint Training Enters the Phase of Normal Operation”), China 

Review News online, February 27, 2010, available from www.chinareviewnews.com/crn-webapp/doc/docDetailCreate.jsp?coluid=4&kin

did=18&docid=101242668. Also see Tian Zhong 田中, “战区联训:

绸缪未来的“联心”之战” (“Theater Joint Training: Getting Ready 

for the Future ‘Joint-Centric’ Operations”), PLA Daily online, 
194

December 8, 2011, available from www.chinamil.com.cn/jfjbmap/

content/2011-12/08/content_73556.htm.

14. “蓝色突击-2012”中泰海军陆战队联合训练拉开帷幕” (“Sino

-Thai Marine Forces Joint Training ‘Blue Assault-2012’ Begins”), 

Xinhua News Service online, May 11, 2012, availaable from news.xinhuanet.com/world/2012-05/11/c_111936372.htm; “China, Thailand 

Conduct Anti-terrorism Maritime Exercise,” China Daily online 

in English, May 25, 2012, available from www.chinadaily.com.cn/

china/2012-05/25/content_15391488.htm; Qian Xiaohu 钱晓虎 and 

Li Tang 李唐, “‘蓝色突击—2010’中泰海军陆战队联训开始” “‘Blue 

Assault-2010’ China-Thailand Marines Joint Training Starts”), 

PLA Daily, October 29, 2010, available from military.people.com.

cn/GB/1076/52982/13077153.html; Zhou Feng and Zou Weirong, 

“Witnessing China-Indonesia Army Special Force Joint Drill,” 

PLA Daily online in English, June 20, 2011, available from eng.

chinamil.com.cn/news-channels/china-military-news/2011-06/20/content_4454224.htm; Lü Desheng 吕德胜 et al. “和平使命—2012”军演

亮点盘点” (“A Look at the Highlights of the ‘Peace Mission-2012’ 

Military Exercise”), PLA Daily online, June 18, 2012, available from 

tp.chinamil.com.cn/2012/2012-06/18/content_4898161.htm; Lu Desheng 吕德胜 and Li Xiang 李 翔. “携手反恐增友谊—‘友谊-2011’中巴

联合反恐训练综合演练速写” (“Joining Hands to Fight Terrorism 

and Increase Friendship—A Quick Sketch of the ‘Friendship-2011’ 

China-Pakistan Joint Comprehensive Anti-Terror Training Drill”), 

PLA Daily online, November 25, 2011, available from world.people.

com.cn/GB/14549/16382359.html; Feng Chunmei, Wang Guangli, 

and Li Qinwei, “226名反恐精英参训‘友谊—2010’ 热点解读:探营

中巴反恐联合训练” (“226 Elite Antiterrorism Troops Participate 

in Friendship-2010—Hot News of Sino-Pakistani Antiterrorism 

Joint Training”), People’s Daily online, July 5, 2010, available from 

cpc.people.com.cn/GB/64093/82429/83083/12050567.html.

15. Liu Feng’an and Zhao Zhongfan, “总参:2010我军训练

主抓一个试点三个演习” (“The General Staff Department: The 

Military Training in 2010 Will Focus on One Pilot Site and Three 

Drills”), Xinhua News Service online, January 29, 2010, available from news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2010-01/29/content_12897548.

htm; Jia Jianyi 贾建义 et al., “大漠古战场:突围战悄然打响—北

京军区朱日和合同战术训练基地向信息化转型纪实” (“Ancient 

Battlefield in Desert: Breakout Combat Quietly Begins—Record 

of Actual Events Concerning Transformation of Zhurihe Com-
195

bined Arms Tactical Training Base within Beijing Military Region 

Towards Informatization”), PLA Daily online, March 10, 2010, 

available from www.chinamil.com.cn/jfjbmap/content/2010-03/01/

content_21714.htm.

16. Jia Jianyi; Dai Feng, and Feng Guoxiong, “PLA Explores 

New Model of Command Training,” PLA Daily online in English, 

March 9, 2012, available from eng.chinamil.com.cn/news-channels/

china-military-news/2012-03/09/content_4826276.htm; Sun Yefei 孙晔

飞, “美出台新国防战略报告意图何在” (“What Does the US Intend 

by the Introduction of a New National Defense Strategy Report?”) 

Zhongguo Qingnian Bao online, January 13, 2012, available from 

zqb.cyol.com/html/2012-01/13/nw.D110000zgqnb_20120113_2-09.

htm; Liu Feng’an and Cai Pengcheng, “在深化改革中加快转变战

斗力生成模式—总参军训和兵种部部长陈照海就新年度军事训练

答记者问” (“Accelerate a Change in Combat Strength Generation 

Model During Deepening of Reform—Director Chen Zhaohai 

From Military Training and Branches Department Under General 

Staff Department Answers Questions From This Reporter About 

Military Training in New Year”), PLA Daily online, January 14, 

2011, available from chn.chinamil.com.cn/xwpdxw/2011-01/14/content_4368929.htm.

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防大学加强联合作战指挥人才培养纪实” (“High-Ranking Military 

Officers Walk From Here to Future Battlefields—Actual Account 

of How National Defense University [NDU] Strengthens Cultivation of Talented Personnel for Commanding Joint Operations”), 

PLA Daily online, October 27, 2010, available from chn.chinamil.

com.cn/xwpdxw/2010-10/27/content_4321966.htm; “Transformation 

of PLA Military Training in Past Five Years,” PLA Daily online 

in English, November 3, 2010, available from eng.chinamil.com.cn/

news-channels/china-military-news/2010-11/03/content_4327349.htm.

18. Tan Jie 谭洁 and Yang Chunyuan 杨春源, “着眼信息化战

场加速推进教学转型; 空军指挥学院培养数千新型指挥员” (“Focus on the Informationized Battlefield, Accelerate the Transformation of Teaching; the Air Force Command College Cultivates 

Thousands of New Type Commanders”), PLA Daily online, September 9, 2008, available from www.chinamil.com.cn/site1/xwpdxw/2008-09/09/content_1467847.htm. 
196

19. Zhang Fuqiang 张富强, “在破解难题中推动教学改革; 石

家庄陆军指挥学院用科学发展观指导办学育人纪实” (“Press Forward with Teaching Reform while Resolving Problems; A Record of Events as the Shijiazhuang Army Command College Uses 

the Scientific Development Concept to Guide Management and 

Teaching”), PLA Daily online, November 13, 2008, available from 

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20. Wang Deyi 王德义 and Cheng Hongwei 程红卫, “A Study 

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建设 (“National Defense and Armed Forces Building in the New 

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转型” (“Personal Experience of the Strategic Transformation of 

High-Ranking Commanding Officer Training of Our Army”), 

PLA Daily online, January 31, 2009, available from www.chinamil.

com.cn/site1/zbxl/2009-01/31/content_1634816.htm; Feng Chunmei 

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新一代骁将方阵; 国防大学加强联合作战指挥人才培养工作纪实” 

(“The Republic Raises Up a New Generation Intrepid Phalanx—A 

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部队联合作战指挥人才培养探索与实践” (“Long Journey of Walking Towards ‘Strategic High Ground’—Exploration and Practice 

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Talented Command Personnel for Joint Operations”), PLA Daily

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长、博士生导师何雷少将” (“Transcending Services: Who Will 
197

Dominate Future Informatized Battlfields?—Interview With Maj. 

Gen. He Lei, director of the Department of Operations Theories 

and Doctrines Research of the Academy of Military Sciences 

and Doctorate Students’ Tutor”), PLA Daily online, September 9, 

2010, available from chn.chinamil.com.cn/xwpdxw/2010-09/09/content_4294544.htm. 

24. “China’s Top Military Academy Told to Foster ‘Joint Operations’ Commanding Officers,” Xinhua News Service in English, 

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25. Wu Dilun 吴弟伦 and Liu Feng’an 刘逢安, “总参部署新年

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高基于信息系统的体系作战能力,全面深化部队训练和院校教育

改革” (“The General Staff Department Maps Out Yearly WholeMilitary Training Exercise Work for the New Year—With Accelerating Transformation of the Combat Capacity Production Model 

as the Primary Objective, Focus on Increasing ‘System of Systems’ 

Operations Capability on the Basis of Information Systems and 

Comprehensively Intensify Reform of the Training of Troops and 

of Educational Institutions”), PLA Daily online, January 14, 2011, 

available from chn.chinamil.com.cn/zc/2011-01/14/content_4507087.

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全军新年度军事训练工作” (“General Staff Department Issues 

2012 Military Training Directive, Plans Military Training for all 

Armed Services in New Year”), Xinhua Beijing Service, January 

11, 2012, available from chn.chinamil.com.cn/jwjj/2012-01/11/content_4766266.htm; Liu Feng’an 刘逢安, “乘势而上推进军事训练转

变; 访总参军训部部长陈照海” (“Promoting the Transformation of 

Military Training by Building On Our Strengths—An Interview 

with Chen Zhaohai, Director of the General Staff Military Training Department”), PLA Daily online, January 13, 2012, available 

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教育改革集训举行; 探索规范信息化条件下训练方法路子, 研讨深

化院校教育改革的对策措施” (“With the Approval of Chairman 

Hu and the Central Military Commission, the All-PLA Concentrated Training Session on Reforming Training in Combat Units 

and Education in Military Academies Is Held at the National Defense University”), PLA Daily online, May 23, 2012, available from 

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26. Yang Xuguang 杨旭光 and Liu Feng’an 刘逢安, “绘就未来

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27. Pu Xi et al., “Long Journey of Walking Towards ‘Strategic 

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china/2010-10/27/c_13578521.htm.

28. Pu Xi et al., “Long Journey of Walking Towards ‘Strategic 

High Ground’.” 

29. Chen Yong 陈勇, “On Transformation of the Generative 

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73; Hu Junhua 胡君华 and Bao Guojun 包国俊, “联合作战指挥员

如何驰骋未来战场? 访军事科学院作战理论和条令研究部第二研究

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Commanders Play an Active Part in Future Battlefields?; Interview with Sun Naixiang, Researcher and Doctoral Candidate Advisor at the Academy of Military Sciences Operational Theory and 

Doctrine Research Department’s Second Research Laboratory”), 

PLA Daily online, October 28, 2010, available from chn.chinamil.

com.cn/jskj/2010-10/28/content_4567385.htm.

30. Cai Yongning 蔡永宁, “Considerations on Cultivation of 

Commanding Officers for Joint Operations,” 中国军事科学 (Military Science), February 2011, pp. 93-100. 

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Chen Yong, pp. 71-73.

32. “China’s military announces major leadership reshuffle,” 

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available from www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?i

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Commission,” Caixin (Beijing) online in English, November 5, 
199

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“China Makes Two New Senior Military Appointments,” Xinhua

News Service in English, November 4, 2012, available from news.

xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-11/04/c_131950268.htm; “中國將

調整「儒將」崛起” (“Major Reshuffle of PLA High-Ranking Officers; ‘Scholar Generals’ Emerging”), Ta Kung Pao (Hong Kong) 

online, January 13, 2012, available from 3g.takungpao.com/content.

html?c=2&url=/news/12/01/13/junshi01-1441833.htm; Oliver Chou, 

”A Princeling Rises Through the Ranks,” South China Morning 

Post (Hong Kong) online, February 20, 2011, available from www.

scmp.com/article/738655/princeling-rises-through-ranks; Liu Yueshan 

劉越山. “要聞: 11 新晉上將胡錦濤任命” (“Important News: 11 

Newly Promoted Generals Appointed by Hu Jintao”), Wen Wei Po

(Hong Kong) online, July 20, 2010, available from paper.wenweipo.

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動” (“A Major Round of Transfers of PLA General Officers Taking 

Place Before the Eve of the Sessions of the Two Meetings”), Ta 

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33. Wang Xibin.

34. Tao Shelan 陶社兰, “综述:联合训练成为解放军战斗

力生成新的增长点” (“Joint Training Becomes New Growth 

Point for PLA Combat Effectiveness Production”), Zhongguo Xinwen She, March 18, 2009, available from www.chinanews.com/gn/

news/2009/03-19/1607978.shtml. 

35. Hu Junhua and Bao Guojun, “Transcending Services.“ 

36. Wang Yunsheng 王运生, Ding Guangyang丁广阳, “南京

战区创新机制构建联合作战指挥人才培养常态化格局; 跨军兵种联

合锻造新型指挥员” (“PLA Nanjing Theater Innovate Mechanisms 

for Building the Normalized Pattern of Training for Joint Operation Commanding Personnel With Multi-Service Joint Efforts 

Being Made for Cultivating New-type Commanders”), PLA Daily 

online, May 7, 2012, available from www.chinamil.com.cn/jfjbmap/

content/2012-05/07/content_4574.htm. 

37. Liu Feng’an 刘逢安and Li Kunyang 李坤阳, “‘学打现代战

争’; 亲历 ‘联教2012 确山’ 联合演习” (“‘Study How to Fight Modern Warfare’—an Account of Personal Experience in the ‘Joint 
200

Education-2012 Queshan’ Joint Exercise”), Nanfang Zhoumo 

(Guangzhou) online, June 15, 2012, available from www.infzm.

com/content/76990; Wang Zhiqiang 王志强, Li Weihua 李伟华, and 

Song Lingzhi 宋令智, “‘联教-2012·确’ 联合演练系列报道” (“Reports on the ‘Joint Education 2012—Queshan’ Joint Exercise Series”), 中国军网 (China Military Net) online, June 6, 2012, available 

from chn.chinamil.com.cn/jwjj/2012-06/09/content_4890612.htm.

38. Gao Xiaowen 高效文 et al., “星垂平野阔, 月涌大江流: 回眸

2010 年全军联合作战演练” (“Stars Shine Down on the Vast Flat 

Lands and the Moon Floods the Great Rivers; Looking Back on 

the 2010 Military-Wide Joint Combined Operations Drill”), Beijing, Jiefangjun Huabao, January 6, 2011, available from www.plapic.com.cn/txt/201101b/20110104B.htm. 

39. Liu Feng’an and Li Kunyang, “‘Study How to Fight Modern Warfare’.“ 

40. Shi Zhongwu 石忠武, “在 ‘实战’ 中砺练打赢本领 (远望台)” 

(“Tempering the Skills To Win in ‘Actual Combat’ [Observation 

Platform]),” People’s Daily online, July 6, 2012, p. 20, available 

from military.people.com.cn/n/2012/0706/c1011-18458208.html. 

41. Chen Shoumin 陈守民 and Wu Tianmin 武天敏, “迈开

联合训练新步伐; 总参探索实践我军信息化条件下联合训练综述” 

(“Setting New Pace for Joint Training—General Staff Department 

Explores, Implements PLA Joint Training Under Informatized 

Conditions”), PLA Daily online, January 19, 2009, available from 

www.chinamil.com.cn/site1/zbxl/2009-01/19/content_1623570.htm. 

42. Cha Jinlu, “A Reconsideration of Issues in Joint Training,” 

pp. 474-480; Liu Feng’an and Li Kunyang; Wang Guangli 王广利

and Gou Jianhong 缑健宏. “告别“老三样” 练好“指挥棒” 兰州军区

某集团军狠抓团以上首长机关运用信息系统指挥作战能力” (“Say 

Goodbye to ‘Three Old Things’, Well Practice ‘Baton’—A Certain 

Group Army Within Lanzhou Military Region Pays Great Attention to Capabilities of Command-and-Staff Organs at Regiment 

Level and Above for Applying Information Systems To Command Operations”), PLA Daily online, June 8, 2012, available from 

www.chinamil.com.cn/jfjbmap/content/2012-06/08/content_7291.htm.

43. Cha Jinlu, “A Reconsideration of Issues in Joint Training,” 

pp. 474-480. 
201

44. Hu Junhua and Bao Guojun, “How Will Joint Operations Commanders Play an Active Part in Future Battlefields? 

pp. 474-480. 

45. Cha Jinlu 查金路, “A Study of Joint Training With the PLA 

Characteristics,” 中国军事科学 (Military Science), April 2008, pp. 

15-20. 

46. Chen Shoumin and Wu Tianmin, “Setting New Pace for 

Joint Training.“ 

47. Geng Weidong 耿卫东, “Interpretation Of Key Concepts 

On Joint Operations Under Informatized Conditions,” 中国军事

科学 (Military Science), February 2010, pp. 32-40. 

48. Hu Junhua 胡君华 and Bao Guojun 包国俊, “联合作战力

量如何 ‘攥指成拳‘? 访军事科学院作战理论和条令研究部第二研究

室主任陈荣弟研究员” (“How Joint Operation Forces Can ‘Form a 

Fist With Fingers’—Interview With Chen Rongdi, Research Fellow and Director of Second Research Sector of Operational Theory and Doctrine Research Department of Academy of Military 

Sciences”), PLA Daily online, October 11, 2010, available from chn.

chinamil.com.cn/jskj/2010-10/11/content_4567895.htm; Hu Junhua 

and Bao Guojun, “How Will Joint Operations Commanders Play 

an Active Part in Future Battlefields.“

49. Liu Feng’an 刘逢安 and Hu Junhua 胡君华, “描绘”十二

五”时期军事训练科学发展蓝图—总参军训和兵种部部长陈照海就

总参谋部颁发《”十二五”时期军事训练改革总体方案》答记者问” 

(“Plotting the Blueprint for the Scientific Development of Military 

Training in the ‘12th Five-Year Program’ Period—General Staff 

Department Military Training and Service Branch Chief Chen 

Zhaohai Answers Reporters’ Questions on the General Staff Department Issuing the Overall Plan for Military Training Reform 

during the 12th Five-Year Program”), PLA Daily online, September 23, 2011, p. 2, available from www.chinamil.com.cn/jfjbmap/content/2011-09/23/content_67705.htm. 

50. Zhao Xianfeng 赵险峰 et al., “深度融合: 联合训练追求的

新目标” (“Deep Integration: New Targets Pursued in Joint Training”), PLA Daily online, September 26, 2011, p. 2, available from 

chn.chinamil.com.cn/jwjj/2011-09/26/content_4685253.htm. 
202

51. China Central Television CCTV-7, “军事报道” (“Military Report”), August 3, 2010. 

52. Liu Feng’an 刘逢安, “2010 中国军演权威报告” (“Authoritative Report on China’s Military Exercises in 2010”), Liaowang Dongfang Zhoukan (Shanghai), No. 50, December 16, 2010, pp. 26-29, available from www.360doc.com/content/10/1221/13/1858331_80053823.

shtml. 

53. Mei Changwei 梅常伟 and Li Dongxing 李东星, “一位

作训处长的战地日记” (“The Battlefield Diary of an Operation 

and Training Section Chief”), PLA Daily online, August 7, 2012, 

p. 5, available from chn.chinamil.com.cn/jr/2012-08/07/content_

4984135.htm. 

54. Liu Feng’an and Li Kunyang, “‘Study How to Fight Modern Warfare’.“ 

55. Wang Guangli and Gou Jianhong, p. 7. 

56. Su Yincheng 苏银成, Yin Jun 银军, Yan Liang 晏良, “信息

化条件下高寒山地夜间诸军兵种协同作战—寒夜亮剑,辉映不夜

天 (八一之声) ” (“Practice Combined Operations of Multiple Arms 

in Cold, High-altitude Mountainous Areas at Night Under Informatized Conditions—Fighting at Cold Night, Battle Fire Brightens the Night Sky (A Song of August 1)”), People‘s Daily online, 

August 31, 2012, available from theory.people.com.cn/n/2012/0831/

c144769-18882621.html. 

57. Ibid.; Mei Changwei and Li Dongxing, “The Battlefield Diary of an Operation and Training Section Chief”; Wang 

Changhua 王长华 and Li Junbo 李君博, “Clarifying the Vague 

Understanding of Integrated Joint Operations,” Zhanshi Bao 

(Guangzhou Military Region), July 5, 2007.

58. Shi Zhongwu 石忠武, “在‘实战’ 中砺练打赢本领(远望台)” 

(“Tempering the Skills To Win in ‘Actual Combat’ (Observation 

Platform)”), People’s Daily online, July 6, 2012, available from military.people.com.cn/n/2012/0706/c1011-18458208.html. 

59. China Central Television, CCTV-Xinwen, Interview with 

Liang Guanglie, Member of Central Military Commission and 

Minister of National Defense, December 28, 2010. 
203

60. Information Office of the State Council, China’s National 

Defense in 2006. The passage quoted is from Section II, National 

Defense Policy.

61. Zhan Yu 战玉, “A Study of Integrated Joint Operations,” 

pp. 11-21. 

62. Tian Zhong 田中, “战区联训:绸缪未来的 ‘联心’ 之战” 

(“Theater Joint Training: Getting Ready for the Future ‘Joint 

Core’ Operations”), PLA Daily online, December 8, 2011, p. 10, 

available from www.chinamil.com.cn/jfjbmap/content/2011-12/08/

content_73556.htm. 

63. Liu Feng’an and Li Kunyang, “‘Study How to Fight Modern Warfare’.“

64. Wang Guangli and Gou Jianhong, “Say Goodbye to ‘Three 

Old Things,’ Well Practice ‘Baton’.“

65. Liu Feng’an, “Promoting the Transformation of Military 

Training by Building On Our Strengths.” 

66. Mei Changwei and Li Dongxing, “The Battlefield Diary of 

an Operation and Training Section Chief”, p. 5. 

67. Liu Xiaohua et al; Wu Dilun and Liu Feng’an.

68. Liu Feng’an 刘逢安 and Wu Xu 吴旭, “经胡锦涛主席和

中央军委批准: 总参军训和兵种部改编为总参军训部” (“Military 

Training and Arms Department Under the General Staff Department Is Reorganized Into the Military Training Department Under the General Staff Department—Approved by Chairman Hu 

Jintao and Central Military Commission”), PLA Daily online, December 22, 2011, p. 1, available from www.chinamil.com.cn/jfjbmap/

content/1/2011-12/22/01/2011122201_pdf.pdf. 

69. Guo Yuandan 郭媛丹, “解放军1 月内成立4 个新部门” 

(“PLA Sets up Four New Departments in One Month”), Fazhi 

Wanbao (Beijing) online, December 22, 2011, available from www.

fawan.com/Article/gn/jd/2011/12/22/145826140667.html; Zhuang 

Lijun 庄利军 and Liu Feng’an 刘逢安, “总参军训部邀请有关领

导和专家集中研究军事训练战略管理—在更高层次上谋划指导军

事训练” (“Military Training is Planned and Guided at a Higher 
204

Level—Military Training Department Under General Staff Department Invites Related Leaders and Experts To Study Strategic 

Management of Military Training in a Centralized Manner”), PLA 

Daily online, March 27, 2012, p. 1, available from chn.chinamil.com.

cn/head/2012-03/27/content_4819994.htm. 

70. Chen Baocheng, “More Changes Made To Military Commission,” Caixin (Beijing) online in English, November 5, 2012, 

available from english.caixin.com/2012-11-05/100456419.html; “China’s military announces major leadership reshuffle,” Want China 

Times (Taipei) online in English, October 25, 2010, available from 

www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=2012102500003

7&cid=1101; Choi Chi-Yuk, “All Eyes on the New Guard,” South 

China Morning Post online in English, August 5, 2011, available 

from www.scmp.com/article/975400/all-eyes-new-guard.

71. Jia Jianyi 贾建义 et al., p. 2. 

72. Xu Jingnian 徐经年, “基本战役军团联合训练问题研究” 

(“Studying the Problem of Basic Campaign Army Corps Joint 

Training”), PLA Daily online, January 21, 2010, available from 

chn.chinamil.com.cn/jx/2010-01/21/content_4131125.htm; Wu Tianmin 武天敏, “深化训练模式、方法和管理改革 强化核心军事能力

训练—2010:三军军事训练向纵深推进” (“2010: Military Training of the Three Services To Be Further Promoted—Deepen the 

Reforms in Training Models, Methods and Management, and 

Enhance Training for Core Military Capabilities”), PLA Daily online, January 8, 2010, p. 1, available from chn.chinamil.com.cn/xwpdxw/2010-01/08/content_4112556.htm; Mei Wanshan, “In order to 

intensify joint training under informationized conditions we must 

strive for breakthroughs in four key areas,” pp. 533-536.

73. Zhu Sixiong 朱思雄, “军事训练 一切为了实战(八一之

声)” (“Everything in Military Training is Done in Interest of 

Actual Combats (Voice of 1 August),” People’s Daily online, February 18, 2011, p. 20, available from military.people.com.cn/GB/

13947061.html. 

74. “Prospect of PLA Military Training Transformation in 12th 

Five-Year Plan Period,” PLA Daily online, in English, November 

23, 2011, available from www.chnarmy.com/html/2010-11/7987.html. 
205

75. Liu Feng’an 刘逢安, “总参发布2012年军事训练指示 部

署全军新年度军事训练工作” (“General Staff Department Issues 

2012 Military Training Directive, Plans Military Training for all 

Armed Services in New Year”), Xinhua, January 11, 2012, available from chn.chinamil.com.cn/jwjj/2012-01/11/content_4766266.

htm; Liu Feng’an 刘逢安, “总参谋部部署全军新年度军事训练工

作” (“General Staff Department Makes Arrangements for Military Training Work of Entire Armed Forces in New Year”), PLA 

Daily online, January 11, 2012, available from chn.chinamil.com.cn/

zc/2012-01/11/content_4765497.htm.

207

CHAPTER 6

THE ROLE OF INFORMATIZATION

IN THE PEOPLE’S LIBERATION ARMY

UNDER HU JINTAO

Joe McReynolds

James Mulvenon

MAIN ARGUMENT

This chapter examines Chinese military informatization under Hu Jintao, with an emphasis on the integration of military and civilian informatization efforts 

as well as the evolution of Hu’s informatization strategy from that of his predecessor, Jiang Zemin. During 

Hu’s term, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) fully 

embraced informatization as a central guiding principle of military theory and doctrine, an underlying firmament uniting PLA concepts such as the revolution 

in military affairs (RMA) with Chinese characteristics, 

integrated joint operations, civil-military integration, 

and system-of-systems warfare, and tying them to 

China’s broader civilian informatization effort. However, this theoretical sophistication masks significant 

operational deficits, and the PLA’s recent technological advances will not generate world-class combat 

abilities if they are not matched by modernized personnel and organizational structures. This will be the 

next major hurdle for the PLA’s informatization effort, 

and Hu’s primary informatization legacy is his laying 

the policy groundwork that, in time, may enable the 

PLA to overcome these structural challenges.
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POLICY IMPLICATIONS

• U.S. military strategists focusing on scenarios 

involving China must understand the impact of 

informatization trends not only in terms of specific weapons and support platforms, but also 

in terms of integration between military and 

civilian informatization and networks, both in 

peacetime and in defense mobilization or conflict scenarios. Accurately understanding these 

linkages will enable better prediction of both 

the outputs of China’s research, development, 

and acquisition (RD&A) processes and the actions of Chinese political and military actors in 

war or crisis scenarios.

• However, informatization should be understood as a source not only of increased military 

strength and power projection capabilities, but 

also of new systemic vulnerabilities. As the 

PLA develops advanced command, control, 

communications, computers, and intelligence 

surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) technologies and integration with civilian networks, they are likely to become increasingly 

reliant on those systems through training and 

doctrine, ultimately replicating the supposedly 

“asymmetric” vulnerabilities in these areas that 

PLA theoreticians have traditionally noted in 

their analyses of the U.S. military. Shared vulnerabilities could potentially give rise to shared 

interests with the United States, opening an 

additional path by which China may move 

toward becoming a “status quo” power in the 

space and cyber domains.
209

INTRODUCTION

This chapter describes the current state and continuing evolution of the role that the concept of informatization has played in the PLA under former 

President Hu Jintao, in the context of both the PLA’s 

ongoing RMA and the People’s Republic of China’s 

(PRC) broader informatization efforts. The authors 

have attempted to describe the extent to which PLA 

informatization during the Hu era differs from that 

which occurred under former President Jiang Zemin, both in terms of high-level strategic directives 

and in terms of more concrete doctrinal and systems 

development. 

In its various facets, informatization plays a role in 

nearly every modernization effort undertaken by the 

PLA, from networked weapons platforms and modernized C4ISR systems to personnel and structural 

reforms. This chapter does not seek to catalogue the 

development of specific technologies, platforms, and 

operational capabilities linked to informatization, topics which have been covered ably and extensively in 

Western assessments of the PLA by various experts 

on each of the services and branches.1 Instead, we examine the broader conceptual, doctrinal, and organizational framework that overlays and guides military 

informatization efforts. Although the lack of transparency in China’s policy formation process necessitates caution when drawing causal connections from 

declared policies and guiding concepts to concrete 

changes occurring within the PLA, official, and secondary Chinese sources provide a sufficient basis for 

a focused analysis of the role that informatization has 

played in military modernization during the Hu era, 

particularly as it contrasts with the approach of Jiang.
210

The chapter first examines how PLA theoreticians 

understand the structure and scope of informatization and its subordinate concepts, including the conceptualization of military tasks stemming from informatization, before delving into an examination of 

the institutional and doctrinal underpinnings of PLA 

informatization activities. The history of the PLA’s 

informatization concept is traced from its roots under Jiang to its use by Hu, discerning when possible 

the substantive differences between the two leaders’ 

approaches.2 After examining several areas in which 

the PLA’s informatization efforts acquired distinctive characteristics under Hu—informatization in response to the New Historic Missions (NHM), greater 

informatization of PLA training, and the push for 

integrated command platforms—the chapter offers 

concluding thoughts on the successes and failures of 

informatization during Hu’s tenure, and prospects for 

continued informatization under President Xi Jinping.

HOW DOES THE PLA DEFINE 

INFORMATIZATION?

Informatization (信息化) has, at times, been given a reductive or incomplete treatment in Western 

analysis of the PLA. When faced with the question of 

“What does the PLA mean by informatization?” the 

response offered by Western analysts is often that 

military informatization is a concept with vaguely delineated boundaries, which in practice is functionally 

equivalent to the PLA’s “RMA with Chinese characteristics,” or to the modernization of the PLA’s C4ISR 

capabilities, or to the American military’s concept 

of Network-Centric Warfare (NCW). While drawing such equivalences can provide a reasonable and 
211

useful approximation of military informatization in 

certain contexts, it does not capture the full scope of 

what Chinese policymakers and theoreticians mean 

by informatization. The central flaw in this approach 

is the treatment of informatization as a specific monolithic concept, when, in fact, it serves as a “concept of 

concepts.” 

The term “informatization,” at its most universal 

and elemental, describes the process of moving toward greater collection, systematization, distribution, 

and utilization of information.3 Within that ultimate 

process, however, there are numerous subordinate 

processes, extending down through multiple layers, 

from the global trend of informatization to the informatization of particular industries, societies, weapons 

systems, and the like.4 At any given level, the term 

“informatization” can refer to an organic, decentralized process (such as the “informatized conditions” 

under which the PLA are instructed to prepare to win 

local wars), to an intentional, directed process (the informatization of weapons and equipment), or in some 

cases to actions taken by an actor to adapt or prepare 

for informatization trends beyond its control.

A full account of the PLA’s conceptualization of 

informatization must start at the national level before 

moving to the armed forces.5 In addition to strictly 

military-oriented guidance and institution formation, the central government has enacted informatization policies that explicitly contain both civilian and 

military objectives, civilian-oriented informatization 

policies that directly and indirectly impinge upon the 

PLA’s ability to carry out its informatization objectives, and informatization policies for China’s other 

armed forces (the People’s Armed Police and Militia) 

that interface with corresponding PLA policies. While 
212

this chapter is centered on the PLA’s informatization 

efforts, one must keep in mind both that these efforts 

occur within the broader context of Chinese informatization policy, and that national goals and initiatives 

regarding military informatization may be influenced 

or propelled by government actions and policies not 

solely aimed at or implemented by the military.

These contextual complexities, along with the 

many ways in which the PLA’s missions and structure 

differ from those of Western armies, tend to render 

analogies between military informatization and Western concepts such as NCW incomplete or inaccurate 

in practice. Although PLA scholars do reference NCW 

and documents such as Joint Vision 2020 as constituting American “military informatization” efforts 

analogous to their own, those efforts take place in fundamentally different circumstances. For example, the 

United States does not oversee its civilian economy 

with overarching “network-centric” policies, with 

both the civilian and military realms anchored within a common conceptual framework, as the Chinese 

do with informatization. Nor does the United States 

have an organization outside the military along the 

lines of China’s militia system that must be integrated 

into military informatization efforts for it to fulfill 

its duties in some of the military’s most important 

campaign scenarios. Just as these differences cannot 

be analogized away, they cannot simply be attributed to the difference in technological advancement 

between the two militaries. For the reasons outlined 

above, even if the PLA were to gain technological parity with the U.S. military overnight, the guiding concepts of its ongoing military informatization would 

still diverge from the American concept of NCW in 

numerous respects.
213

HOW DOES THE PLA DEVELOP 

INFORMATIZATION THEORY?

Just as China’s military informatization is situated 

within the broader context of both China’s national 

informatization efforts and the global trend toward 

informatization, the PLA conceptualizes multiple aspects of military informatization within a multilayered framework of theoretical constructs. Informatization is relevant to ongoing PLA crafting of both theory 

and operational practice on multiple levels, and across 

numerous overlapping areas of military thought. As 

informatization is a concept of concepts, understanding the categorical and hierarchical ways in which 

PLA theoreticians group the many subordinate military and national defense concerns arising from informatization can be a valuable way of contextualizing 

the many different strains of theory and discussion 

arising from it.

Since PLA doctrine is developed in research and 

academic organizations, theoretical discussions by 

these bodies are often an important guidepost for future changes in PLA strategy and doctrine.6

 The most 

reputable and consistently influential of these organizations are the Academy of Military Sciences (AMS) 

and the National Defense University (NDU), with the 

former having a more theoretical focus and the latter 

engaging more directly with doctrinal development. 

This section attempts to reflect the consensus of this 

top-echelon community within the PLA when conveying Chinese views that for the most part have not 

yet been explicitly codified in publicly available doctrine. The PLA has often displayed years-long “time 

lags” between academic consensus in the formulation 
214

of concepts, the promulgation of those concepts as 

the “strategic thought” of Chinese Communist Party 

(CCP) and military leaders, the integration of that 

top-level guidance into important documents such as 

gangyao (纲要), and the development of concrete processes and capabilities. This lag is particularly noticeable in the realm of informatization.

Although the concept of military informatization 

first found official expression through Jiang’s promotion of leapfrog development (跨越式发展) in 1997, it 

took half a decade for the concept to attain something 

resembling its current ubiquity. The edition of the 

PLA’s authoritative Military Terms (军语) put out by 

the Academy of Military Sciences that same year did 

not even contain a definition for “informatization,” 

much less the many specialized terms of art stemming 

from it, nor did subsequent PLA-issued dictionaries for 

a number of years afterward. By the close of the year 

2000, informatization had been referenced in gangyao 

on topics such as command automation (指挥自动化

建设纲要), noted as an important trend in the biennial 

Defense White Paper, and designated by Jiang as being, 

along with mechanization, one of the “dual historical 

tasks” of the PLA. Yet, military informatization was 

notably absent from the 10th Five Year Plan, even as 

civilian informatization was given prominent focus. 

The PLA’s top-level Military Strategic Guidelines (军事

战略方针) did not formally incorporate informatization until 2002, and numerous other important documents did not yet hold military informatization as 

part of their central focus.

PLA academic and research institutions were 

nevertheless devoting significant attention to informatization during this period, and much of the core 

development of military informatization theory took 
215

place during the final years of Jiang’s term as Central 

Military Commission (CMC) Chairman. The essential 

underlying theoretical framework of the PLA’s current conception of informatization can be seen in the 

2000 edition of the authoritative Science of Campaigns, 

albeit without the refinement and standardization of 

terminology found in the subsequent 2006-07 edition. 

Jiang’s 2002 speech before the 16th Party Congress, 

calling informatization both necessary for military 

modernization and a key enabler of what would now 

be termed “integrated joint operations” (IJO), touched 

off a flurry of theoretical construction, with numerous 

subdivisions of informatization theory being more 

fully explored.

Within the broad scope of Informatized Military 

Affairs Theory (信息化军事理论), PLA theoreticians 

divide theoretical concepts of informatization into 

three distinct realms: Theories of War and Military 

Strategy under Informatized Conditions (信息化战

争与战略理论); Theories of Informatized Operations, 

Command, and Support (信息化作战, 指挥与保障理

论); and Theories of Informatized National Defense 

and Troop Building (信息化国防与军队建设理论).7

Within the realm of war and military strategy 

under informatized conditions, PLA writers see important and distinct theoretical questions of how to 

address national security in the information age (信

息时代国防安全理论), strategy for wars under informatized conditions (信息化战争战略理论), achieving 

military deterrence in the information age (信息时代

军事威慑理论), and the current role of the People’s 

War concept (信息时代人民战争理论), which is held 

by most PLA theorists to be of continuing relevance 

(though differing substance) in an age of informatization.8

 These theoretical constructions tie directly into 
216

broader theories in Chinese social science highlighting movement to an “information age” analogous to 

earlier agricultural or industrial ages, which, in turn, 

begets an “information society” analogous to earlier 

industrial or agricultural modes of society. Just as the 

industrial revolution transformed both the context of 

warfare and the means by which military capabilities 

were generated, Chinese theorists perceive the information society as representing a new sea-change with 

implications for every aspect of warfighting and military construction. PLA theoreticians view this trend as 

not only altering how wars are fought, but whether or 

not wars commence at all, with informatization sometimes lowering the barriers to entry into a conflict.9

PLA writers see the realm of informatized operations, command, and support theory as encompassing 

theories of information warfare (信息战理论), joint operations (联合作战理论), informatized operations and 

command (信息化作战指挥理论), and informatized 

support (信息化保障理论). The various conceptualizations of information warfare elucidated by important 

figures such as Wang Baocun and Dai Qingmin prior to 

the PLA’s systemic focus on informatization are thus 

integrated into the broader context of informatization 

theory. Information warfare theorists have continued 

to play a significant role in the ongoing development 

of informatization efforts through advisory bodies established during the Hu era, as discussed later. PLA 

leaders and theoreticians draw explicit links between 

military informatization theory and operational concepts such as joint operations and system-of-systems 

warfare, with Hu Jintao explicitly stating in a 2006 

speech that “local wars under informatized conditions are confrontations between systems of systems, 

and their fundamental operational mode is integrated 

joint operations.”10
217

Finally, the PLA’s concept of informatized national 

defense and troop building includes the concepts of 

informatized troop building (信息化军队建设理论), 

national defense mobilization in the information age 

(信息时代国防动员理论), and military innovation in 

the information age (信息时代军事创新理论). These final sub-concepts in particular are large-scale, containing multitudes within them. PLA scholars recognize 

informatized mobilization as requiring systemic communication, coordination, and synchronization between the PLA, China’s other armed forces (the militia and People’s Armed Police), and civilian networks, 

both for the national defense and for Hu’s focus on the 

PLA carrying out expanded military operations other 

than warfare (MOOTW). PLA scholars emphatically 

view civil-military integration in the defense economy 

as a key component of both PLA informatization and 

military innovation, thus intertwining military and civilian informatization efforts.

The key point to recognize about this theoretical 

framework is the sheer breadth of its scope. Military 

informatization is conceived not as being confined to 

a single “realm” of warfare (though PLA writing does 

often speak of warfare that takes place in an “information realm,” or 信息领域, analogous to land, sea, and 

air), but rather as a major thread of technological, and 

thus, historical development that, in turn, necessitates 

new theoretical constructs, and eventually new doctrinal and operational modes, in virtually every facet of 

the PLA’s operations.

The scope of military informatization encompasses 

much of what is traditionally considered to constitute 

the PLA’s RMA, while also stretching beyond it. The 

question of how the two concepts interact is not conclusively answered by PLA writings (aside from gen-
218

eralities such as informatization being at the “core” of 

RMA), but the relationship between the concepts can 

be derived from the way the latter is discussed in the 

context of the former. The PRC and PLA leadership 

conceive of informatization as a broad trend of history, 

on par with the industrialization of the 20th century, 

driven by technological and theoretical innovation. In 

keeping with this conception, PLA writings virtually 

never speak of “informatization with Chinese characteristics”; the standard for a doctrine, theory, training 

system, or weapons platform to be considered successfully “informatized” is a judgment of against this 

universal historical trend, and the overall progress of 

“informatization” in the military context is the process of moving, by whatever means, toward achieving 

that standard. At the same time, actions taken toward 

achieving this standard will necessarily reflect the 

PLA’s strategic prioritization of specific missions and 

campaigns, and the specific operational capabilities 

and structures developed to achieve this standard will 

reflect the unique characteristics of both the Chinese 

armed forces and China as a whole.

The ongoing “RMA with Chinese Characteristics” can thus be described as one of the primary vehicles by which the PLA moves through the process 

of military informatization. The policies comprising 

the RMA are largely aimed at meeting a specific test, 

embodied in Hu’s guidance to “build an informatized 

military capable of winning local wars under informatized conditions,” whose parameters are shaped by 

the global progress of informatization rather than by 

a fixed reference point. Jiang Zemin similarly stated 

an explicit understanding that the progress of RMA 

would necessarily hinge on the ability to achieve the 

requirements of informatization, and the PLA’s con-
219

ceptual framework did not change on this point during Hu’s tenure.11 Building an informatized military 

is not the only aim of RMA or the sole measure of 

whether China’s RMA has been successful, but it is 

a major central facet. China must thus, in the words 

of former Premier Wen Jiabao discussing the RMA, 

“walk a road to informatization that has Chinese characteristics” by carrying out an RMA shaped according 

to China’s particular strategic objectives and existing 

military composition.12

FROM THEORY DEVELOPMENT TO

CONCRETE INFORMATIZATION EFFORTS

The process of building an informatized military 

takes the military use of information technology, particularly C4ISR technology, as its foundational base, 

predicated on the PLA’s technical and organizational 

ability to exploit military information, all with the goal 

of raising overall military power through multiple simultaneous avenues. In the practical sense, the PLA’s 

informatization efforts can be divided into three distinct yet complementary (and sometimes overlapping) 

spheres. Each of the three spheres relies on progress in 

the others in order to derive maximum benefit from 

informatization.13

The first sphere is the development of human capital to best exploit opportunities presented by informatization. Starting from the PLA’s top leadership, this 

sphere involves incorporating proficiency with informatized platforms into the PLA’s training, recruitment, and promotion processes, as well as altering 

the RD&A process to produce military systems that 

are better suited to integration into system-of-systems 

networks, including oversight to ensure the resulting 

systems are fit for purpose. 
220

The second sphere is the introduction and provision of informatized technology. This includes the 

retrofitting of old equipment with informatized components, the introduction of new platforms and capabilities such as C4ISR and weapons systems, and finally the integration of platforms and systems of varying 

sophistications and vintages to one another in order to 

share information from the top down (command and 

control), from the bottom up (sensing, measurement, 

and reconnaissance), and laterally (across the services 

and branches in informatized Integrated Joint Warfare). This sphere extends across time through the full 

system life-cycle, from research, development, and acquisition to implementation, proficiency training, and 

maintenance.

The final sphere takes place at the organizational 

level. It includes the modernization of operational 

concepts and organizational structures in ways that 

better enable the utilization of informatized systems 

and personnel, generally moving toward the formation of units which are more modular, diversified, 

and flexible in their range of capabilities and missions 

undertaken. Some military informatization experts, 

conceiving of these three spheres as being successively “phased in” to informatization efforts at a certain 

point in a military’s overall development, classify this 

structural sphere as arriving during a “third and final 

phase” of informatization. They base this classification 

on both the general presumption that institutional barriers and inertia in organizational culture are in some 

sense a greater challenge to the success of informatization than purely technical barriers, and also on the 

specific recognition that the Chinese military has not 

traditionally valued data, information, and lateral coordination on the level of its Western counterparts, an 
221

“era gap” in organizational culture akin to the betterunderstood “era gap” between Chinese and Western 

military technology.14

Within the broader scope of PLA informatization theory and the spheres of action outlined above, 

PLA academics have adopted a number of conceptual 

frameworks that draw a relationship between broad 

theories of informatization, the above conception of 

what military informatization efforts entail, and more 

specific tasks or roles they believe the military should 

undertake as a result of informatization (军队信息化

的任务). Although there is an ongoing debate as to the 

finer points of specific taxonomies, the mainstream of 

PLA thought sorts the work necessary to build an informatized military into five major task categories.15

The first category is combat and combat readiness 

informatization. In the thinking of PLA theoreticians, 

since the informatized mode of warfare is characterized by a rapid operations tempo, the expansion of 

the battlespace to ever broader domains, and a high 

quantity of information flow, successful combat readiness is highly dependent on the establishment of key 

informatized capabilities such as an integrated command architecture. Establishing the capability for 

real-time combat readiness and responsiveness is 

also crucial, and is accomplished through information network construction and the linkage of military 

communication networks, radar networks, computer 

networks, early warning capabilities, and other C4ISR 

architectures with information processing and command automation architectures sufficient for an integrated, resilient command and control capability that 

is responsive to real-time information inputs. Finally, 

efforts to prepare for varied forms of information warfare, ranging from electronic warfare, to computer net-
222

work operations to psychological warfare, fall within 

this domain as well.

The second category is the informatization of 

weapons and equipment. To meet the requirements 

of informatized warfare, both combat platforms and 

equipment require integration into both discrete connected systems and also systems of systems. This includes the transition to informatized weapon targeting and precision-guided weapons and munitions, 

both by grafting information technology onto existing 

weapons and by enshrining the ability to integrate 

harmoniously with existing information platforms 

and systems as a key requirement during the RD&A 

process. The informatization of existing weapons 

systems is particularly crucial for the PLA’s capacity building at this juncture. Despite steadily rising 

budgets, the PLA will continue to have technology of 

widely varying vintages in its force structure for many 

years to come, all of which must eventually be made 

capable of interfacing with its increasingly sophisticated C4ISR networks. This sphere also encompasses 

the introduction of new categories of weaponry, including directed energy weapons, kinetic energy 

weapons, nonlethal weapons, particle beam weapons, 

microwave weapons, and laser weapons, which the 

PLA sees as having the potential to play an important 

role in achieving and exploiting information superiority over future adversaries.

The third is the informatization of logistics support 

systems. PLA researchers see a general global trend 

in which the increasing complexity of informatized 

weapons and equipment leads to greater emphasis 

on logistics support as a point of failure, with the 

informatization of those systems being a necessity if 

the PLA is going to reliably conduct operations un-
223

der informatized conditions. This includes command 

automation, the development of specialized informatized logistics technology and management systems, 

the implementation of highly networked supply chain 

management, and when possible integrating civilian 

technology and civilian resources into military supply networks in order to improve logistics support 

capabilities.

The fourth is the informatization of military training and education. Training and education informatization involves both improvements in the emphasis 

and content of training and the introduction of new 

technologies (particularly various kinds of simulation 

technologies) and platforms into the training process, 

each with the aim of more effectively and efficiently 

preparing members of the military for combat under 

informatized conditions.16 This also includes the development of new guidelines and regulations for informatized operations, and the formation and support 

of institutions engaged in developing and teaching 

about informatized warfare at the strategic, doctrinal, 

and tactical levels. Informatization plays a particularly important role in the PLA’s efforts to improve its 

training processes, with PLA authors within the General Staff Department (GSD) and elsewhere describing 

it as a key enabler of joint training exercises and thus 

the PLA’s ability to successfully conduct joint military 

operations.

The fifth and final category is informatization of 

the PLA’s managerial work and its subordinate systems. To the extent that the efficiency and effectiveness of PLA management tasks directly impinges on 

the success of virtually every other mission discussed 

previously, informatization of management tasks is 

considered an indirect enabler of the PLA’s ability to 
224

conduct and succeed at operations under informatized conditions. The establishment of information 

systems and the integration of information resources 

into existing systems fall within this task, as does the 

management of information itself in domains such as 

information security.

These tasks are prioritized within the context of 

PLA perceptions that near-future warfare scenarios 

are likely to consist of short, high intensity campaigns. 

In this conception of combat, victory will accrue to 

militaries that effectively employ informatized systems-of-systems through integrated joint operations 

to deny the use of information to their adversaries, 

establish information dominance, and maintain information control. Priority is given to specific informatization tasks with the potential to have a disproportionate impact on a limited, asymmetrical conflict versus 

a more powerful (and most likely more informatized) 

adversary.

INFORMATIZATION IN THE CONTEXT

OF THE TRANSITION FROM JIANG TO 

HU’S LEADERSHIP

When examining theoretical discussions of military informatization by PLA scholars writing near the 

end of both Jiang and Hu’s terms as Chairman of the 

CMC, perhaps the most striking thing one notices is 

actually the lack of fundamental differences between 

them. In most respects, the PLA’s informatization 

under Hu Jintao represented a continuation of the 

long-term strategy put in place by Jiang Zemin, both 

in terms of broad content—the “leapfrog” informatization of an army that has, in its own estimation, not 

yet fully completed the previous process of mechanization—and in terms of milestone timing.
225

The PLA can be said to have broadly followed the 

“three-step” scale laid out by Jiang’s CMC in 1997 and 

preserved under Hu, which established three milestones in the construction of informatized armed forces that were ideally to be passed by 2010, 2020, and 

mid-century. The first step, the 2010 goal of building 

a “solid foundation” for “building an informatized 

army” and “winning informatized wars,” has essentially been met. In some cases, language and descriptions of particular concepts that were formerly somewhat ambiguous have had their parameters more 

sharply defined (as with the integrated command 

platform, discussed later), and in others, there has 

been an increased emphasis on particular concepts 

that highlight particular contours of how war under 

informatized conditions may play out.17 But on the 

whole, the theoretical underpinnings of the PLA’s understanding of what military informatization entails 

have not been significantly altered since Jiang’s CMC 

tenure. The aim remains to use the “two transformations,” mechanization and informatization, to transition the PLA from a force that is personnel-intensive 

to a force that is science and technology-intensive.18

If the PLA’s fundamental conception of informatization remained relatively unchanged, however, the 

actions taken by Chinese leadership in its name have 

differed significantly. One key factor underlying the 

PLA’s rapid informatization under Hu’s term as CMC 

Chairman is that many of the major institutional barriers that once stood in its way were already dismantled 

or weakened as the result of the Jiang’s power contests 

with elements of the PLA leadership.

Under Jiang, emphasis on the Chinese RMA (and 

thus informatization) took on not only programmatic 

but political dimensions, with major implications for 
226

the distribution of power, financial resources, and personnel within the PLA, including for force reductions 

that were resisted by elements of the PLA leadership. 

This gave jockeying over the scope, pace, and emphasis of informatization efforts much the same degree 

of political content as was seen in Jiang’s efforts to 

dismantle the PLA’s business empire.19 At the same 

time, the end of the PLA’s business activities created 

an important incentive for the PLA leadership to support increased budgets for informatization and RMA 

efforts as a means of replacing the lost revenue from 

their former businesses.20

By the time Hu was installed as CMC Chairman, 

many of these major battles had already been fought 

and won. With the CMC endorsing “leapfrog development” through the “dual construction” concept (双

化建设) of simultaneous mechanization and informatization, Jiang cut over 700,000 soldiers from the PLA 

during his tenure. Although the dual trends of calls 

for force reductions (primarily from the Army) and a 

greater share of resources going to the relatively informatization-driven PLA Air Force (PLAAF) and PLA 

Navy (PLAN) continued during Hu’s term, the basic 

contours of the PLA’s reform and informatization efforts during the Hu era were already cast without requiring Hu to expend political capital. 

The PLA’s misfortune may have also worked to 

Hu’s advantage. As Hu was preparing to take over 

the Chairmanship of the CMC, the Ming-361 incident, 

a mechanical malfunction that claimed the lives of all 

hands on board a Ming-class submarine, threw PLA 

training deficiencies into sharp relief.21 After the incident itself, the submarine’s base remained unaware of 

its loss until over a week later, when it was discovered 

by fishing boats, causing four senior PLAN officers 
227

to be sacked for “improper command and control.”22

This disastrous peacetime loss may have helped solidify support for an emphasis on improved C2 and 

informatized training.

With his political burdens lessened both by tragic 

circumstance and by the political accomplishments of 

his predecessor, Hu was able to focus primarily on the 

more technocratic challenges of policy implementation. The success of Hu’s informatization policies is 

best assessed not on the basis of achieving a certain 

lasting political and institutional consensus, as was 

the case with Jiang, but rather on the extent to which 

he brought about the successful implementation of 

informatization efforts in recognized areas of weakness for the PLA. Although Hu and Jiang may have 

differed in their various personal qualities, there was 

a fundamental continuity in their approaches to informatization that makes charting the unique properties 

of informatization in the Hu era a matter of drawing 

subtle distinctions rather than broad strokes.

AREAS OF DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 

JIANG AND HU’S MANAGEMENT OF 

MILITARY INFORMATIZATION

The first several years of Hu’s tenure as CMC chairman saw the concept of informatization achieve new 

centrality in PLA strategic thinking, continuing the 

trend of Jiang’s final years in office. The Military Strategic Guidelines (军事战略方针) were formally amended in 2002, updating Jiang’s goal of the PLA being 

able to win “local wars under high-tech conditions” 

to preparing for “local wars under informatized conditions.”23 This change had been several years in the 

making. PLA doctrine under Jiang had consistently 
228

spoken of the transformative impact of information 

technology, information warfare, and the information 

sphere of the battlefield as fundamental elements of 

the form of asymmetrical warfare that the PLA sees 

itself as preparing to fight, all of which fit within the 

theoretical framework of military informatization that 

was being constructed.

Under Hu, this recognition of informatization as 

the nucleus of the “high-tech conditions” shaping the 

future of warfare began to be reflected in an increasing range of doctrinal documents, which, in turn, integrated with China’s broader informatization strategy 

encompassing both the military and civilian spheres. 

As a result, the emphasis of preparation for informatized conflict broadened from the possession and use 

of advanced technology to encompass how changes in 

strategy, doctrine, and operations can enable a fuller 

leveraging of those technological advances. In 2005, a 

military gangyao specifically devoted to informatization (军队信息化建设规划纲要) was issued for the first 

time, covering the 15-year span from 2006 through 

2020. The gangyao emphasized the need for major 

fundamental reforms in the military’s dissemination 

and utilization of information, based on a high-level 

perception that the current state of military informatization was inadequate for successfully conducting 

system-of-systems operations.24

In 2006, following the informatization gangyao, 

the PLA’s Headquarters Regulations were updated 

for the first time in a decade, stressing informatization to a far greater degree than their predecessors.25

Clause 7 of the General Staff Department’s (GSD) section of those regulations imbued GSD with primary 

responsibility for overseeing the day-to-day work of 

the All-PLA Informatization Leading Small Group. 
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GSD “informatization laboratories” have since been 

tasked with key informatization-related projects, such 

as the construction of integrated command platforms. 

In 2008, a new update to the Outlines on Military 

Training and Evaluation (OMTE, also referred to as

DaGang) was issued with a greater emphasis on informatization, a development discussed in greater detail 

below. Finally, in 2011 the GSD’s Communications 

Department was reorganized into the “Informatization Department,” reflecting the central role given to 

GSD by Hu-era doctrine and regulations to manage 

the military’s informatization efforts.26

The latter half of Jiang’s term as Chairman of the 

CMC saw a push to mirror the civilian decisionmaking and organizational apparatus for oversight of 

civilian informatization efforts in the military realm, 

a trend that continued under Hu. For most of this 

time period, national informatization efforts in China 

were overseen by the high-level State Informatization 

Leading Small Group (国家信息化领导小组), which, in 

turn, oversaw the State Council Informatization Office 

(国务院信息化工作办公室, SCITO) and was served by 

the expert Advisory Committee for State Informatization (国家信息化专家咨询委员会, ACSI). These bodies were subsumed into the Ministry of Industry and 

Information Technology (MIIT) upon its creation in 

2008.27 ACSI and the State Informatization Leading 

Small Group are both known to still exist as discrete 

entities under this new arrangement, although the 

current configuration of what was previously known 

as SCITO is somewhat unclear.
230

The PLA, for its part, appears to have had an AllPLA Informatization Leading Small Group (全军信息

化领导小组) since at least 2002, with an All-PLA Informatization Work Office (全军信息化工作办公室) that 

appears to match the functions of SCITO located under the GSD Informatization Department since at least 

2004. It was not until 2005, however, that an All-PLA 

Informatization Expert Advisory Committee (全军信

息化专家咨询委员会) was established. With respected 

information warfare theoretician (and former head of 

GSD’s electronic warfare (EW)-oriented 4th Department) Dai Qingmin, serving as the Committee’s head 

from its founding until his formal retirement in December 2010, the Committee has provided a relatively 

independent body of analysis on informatization challenges facing the PLA. Organizationally, the Committee is only a partial mirror of its civilian counterpart; 

it reports to both the CMC and the four General Departments, and specific Informatization Expert Advisory Committees for the Navy (海军信息化专家咨询委

员会) and the Air Force (空军信息化专家咨询委员会) 

have also been established.28

Steps have been taken in recent years to link these 

parallel systems. Under Hu’s leadership, in 2006 the 

State Council issued its first-ever State Informatization 

Development Strategy (国家信息化发展战略) covering the years 2006 to 2020, issued by the State Council. 

The parallels between this Strategy and the military 

informatization gangyao covering the same span of 

time are not a coincidence. The Strategy explicitly establishes the military’s modernization as being one of 

four goals of the nation’s overall informatization efforts, and organizations operating within the realms 

of both military and civilian informatization, such as 

defense technical universities and military hospitals, 
231

take both documents as collectively expressing a comprehensive overview of China’s overall informatization efforts to 2020. In addition to this harmonization 

of policy, recent years have seen continued deepening 

of linkages between the aforementioned civilian and 

military informatization organizations, with members 

of the National and all-PLA Informatization Expert 

Advisory Groups meeting and collaborating on joint 

assessments with increasing frequency. There has also 

been a broader trend toward greater explicit emphasis 

being given by experts on both sides to the role that 

informatization in the civilian economy plays in military informatization efforts.

Alongside these doctrinal and organizational 

changes, the process of establishing and revising underlying military concepts and theory has continued 

in the background, and here a degree of continuity can 

be observed. One useful lens for observing the evolution of the PLA’s informatization theory between 

Jiang and Hu’s terms as CMC Chairman is by examining the concept’s presentations in the 2000 and 2006-

07 editions of the Science of Campaigns.

29 Produced 

by the Academy of Military Sciences and National 

Defense University, Science of Campaigns is the closest thing that exists to a codified summation of PLA 

academic thinking on the doctrine, methodology, and 

theoretical constructs undergirding the missions the 

military may be tasked with undertaking. Changes in 

the Science of Campaigns are likely to at least somewhat 

correlate with changes in PLA doctrine and strategic 

thought, though as noted above, there may be a significant time lag between a concept cohering in this 

venue and its full programmatic implementation into 

military operations.
232

In the 2006 edition of the Science of Campaigns, informatization is not only discussed in the context of 

its importance for carrying out a given mission, but 

also noted as a “basic essential element of campaign 

strength.” The authors describe military operations 

taking place within a functional “domain of military 

information,” distinct from the separately introduced 

concept of the electromagnetic domain, in which forces can exercise “information power.”30 Looking forward, the authors see information as pervading every 

aspect of future combat, beginning with the battlefield 

“informatized battlefield environment” and extending to a general reliance on information power to 

“fully bring all the resources of war, both capabilities 

and materiel, into play.” Although the integration of 

C4ISR systems is explicitly mentioned as an important 

task, the authors repeatedly emphasize the need for 

functional integration of all informatized platforms in 

order to “grasp the integrated whole.”

This train of thought dovetails logically with attempts by the PLA in subsequent years to develop 

integrated command platform architectures, and, at 

various points, the authors emphasize the importance 

of each of the capabilities that would eventually comprise that architecture. Reconnaissance is described 

as a central task, with an accurate, real-time, reliable 

information collection capability being essential for 

proper exercise of command and control. Command 

and control (C2), EW capabilities, operational support 

capabilities, and logistics and equipment support capabilities are all described as essential and interlocking elements of a successful campaign.

Yet, while this mode of thinking about informatization to a large extent mirrors the centrality of informatization under Hu Jintao, these concepts are also 
233

largely present in the edition of Science of Campaigns 

produced in 2000 during Jiang’s tenure, albeit sometimes phrased in different terms. One must be hesitant, then, to conclude that any observed increase in 

concrete informatization activities or greater theoretical emphasis on informatization under Hu Jintao was 

simply the result of Hu’s leadership and decisionmaking; the intellectual groundwork had been laid in advance during the term of his predecessor, raising the 

possibility that observed differences may have been 

partly or wholly the result of the PLA progressing 

through stages of increasing informatization without 

a substantial altering of course.

Despite a large degree of overlap between informatization under Hu and Jiang, there are also several substantive distinctions of emphasis between the 

guiding strategic concepts of the two eras. Three of 

the most important are Hu’s conception of the PLA’s 

NHM (the “Three Responsibilities and One Role”), 

Hu’s emphasis on informatized training, and most recently the PLA’s major push to achieve an integrated 

joint command capability through the development 

and deployment of informatized command platform 

architectures, policy objectives which have occurred 

alongside a policy emphasis on informatization in 

civilian industries and deepening civil-military 

integration.

INFORMATIZATION AND THE 

NEW HISTORIC MISSIONS

Hu’s New Historic Missions (NHM) considerably 

broadened the range of operations that the PLA is expected to perform, both in terms of MOOTW and in a 

broader conception of the military’s role in safeguard-
234

ing China’s national interests.31 After several years of 

planning and doctrinal development to accommodate 

Hu’s emphasis on MOOTW, the ability to carry out 

non-combat operations has become a regular consideration in all aspects of PLA force development, ranging 

from training and exercises to equipment RD&A. The 

PLAN in particular has gained a broader tasking, not 

only engaging in exercises but conducting operations 

in far seas for the first time in China’s modern history.32 Addressing the distinct force modernization challenges posed by the NHM necessitates an emphasis on 

different aspects of informatization than those most 

relevant to the PLA’s usual focus on regional combat 

operations against an asymmetric adversary, with the 

emphasis shifting to logistics and support informatization, as well as communication and interoperability 

with civilian and militia communications networks, 

and C2 platforms for both defense mobilization and 

the conduct of operations.33

Another means by which the NHM has influenced 

the direction of informatization is in its expanding 

conception of China’s national interests and the PLA’s 

defense of those interests. The NHM has continued 

an important trend of PLA thought dating from the 

1990s by expanding the number of realms in which 

it considers itself to have critical assets and interests 

to be safeguarded, going beyond the traditional land, 

sea, and air domains into the electromagnetic spectrum (including information networks) and space. 

Chinese anxiety about the PLA’s capacity to fulfill this 

mission is reflected in its being named as the second 

of the “two incompatibilities,” Hu’s 2008 formulation 

of crucial PLA missions where the military’s current 

capabilities are inadequate.34
235

Although there remains debate within both the 

PLA and the community of Western Chinese military analysts as to whether the NHM risk displacing 

or jeopardizing the PLA’s preparation for traditional 

combat roles by diluting the focus of training and force 

modernization efforts, there are considerable areas of 

overlap between informatization directed at fulfilling 

the NHM, informatization directed at the PLA’s traditional aims, and civilian informatization objectives. 

The latter synergy is bi-directional, encompassing 

both military technology and platforms that are “spun 

off” to benefit civilian informatization, and civilian 

technologies, and information technologies which are 

“spun on” and integrated into military equipment 

and networks. This informatization overlap has given 

additional ammunition to PLA scholars arguing that 

the concept of military-civil fusion (军民融合, sometimes translated as “civil-military integration”) is 

not only an important component of China’s defense 

RD&A system, but also a crucial aspect of military 

informatization.35

INFORMATIZED TRAINING AND 

PERSONNEL POLICIES UNDER HU

As noted in previous writing on the modernization 

of PLA training, “the PLA, like all militaries seeking 

to integrate increasingly advanced technology, confronts a difficult set of personnel problems,” with a 

persistent gap between the degree of technical proficiency required to successfully operate PLA systems 

and equipment and the caliber of officers and enlisted 

personnel the PLA is able to recruit.36 The informatization of PLA training, in both the sense of greater training for the use of informatized systems and improved 
236

use of simulation and other informatized platforms in 

the conduct of training, is one important means of filling that gap, and PLA authors recognize that informatized training has resulted in a “fundamental change 

in the mode of generating warfighting capability.”37

The role of “informatized training” has grown considerably on Hu’s watch. Informatized training was 

mentioned for the first time in the 2005 directives on 

training, and was given increased prominence in 2006 

and 2007 directives, including 2007’s “Decision on 

the Strengthening of the Military Training in the New 

Century and the New Stage.”38 PLA writers discussing efforts to reform the military’s training initiatives 

directly link the development of informatized training to the ability to conduct multiservice joint training 

exercises, a form of warfare with which the PLA has 

precious little experience.

Above the level of more general directives on 

training are the Outlines on Military Training and 

Evaluation (OMTE), also referred to as the DaGang (民

兵军事训练与考核大纲). These training guidelines are 

incredibly important to the PLA’s operational evolution, as they represent the means through which doctrinal innovations are incorporated into the military’s 

ongoing training exercises. There is not one single unified DaGang; rather, they are a collection of over 100 

documents covering varying missions and roles, with 

the corresponding documents being issued to military 

organizations in all services and branches at all levels. 

These instructions are the core of the PLA’s training 

methodologies, and when updated have resulted in a 

number of new training initiatives.39

The DaGang underwent major revisions in 2007 

and 2008, with changes such as the addition of specific 

documents for militia units and shifts in doctrinal em-
237

phasis. Perhaps the biggest shift in emphasis has been 

described as “moving from training for warfare under conditions of mechanization to training for warfare under conditions of informatization,” in essence 

a shift toward informatized modes of training.40 The 

shift amounts to a difference in emphasis rather than 

a binary dichotomy.

One result of this emphasis is additional attention 

paid to “adapting to the informatized battlefield environment” as well as offensive and defensive information warfare, including training for “achieving the 

aims of warfare in complex electromagnetic environments” (which, in the PLA’s expansive use of the term 

“electromagnetic,” includes a wide variety of information networks) and increased use of informatized 

command, control, communications, computers, and 

intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) 

and weapons systems.41 This dovetails with the push 

under Hu (discussed later) to develop integrated command platforms; the PLA aims to develop these platforms such that the exact same platform is suitable for 

use in both simulation-based training and battlefield 

scenarios, thus improving that training’s real-world 

relevance and overall quality.42 Many of these tasks 

had been outlined years prior as desired future proficiencies for PLA personnel, exemplifying the gradual 

transmission of concepts developed by PLA theoreticians into doctrine.43

The new DaGang also places greater emphasis on 

MOOTW and “peacetime emergency operations,” 

particularly those that require active-duty forces to 

coordinate with and lead militia and civilian assets. 

Informatization plays a crucial role in the military’s 

ability to accomplish these tasks, which derive in part 

from the NHM that had been recently outlined by 

Hu Jintao.44
238

In this development, several trends of informatization begin to overlap; under Hu’s leadership, significant emphasis was placed on integration of the PLA 

and the militia, and on the militia’s informatization. 

After emphasizing greater integration of militia and 

civilian networks with the PLA in 2004 through the 

NHM, 2006 saw the first ever informatization-related 

gangyao issued for the militia system, involving the 

informatization and integration of its air defense network. Following on the heels of this change, the 2007 

inclusion of militias, the DaGang system, and the integration of militia networks into the PLA’s integrated 

command platform architectures suggests a consistent trend toward integrating the militia and China’s 

broader armed forces into top-level PLA informatization planning, which will be reflected in training 

efforts going forward.

These changes are not solely technical and organizational in nature. To the extent that one can conclusively discern shifts in the focus of the PLA’s informatization process during Hu’s term, an increased 

emphasis on the human element of informatization 

is palpable. In 2011, Hu ratified the “2020 Military 

Personnel Human Capital Development Plan” gangyao (2020 年前军队人才发展规划纲要), establishing 

the development of personnel capable of managing 

an informatized force as a high-level requirement for 

achieving the PLA’s development goals over the next 

decade, and placing that development at the core of 

the PLA’s ability to effectively seize the potential of 

system-of-systems operations.45 The transition from 

the 11th to the 12th Five Year Plan also reflects toplevel guidance to deepen the informatization of training and military education.46
239

Noting the importance of personnel, Hu once declared that “the global revolution in military affairs is 

not only a revolution of military technology and organizational structures, but a revolution in military 

management,” a position reflected not only in informatization policy but also in many personnel-centric 

initiatives tied to his guiding thinking of “scientific 

development.”47 There is acknowledgment within the 

PLA that high-level strategic thinking and doctrine on 

training has yet to fully permeate the training process, 

and that training as it currently stands remains inadequate for the successful conduct of warfare under 

informatized conditions.48 It appears likely that Hu’s 

push for informatized training will continue to guide 

the PLA’s informatization process well into Xi’s tenure as CMC Chairman.

INTEGRATED COMMAND PLATFORMS AND 

INTEGRATED JOINT OPERATIONS

In order to properly contextualize the significance 

of the PLA’s recent focus on integrated command 

platform architectures, a brief return to discussion of 

Chinese military theory is necessary. PLA authors repeatedly link the move toward informatization with 

the development of a capability for “integrated joint 

operations” (一体化联合作战), which is specifically 

distinguished from merely “joint” operations (联合作

战). This new form of combat has its theoretical basis in 

the PLA’s concept of “system of systems” operations 

(体系作战), the idea that the future of warfare involves 

the interaction of numerous informatized systems 

which, in turn, form a system-of-systems greater than 

the sum of their parts. In the PLA’s thinking, integrated joint operations is the practical real-world expres-
240

sion of special operations squadron (SoS) operations, 

and senior PLA theoreticians often use the terms interchangeably or explicitly equate them to one another. 

Integrated joint operations are “a prominent feature 

of future informatized warfare,” and must necessarily be a major focus of “overall informatization planning and guidance,” in that “effectively integrating all 

kinds of information systems into systems of systems” 

for the purpose of enabling integrated joint operations 

will translate into “increased military capabilities on 

the informatized battlefields of the future.”49

The main difference between simple “joint operations” and integrated joint operations is that the 

former has traditionally been “joint in name only,” 

without rising to the level of what Western militaries would ordinarily term “jointness,” implying the 

simultaneous use of forces from multiple services and 

branches conducting coordinated operations based on 

orders received through a joint command post. Until 

recently, factors such as weighting of command post 

personnel toward the army, lack of interoperable communications architectures, and lack of institutional 

emphasis on interservice coordination have rendered 

PLA joint exercises a hollow shell of their notional potential, with the participating services generally either 

assigned to oppose one another or conducting nonintegrated operations in proximity to one another.50

Integrated joint operations, by contrast, possesses 

all the hallmarks of jointness that the U.S. military has 

taken for granted for decades, such as integrated command and control, a near-real-time Common Operational Picture (COP), and reliable, regularly utilized 

avenues of interservice communication. Such operations are nearly impossible to conduct without the necessary C4ISR technology. In Cortez Cooper’s words, 
241

the ability of the PLA to successfully conduct integrated joint warfare depends heavily on “develop[ing] 

and employ[ing] an integrated platform or network 

for rapid joint war zone information collection, fusion, dissemination, and command decision.”51 The 

sort of architecture necessary for enabling these tasks, 

a system of informatized systems, has been described 

conceptually by PLA theoreticians using a variety of 

broad terminology for over a decade. In recent years, 

however, the architecture has become more concrete, 

with development underway in GSD informatization 

laboratories (particularly the 61st Research Institute), 

the promulgation of standards for interfacing and interoperability, and deployment and testing in public 

military exercises.

This architecture is now explicitly described as 

constituting an Integrated Command Platform (一体

化指挥平台, ICP), the glue connecting together unlike 

systems of varying origins and levels of technological 

sophistication and informatization. The ICP concept 

grew out of prior notions of “command automation 

systems” (指挥自动化系统), with the evolution reflected in 2006’s informatization-focused Headquarters Regulations.52 The ongoing development of ICPs 

is a core focus of current PLA informatization efforts. 

ICPs are not merely command and control systems; 

they encompass communications, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), and even electronic warfare capabilities within a unified, integrated 

framework. Various ICPs with separate development 

teams, capabilities, and user-bases (and often incomplete or insufficient interoperability with one another) 

are simultaneously under development.

One noteworthy feature of ICPs is their integration 

not only of varied military systems, but also of Peo-
242

ple’s Armed Police (PAP), militia, and civilian data 

and communications networks.53 This broadening of 

systems integration beyond purely military-controlled 

systems is not only a potential boon for the PLA’s ability to coordinate resources and produce an accurate 

COP when conducting warfighting operations in their 

own backyard, but also recognized by PLA academics as a necessary condition for conducting the various nonwarfare mobilizations and operations that 

the military has been tasked with undertaking as part 

of Hu Jintao’s NHM concept. ICP development thus 

represents another major potential convergence point 

for multiple vectors of ongoing PLA and non-PLA 

informatization efforts.54

As various ICPs are being developed within a number of military organizations, top-down coordination 

is necessary to ensure compatibility and interoperability. The issuing of guidance on “standardization and 

integration” in software design by the GSD Informatization Department appears to have had an impact in 

this regard, leading to the formulation of a series of 

“211” standards for military software and hardware 

which apply to interconnection and interoperability with ICPs.55 These standards range from “211A” 

which cover engineering requirements, to “211K” 

which cover database structure, with guidelines for 

information exchange protocols, packet transfer protocol specifications, and various other aspects of interoperability, all issued with the goal of creating an 

environment where applications and information can 

be shared on demand across a varied range of systems. 

Early ICP test deployments have at times been faulted 

for lacking sufficient interoperability and functionality, a problem that can only be resolved through improved adherence to uniform standards.
243

The push toward deployment of integrated command platforms for testing and training has gained 

momentum in recent years, alongside an increase in 

training exercises intended to simulate integrated joint 

operations. In July 2013, for example, the Chengdu 

Military Region staged the latest in a series of “command and confrontation” exercises coordinating multiple services that were connected through the use of 

integrated command platforms. Recently, however, 

there appears to have been some evolution away from 

this mindset. Although it is difficult to pinpoint the extent to which ICP is solely or primarily responsible for 

the observed evolution of PLA exercises with a joint 

warfare component, there does appear to be a noticeable uptick in the past 2 years in multiservice exercises 

that feature truly “joint” coordination and cooperation 

to at least some extent. Other PLA authors, however, 

have highlighted the incomplete deployment of ICPs 

as an obstacle, with different types of units across 

the armed forces having access to different ICPs and 

information sharing mechanisms.56

It is too early to tell whether these efforts will bear 

fruit. Integration of these platforms into military region training exercises has only been happening with 

any frequency since 2011, hardly enough time to 

judge the outcome of such an inherently disruptive, 

transformative process. In some military regions, the 

introduction of ICPs has been combined with a major 

push in emphasis toward integrated joint operations, 

further increasing the pace of change.57

Through recent PLA training exercises involving 

operations against a “red team” under complex simulations of real-world conditions, evidence is emerging 

that ICPs are a necessary, but not sufficient, condition 

for successfully conducting integrated joint opera-
244

tions, as even a fully functioning integrated command 

platform can be utilized poorly by undertrained troops 

following outdated methodologies and doctrines.58

ICPs have some way to go, and there appears to be 

some recognition within the military leadership that 

this will be a fairly long-term undertaking, with only 

gradual displays of progress.59

As a result, important questions remain as to what 

form ICP communications and coordination capabilities will take when they eventually graduate from 

simulations, testing, and training, and are made directly available to lower-level units on the battlefield. 

Although they often extol the virtues of information 

sharing, PLA publications discussing planned development of ICPs have also mentioned the need for 

higher-grade units to actively filter information before 

passing it downward, out of concern for both maintaining the PLA’s traditionally proactive C2 capability and for preventing information overload from 

stymieing low-level tactical decisionmaking.60 PLA 

theoreticians also see integrated command platforms 

as offering increased potential for “skip echelon” (跨

级) C2, in which an organization more than one grade 

above another is able to “reach down” to directly issue 

commands.61

However, there is also some evidence that the PLA 

explicitly views informatization as a means to better 

enable both ISR sharing and communications between 

units in the field and lower-level commanders “reaching up” several levels above them when necessary. 

Unlike previous ISR sharing arrangements, which had 

information being passed from the bottom up level by 

individual level, the PLA’s ICPs have been specifically 

designed to not only enable ISR sharing from command units to lower levels, but also from individual 
245

soldiers at the company level up to the level of group 

army command headquarters, with communication 

bypassing intermediate levels. One recent military exercise even prominently featured individual PLA soldiers “skipping echelons” to directly call in airstrikes 

from PLAAF bombers on enemy positions.62

This is, to put it mildly, not the way that the PLA 

has historically done business. Whether the PLA’s 

battlefield implementation of ICPs actually achieves 

this degree of operational flexibility will inevitably 

also depend on other factors such as reforms in training, doctrine, and organizational culture. Debates are 

ongoing within the PLA as to whether greater emphasis should be placed on commanders of lower-grade 

units taking independent initiative. Here, again, the 

deployment of ICPs dovetails with other informatization developments; although the PLA recognizes from 

the experience of the U.S. military that granting operational flexibility to low-level commanders often leads 

to superior results, but those gains are impossible to 

realize without improved training and other shifts in 

organizational culture. ICPs can facilitate doctrinal 

evolution in either direction; the same architectures 

that could empower lower-level officers to make 

rapid, autonomous decisions can also be used to increase the degree of real-time oversight and command 

capabilities of higher-grade organizations. Although 

its specific contours have yet to be determined, the essential technological underpinnings are now in place 

for a substantial movement toward some form of the 

integrated joint operations concept attaining primacy 

both in theory and in practice.
246

CONCLUSION

Even with the benefit of hindsight, it is often difficult to draw clear-cut distinctions as to which changes 

in informatization policy and doctrine during Hu’s 

time as Chairman of the CMC are best credited to 

his leadership and initiative, and which were simply natural outgrowths of decisions made under the 

leadership of his predecessor. To some extent, however, this distinction is an artificial one; examining 

the Chinese military as a “system of systems,” one 

of its most salient features is the existence of numerous mechanisms for a leader to continue to exert his 

influence even after he has exited the stage. Just as 

many of Jiang’s initiatives to expand the scope, depth, 

and pace of military informatization bore fruit under 

the Hu era, it is likely that many of Hu’s initiatives 

that were in their infancy or only partially developed 

at the close of his leadership term will continue to 

mature under Xi Jinping.

During Hu’s term, the PLA fully embraced informatization as a central guiding principle of military 

theory and doctrine, an underlying firmament uniting 

concepts such as the RMA with Chinese characteristics, information warfare, integrated joint warfare, 

and the system-of-systems approach to military operations. Under Xi, then, it is likely that this theoretical centrality will be translated into concrete organizational and systemic transformations in an increasingly 

broad range of spheres.

However, the PLA’s theoretical sophistication is 

still not matched by operational realities. Its leaders 

and theoreticians are not blind to the gap, and recognize that informatized technology alone will not generate effective combat abilities if they are not paired 
247

with modernized personnel and organizational structures. In addition to his role overseeing the 12th Five 

Year Plan, Hu has left Xi with numerous plans and 

doctrines in place, guiding development out to 2020, 

when the PLA will ostensibly complete its second 

phase of “leapfrog development.” A great number of 

these plans relate to the human side of informatization, a modernization challenge that perhaps surpasses even the technological leaps and bounds the PLA 

has overcome during the past decade. Jiang’s informatization legacy centers on his bringing the PLA to 

embrace fully science and technology modernization, 

even though many of his initiatives will not fully permeate the military until after his departure. Despite 

the accelerated scope of technological progress under 

his leadership, Hu’s informatization legacy ultimately may be his laying the groundwork for the PLA to 

one day produce personnel and organizational structures that are up to the historic task of utilizing effectively the informatized systems and platforms they 

are acquiring.

Implications for the United States.

These trends, taken together, have the potential to 

impact significantly the calculus of U.S. policymakers and military strategists, as well as the broader 

Sino-American military-to-military relationship. The 

whole of informatization is greater than the sum of 

its parts, and there are policy implications stemming 

from China’s informatization that stretch beyond the 

importance of each individual informatization effort.

First and foremost, U.S. military strategists focusing on scenarios involving China must understand 

the impact of informatization trends not only in terms 
248

of specific weapons and support platforms, but also 

in terms of integration between military and civilian 

informatization and networks, both in peacetime and 

in defense mobilization or conflict scenarios. Accurately understanding these linkages will enable better 

prediction of both the outputs of China’s RD&A processes and the actions of Chinese political and military 

actors in war or crisis scenarios.

However, informatization should be understood 

as a source not only of increased military strength 

and power projection capabilities, but also of new systemic vulnerabilities. As the PLA develops advanced 

C4ISR technologies and integration with civilian networks, they are likely to become increasingly reliant 

on those systems through training and doctrine, ultimately replicating the supposedly “asymmetric” 

vulnerabilities in these areas that PLA theoreticians 

traditionally have noted in their analyses of the U.S. 

military. Shared vulnerabilities could potentially give 

rise to shared interests with the United States, opening 

an additional path by which China may move toward 

becoming a status quo power in the space and cyber 

domains.

ENDNOTES - CHAPTER 6

1. See, for example, Kevin Pollpeter, “Towards an Integrative C4ISR System: Informatization and Joint Operations in the 

People’s Liberation Army,” Roy Kamphausen, David Lai, and 

Andrew Scobell, eds., The PLA At Home and Abroad: Assessing the 

Operational Capabilities of China’s Military, Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College, 2010, pp. 219–226; 

and Andrew Erickson and Michael Chase, “Informatization 

and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy,” Phillip Saunders, Christopher Yung, Michael Swaine, and Andrew NienDzu Yang, eds., The Chinese Navy: Expanding Capabilities, Evolving Roles, Washington, DC: National Defense University Press, 

2011, pp. 247-286.
249

2. The overall concept of informatization originates with Japanese intellectuals in the 1970s, and Chinese sources love to demonstrate continuity of thought by noting that it was once briefly 

mentioned by Deng Xiaoping as being of importance. But it was 

under Jiang that the military implications and implementations of 

informatization truly began to coalesce.

3. Due to the complexities of the Chinese language, the word 

xinxihua in Chinese can refer to both the state of being informatized and the process of informatization, leading some Chinese 

scholars to make remarks such as “informatization is both a state 

and a process” that can sometimes cause related concepts to appear to bleed together to non-Chinese-speaking analysts.

4. See, for example, the reference to the “informatization of 

society” as a factor shaping the evolving defense environment in 

China’s National Defense in 2010, Beijing, China: State Council Information Office, 2011. 

5. The term “armed forces” is a conceptual grouping distinct 

from the Chinese military, and encompasses not only the People’s 

Liberation Army but also the People’s Armed Police and militia 

units.

6. Kevin Pollpeter, “The Chinese Vision of Space Military Operations,” James Mulvenon and David Finkelstein, eds., The Revolution in Doctrinal Affairs: Emerging Trends in the Operational Art of 

the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Alexandria, VA: Center for 

Naval Analyses, 2005, pp. 329-369.

7. One of the best comprehensive summaries of this framework can be found in Lu Dengming (吕登明), 信息化战争与信息

化军队 (Informatized Warfare and Informatized Troops), 北京:解放军

出版社, 2004 (Beijing, China: PLA Press, 2004), pp. 495-500.

8. For example, see Cheng Xiang (盛强): “针对现代建军要求, 

扎实人民战争准备” (“In Accordance With Modern Army-building Requirements, Preparation for Practical People’s War”), 国防

和军队建设战略问题研究 (Research on Problems of National Defense 

and Troop Building Strategy), November 2011. For Western analysis 

of the continuing relevance of People’s War, see Dennis Blasko, 
250

“Chinese Strategic Thinking: People’s War in the 21st Century,” 

China Brief, March 18, 2010.

9. Yan Xiaofeng (颜晓峰), “信息化战争形态拓展战争价值” 

(“The Expanding Value in Warfare of Warfare Under Informatized Conditions”), 中国社会科学报 (China Social Science News), 

July 27, 2010.

10. “胡锦涛主席要求推进军事训练向信息化转变图” (“President Hu Requires Military Training to Move Toward Informatization Transformation”), Xinhua News, June 28, 2006.

11. See Jiang Zemin’s speech in 2003, cited in Lu, p. 595.

12. Zhang Xinhong (张新红), “论走中国特色的信息化道路” 

(“Discussion on China Walking a Road of Informatization With 

Special Characteristics”), 中国信息年鉴 (China Informatization Almanac), 2004.

13. For excellent discussions of this conceptual framework, 

see Wang Tiezhi (王铁志): “从美军的信息化看我军信息化的建设

目标” (“Looking at our Informatization-building Targets from 

America’s Informatization”), 管理观察 (Management Observer), 

No. 6, 2009; and also Yuan Wenxian (袁文先), “创建中国特色的

军队信息化制度体系” (“Creating Military Informatization Institutions With Chinese Characteristics”), 中国社会科学报 (China Social Science News), No. 7, 2010.

14. Mei Jun (梅军) reporting comments by members of the 

All-PLA Informatization Expert Advisory Committee, “专家观

点:军队改革与信息化” (“Expert Viewpoint: Military Reform and 

Informatization”), 解放军报 (PLA Daily), August 19, 2009. Frustration with the extent to which bureaucracy and institutional inertia delays informatization efforts is palpable throughout the commentary, with one expert on the Committee joking, “When they 

change something, they’ll call it ‘reform’, and when they change 

it back to the way it was, they’ll call it ‘deepening reform’.” See 

also Nan Zhansheng (南振声), “我军信息化建设最大阻力是旧观

念” (“The Biggest Obstacle To Our Military Informatization is Old 

Ideas”), 解放军报 (PLA Daily), August 15, 2010.

15. Song Luyi (宋鲁毅): “军队信息化的任务及评价指标体系” 

(“Military Informatization Task and Evaluation Target System”), 
251

国防大学学报:战略问题研究 (Journal of National Defence University), No. 6, 2003, pp. 37-38. See also Yuan, 2010.

16. For a detailed look at PLA efforts in this area, see James 

Mulvenon, “True Is False, False Is True, Virtual Is Reality, Reality Is Virtual: Technology and Simulation in the Chinese Military 

Training Revolution,” Roy Kamphausen, Andrew Scobell, and 

Travis Tanner, eds., The People in the PLA: Recruitment, Training, 

and Education in China’s Military, Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies 

Institute, U.S. Army War College, 2008, pp. 49-97.

17. For example, the sanfei zuozhan (三非作战) concept, which 

posits that future combat operations will be increasingly asymmetrical (“nonsymmetrical” in the literal Chinese, hence the sanfei

concept translating as “the three nons”), noncontact, and nonlinear, thus increasing the role of informatization in determining the 

outcome of military conflicts, was integrated into a revised edition of the authoritative Science of Campaigns volume published 

during the Hu era.

18. Ken Allen, Office of Naval Intelligence China Navy Handbook, 

Washington, DC: Office of Naval Intelligence, 2007, p. 24.

19. For a tediously detailed account of the PLA’s business empire, see James Mulvenon, Soldiers of Fortune: The Rise and Fall of 

the Chinese Military-Business Complex, 1978-98, Armonk, NY: M. E. 

Sharpe, 2001.

20. Nan Li, “Chinese Civil-Military Relations in the PostDeng Era: Implications for Crisis Management and Naval Modernization,” Newport, RI: Center for Naval Warfare Studies, 

January 2010.

21. See James Mulvenon, “The Crucible of Tragedy: SARS, the 

Ming 361 Accident, and Chinese Party-Army Relations,” China 

Leadership Monitor, No. 8, 2003.

22. “Type 035 Incidents,” SinoDefence, available from www.

sinodefence.com/navy/sub/type035ming-incidents.asp.

23. David Finkelstein, “China’s National Military Strategy: 

An Overview of the ‘Military Strategic Guidelines’,” Andrew Sco-
252

bell and Roy Kamphausen, eds., Right Sizing the People’s Liberation 

Army: Exploring the Contours of China’s Military, Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College, 2007, pp. 69-140.

24. See, for example, Han Jianxin (韩建新): “全军信息化工

作办公室常务副主任侯喜贵在全军”军用主题词表辅助标引系统”

使用骨干培训班开学式上的讲话” (“Remarks by All-PLA Informatization Work Office Deputy Director Hou Xigui at Backbone 

Training Class on Military-Use Auxiliary Indexing System“), 信息

管理 (Information Management), No. 4, August 27, 2006.

25. “胡锦涛签署发布《中国人民解放军司令部条例” (“Hu Jintao Signed and Released PLA Headquarters Regulations”), Xinhua News, March 19, 2006.

26. See The Diversified Employment of China’s Armed Forces, Beijing, China: State Council Information Office, 2013. 

27. It is worth noting that MIIT’s Chinese name uses the 

term “informatization” or xinxihua, although this is translated as “Information Technology” in the organization’s official 

English name.

28. It remains unclear whether these institutions are, in fact, 

subordinate to the All-Military Informatization Expert Advisory 

Group, or operating in parallel with it. The Navy Informatization Expert Advisory Group appears to have begun at roughly 

the same time as the all-PLA group, but the Air Force committee 

appears to be more recent and has some affiliation with National 

Defense University. See “2008 国防信息化发展论坛成功召开展示

先进信息技术” (“2008 Defense Information Development Forum 

Successfully Held to Showcase Advanced Information Technology”), 新浪军事 (Sina Military), October 29, 2008.

29. For reasons which are still unclear, the 2006 edition of the 

Science of Campaigns, initially issued in 2006 by National Defense 

University Press, was reissued in 2007 by the Academy of Military Sciences with a number of relatively small additions, but with 

most of its content left untouched. Since both National Defense 

University and the Academy of Military Sciences are authoritative sources and the additional content does not fundamentally 

contradict the 2006 edition’s content, this chapter treats the content of both the 2006 and 2007 editions as authoritative.
253

30. Science of Campaigns, 2006.

31. See James Mulvenon, “Chairman Hu and the PLA’s New 

Historic Missions,” China Leadership Monitor, No. 27, 2009.

32. Nan Li, “Scanning the Horizon for ‘New Historical Missions’,” Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute, April 2010.

33. Niu Junfeng, Jiang Xinghua, and Sun Qiyuan (牛俊峰, 姜

兴华, 孙启元), “曲靖军分区国防动员指挥演练:信息系统成‘主角’” 

(“Qujing Military Sub-Region National Defense Mobilization 

Command Drills: Information Systems Take a Leading Role”), 解

放军报 (PLA Daily), January 1, 2007.

34. See Hu Jintao’s New Year’s message on “Developing a 

New Situation in National Defense and Army Modernization, 

Guided by the 17 Party Congress Spirit,” 解放军报 (PLA Daily), 

January 1, 2008, cited in Mulvenon, 2009.

35. See, for example, Lin Xuejun (林学俊), “国防科技工业实现

军民融合发展是时代的需要” (“The Defense Science and Technology Industry Achieving Military-Civil Fusion is the Requirement 

of the Age”), 中国军转民 (Defence Industry Conversion in China), 

No. 4, 2010.

36. Mulvenon, 2008, pp. 44-97.

37. Zhang Wenchao and Ou Kai (张文超, 欧凯): “中国特色军

事变革思想发展考察” (“Survey of Development in Thought Regarding the Revolution in Military Affairs With Chinese Characteristics”), 党史文苑 (Literary Circles of CPC History), No. 10, 2011, 

pp. 27-29; and Department of Defense, Military Power of the People’s Republic of China, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing 

Office, 2009.

38. Luo Jianwei (刘建伟), “迎接党的十八大:信息主导三军演兵

风雷激荡” (“The 18 Party Congress: Information Leads the Three 

Military Services to Drills, Surging With Wind and Thunder”), 解

放军报 (PLA Daily), August 7, 2012.
254

39. Huang Yuliang, Chen Yi, and Hu Haiyan (黄余良, 陈逸, 

胡海燕), “南京军区联勤部加强核心军事保障能力建设纪实” (“Eyewitness Account of Nanjing Military Region Joint Logistics Department Strengthening Core Military Support Capabilities Construction”), Xinhua News, August 6, 2010.

40. Luo, 2012.

41. Liu Zhiqing (刘志青), “科学发展观指导下的中国特色军事

变革” (“The RMA With Chinese Characteristics Under the Concept of Scientific Development”), 当代中国史研究 (Contemporary 

China History Studies), July 24, 2012.

42. Zhao Xinye, Cai Ying, Yang Mei, and Huang Kedi (赵鑫

业, 蔡楹, 杨妹, 黄柯棣) : “军事仿真分析评估系统互操作性标准化” 

(“Military Simulation Analysis and Evaluation Systems Interporability Standardization”), 系统仿真学报 (Journal of System Simulation), No. 12, 2012, pp. 2455-2462.

43. Liu, 2012.

44. Bei Xiao (贝骁), “新一代民兵军事训练与考核大纲颁发” 

(“New Militia Training and Appraisal Outline Issued”), 解放军报

(PLA Daily), July 5, 2007.

45. “经胡锦涛批准《2020年前军队人才发展规划纲要》颁发施

行” (“Hu Jintao Ratified the 2020 Military Talent Development 

Plan Outline, Which Has Been Issued and Implemented”), Xinhua 

News, April 18, 2011.

46. Liu Feng’an and Hu Junhua (刘逢安, 胡君华), “解放军”十

二五”时期军事训练如何改革?” (“How to Reform Military Training During the 12th Five Year Plan?”), 解放军报 (PLA Daily), September 23, 2011.

47. Hu quoted in Wang An (王安), “军事管理革命” (“Revolution in Military Management”), 北京:长征出版社, Beijing, China: 

Long March Press, 2005, p. 3.

48. Yu Lei (于雷), “拓展信息化条件下军事训练 打造基于信

息系统体系作战能力” (“Expand Military Training Under Conditions of Informatization, Build Warfare Capabilities Based on 
255

Information System-of-Systems”), 解放军报 (PLA Daily), January 

10, 2011.

49. Wang Yongjun, Zhao Shi, Liang Zuotang (汪拥军, 赵时, 

梁佐堂): “新形势下加强军队信息化建设的思考” (“Study on Information Construction of Army in New Situation”), 科技信息 (Science & Technology Information), No. 33, 2009.

50. Hu Junhua (胡君华), “加快转变战斗力生成模式步履铿

锵—党的十六大以来国防和军队建设成就述评二” (“Accelerating 

the Transformation of the Mode of Generating Combat Capabilities With Resounding Steps - Review of Achievements in National Defense and Army-building Since the 16 Party Congress”), 解

放军报 (PLA Daily), August 7, 2012. For an example of the old 

way, see Chen Hanzhong and Wu Tie, “Aviation division fosters 

fighting capability under informatization condition,” 解放军报

(PLA Daily), September 17, 2007. English translation is available 

from english.chinamil.com.cn/site2/special-reports/2007-09/17/content_967688.htm.

51. Cortez Cooper, “Joint Anti-Access Operations: China’s 

System-of-Systems Approach,” Testimony before the U.S.-China 

Economic and Security Review Commission, Washington, DC: 

RAND Corporation, January 27, 2011.

52. Xu Genchu (徐根初), “司令部建设理论的创新发展” (“Innovation and Development of Headquarters Construction 

Theory”), 解放军报 (PLA Daily), May 16, 2006.

53. Li Lifen and Mai Yali (李丽芬, 买亚莉): “基于一体化指挥

平台的防空指控系统软件体系结构” (“Software Architecture for 

an Air Defense Command and Control System Based on the Integrated Command Platform”), 电脑开发与应用 (Computer Development & Applications), No. 11, 2011.

54. Luo Guoxu and Zhang Zhao (罗国许, 张钊): “对国防动员

信息化建设军民融合式发展的几点思考” (“Several Thoughts Regarding the Suitable Development of Military-Civil Fusion in National Defense Mobilization Informatization Construction”), 国防

(National Defense), No. 2, 2012.

55. Li and Mai, 2011.
256

56. Sun Jianli (孙剑 利): “预备役高炮部队信息系统建设存在

的问题与对策” (“Problems and Solutions for Information System 

Construction for Reserve Artillery Units”), 国防 (National Defense), No. 12, 2011.

57. This is sometimes referred to as a metaphorical “exchanging of guns” (换枪), as the organizational challenge is in many 

ways comparable to the incorporation of new weapons systems. 

See Hu, 2012.

58. See, for example, Guo Fengkuan, Lei Guangming, and 

Yan Liang (郭丰宽, 雷光明, 晏良), “西藏军区配备一体化指挥平台

破除传统思维” (“Troops in Tibet Equipped With Integrated Command Platform, Breaking Traditional Ways of Thinking”), 解放军

报 (PLA Daily), December 21, 2011.

59. Qin Yinhe (秦银河), “整体推进全面建设现代后勤保障多样

化军事任务的完成” (“Overall Advancement Toward the Completion of Building Modern Logistics Support for Diversified Military Tasks”), 人民日报 (People’s Daily), July 27, 2010. As part of his 

goals laid out at the 17th Party Congress, Hu expected the PLA to 

have “essentially completed” the task of developing a modernized, informatized logistics system only by 2020, suggesting an 

understanding that progress will be gradual.

60. Kevin McCauley, “Developing a Framework for PLA Precision Operations,” China Brief, July 6, 2012.

61. Ken Allen and Aaron Shraberg, “Assessing the Grade 

Structure for China’s Aircraft Carriers: Part 2,” China Brief, July 

29, 2011.

62. Luo, 2012. The author colorfully describes the event as being “like something out of a blockbuster movie.”
257

CHAPTER 7

CHINA’S EVOLVING NAVAL STRATEGY

AND CAPABILITIES IN THE HU JINTAO ERA

Nan Li

INTRODUCTION

This chapter examines China’s naval strategy and 

capabilities in the Hu Jintao Era. It addresses issues 

such as Hu’s contributions to naval strategy; the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) missions, priority, and operational concepts; and PLAN’s changing 

capabilities and factors that can account for changes.

For naval strategy, Hu has made two contributions. He requires the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) 

to safeguard China’s newly emerging overseas interests, which defines PLAN’s far-seas missions; and he 

endorsed the concept of information systems-based 

system of systems operations, which impacts how 

PLAN conducts operations. Between far-seas and 

near-seas missions, however, PLAN strategists believe that near-seas missions are the priority because 

they are more critical to China’s physical security. For 

system-of-systems operations, some PLA strategists 

argue that its premise that PLA can achieve superiority through information systems integration is flawed, 

and that PLA operations should still be guided by its 

traditional active defense strategy, which is premised 

on “inferior fighting superior.” 

For capabilities, PLAN’s acquisition of an aircraft 

carrier, destroyers, frigates, light frigates, and fast attack craft (FACs) can be accounted for by the need 

to construct “maritime system of systems” as well as 
258

PLA’s traditional active defense strategy. Other contributing factors include availability of new shipbuilding technologies and funding, and the need to replace 

obsolete ships. 

POLICY IMPLICATIONS

• Because PLAN’s far-seas operations are driven 

mainly by economic concerns and level of U.S.-

China economic interdependence is high, such 

operations offer opportunities for cooperation 

between the U.S. Navy and the PLAN, particularly in nontraditional security operations to 

enhance sea lanes security.

• China’s dependence on sea lanes is likely to increase, but the PLAN’s far-seas fleet responsible 

for securing these sea lanes is likely to stay vulnerable. Both render the Chinese economy exposed. This susceptability provides initiatives 

for the United States in managing U.S.-China 

maritime relations by adopting both coercive 

and cooperative measures.

• As more Chinese naval ships are deployed out 

to sea more frequently, they operate more in 

exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of other countries. Their experience of being “interrupted” 

in other’s EEZs may gradually change the perspective that underlies Chinese disagreement 

with the United States over military activities 

in EEZs. This may offer an opportunity for the 

United States to work out rules with China to 

mitigate naval ships’ interactions to prevent 

incidents at sea.
259

In an earlier Asian Security article, this author presented the following. First, China’s naval strategy has 

undergone two major changes: from the near-coast 

defense (近岸防御) strategy prior to the mid-1980s to 

near-seas defense (近海防御) after the mid-1980s, and 

integration of the new concept of far-seas operations 

(远海作战) into China’s naval strategy in the 2000s. 

Second, related to the evolution of the naval strategy is the change in naval capabilities from limited 

capabilities for coastal defense to more expansive capabilities to operate more effectively in the near seas,1

beginning in the 2000s. The integration of far-seas operations concept may have major implications for the 

future development of PLAN capabilities, including 

developing aircraft carriers. 

Third, the changes in Chinese naval strategy and 

capabilities can be accounted for by a combination of 

factors, including the role of naval leadership and personal experience, endorsement of civilian leadership, 

changing perception of external security environment, 

institutionalization of naval research, and availability 

of funding and technologies. 

Finally, a change in naval capabilities may not always be accounted for by a change in naval strategy, 

but by other contingent or idiosyncratic reasons.2

An attempt is made here to update China’s naval 

strategy and capabilities by addressing two sets of 

questions that have not been answered in the previously mentioned article. The first set is about China’s 

evolving naval strategy: What conceptual contributions has Hu Jintao made to China’s naval strategy 

after he became the chair of China’s Central Military 

Commission (CMC) in September 2004? What are the 

specific missions for the PLAN to fulfill for both its 

near-seas and far-seas operations? What is the prior-
260

ity between near-seas and far-seas missions and why? 

And how may the PLAN conduct operations? 

The second set of questions concerns changing naval capabilities: What new capabilities have been developed in recent years that have not been discussed 

in the earlier Asian Security article, and what can account for the new development? 

This chapter has three sections. While the first section attempts to answer questions related to naval 

strategy, the second section addresses the issue of 

capabilities. The concluding section summarizes the 

findings and discusses the policy implications. 

EVOLVING NAVAL STRATEGY

What conceptual contributions has Hu Jintao 

made to China’s naval strategy after he became the 

CMC chair in September 2004? What are the specific 

missions for the PLAN to fulfill for both its near-seas 

and far-seas operations? What is the priority between 

near-seas and far-seas missions and why? And how 

may the PLAN conduct operations? These are the key 

questions at the PLA conference. This section answers 

these questions.

Hu’s Contributions to Naval Strategy.

Hu has made two major conceptual contributions 

to China’s naval strategy, one at the strategic level, and 

the other at the operational level. These contributions 

become apparent if one compares Hu’s priorities and 

those of Jiang Zemin, Hu’s predecessor, who served 

as the CMC chair from 1989 to 2004. 

At the strategic level, both Hu and Jiang have promoted naval modernization, but with very different 
261

priorities. For Jiang, the top strategic priority, particularly after the 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis, was to deter 

Taiwan from declaring formal independence. As a 

result, he promoted the PLAN by acquiring Sovremenny-class destroyers and Kilo submarines from Russia, and by commissioning a handful of indigenously 

developed major surface and subsurface combatants. 

Because air superiority in any military conflict over 

Taiwan can be gained by land-based combat aircraft, 

Jiang did not endorse the aircraft carrier program for 

which Admiral Liu Huaqing had actively lobbied, to 

provide air cover for naval operations over the more 

distant Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.3 Instead, Jiang pursued diplomacy with Southeast Asian 

countries under his “new security concept,” leading to 

China’s signing of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations 

(ASEAN) and of the Declaration of Code of Conduct 

with ASEAN with regard to the South China Sea.4

Because Jiang’s priority was the Taiwan issue, he 

particularly emphasized that the PLAN should: 

at present continue to implement the strategic thought 

of near-seas defense (当前要继续贯彻近海防御的战略

思想), . . . to realistically appropriate the comprehensive operational capabilities of conducting maritime 

campaigns in the near seas (真正具备在近海遂行海上

战役的综合作战能力).

Even though Jiang is the first top leader to endorse the concept of “far-seas operations,” he regards 

developing such capabilities largely as a secondary, 

long-term objective (从长远说还要注意提高远海防卫

作战能力).5

By the time Hu succeeded Jiang as the top leader, 

the naval capabilities thought necessary to deter Tai-
262

wan independence were largely in place. The election 

of anti-independence candidate Ma Ying-jeou as Taiwan’s new president also rendered the Taiwan issue 

less urgent. While Hu also wants the PLA to deter flash 

points such as the Taiwan issue from escalating into a 

military conflict so that China can leverage the 20-year 

window of strategic opportunity (2001-20) to develop 

its economy, he has other strategic priorities on his 

agenda. Among the “new historical missions” that Hu 

assigned to the PLA, for instance, Hu highlighted the 

need for the PLA to safeguard China’s newly emerging interests in maritime, outer, and electromagnetic 

space.6

On China’s newly emerging maritime interests, Hu 

was particularly concerned about the issue of energy 

security stemming from China’s increasing dependence on oil imports. As early as at the Central Economic Work Conference held in November 2003, Hu, 

as the new Chinese Communist Party (CCP) general 

secretary, stressed the need to develop a new energy 

development strategy from a “strategic overall height” 

(“战略全局高度”) to achieve national energy security.7

With the rapid expansion of Chinese economy and its 

integration with the global economy, Hu later stated 

that “issues of national development security (国家

发展安全问题) such as energy security, strategic (sea) 

lanes (战略通道) security, overseas market security, 

overseas investment and personnel security have become more outstanding day by day (日渐突出).”8

 

For Hu, to project power to safeguard these newly 

emerging Chinese interests in the far seas or overseas, 

naval modernization has become indispensable. While 

continuing to “enhance its inner and near-seas comprehensive operations capabilities,” Hu particularly 

stressed that the PLAN should “make the transforma-
263

tion to far-seas protection (operations) step by step, 

and enhance far-seas mobile operations capabilities 

(要在提高内近海综合作战能力的同时, 逐步向远海防卫

转型, 提高远海机动作战能力).”9 For Jiang, developing 

far-seas capabilities is a long-term objective. For Hu, 

however, developing these capabilities has become a 

near-term one.

At the operational level, Hu endorsed the new 

concept of “information systems-based system-ofsystems operations (基于信息系统的体系作战)” at an 

“important army conference” in December 2005.10

This concept offers a new conceptual framework for 

thinking about how the PLAN should conduct operations, which also impacts how the PLAN should 

develop its operational capabilities. Discussed below, 

this concept aims to mitigate the unintended but negative consequences of implementing a service-centered 

“informatization” policy, one that was earlier endorsed by Jiang Zemin. These consequences include 

developing overly redundant capabilities, and lacking 

collateral, information systems-based integration of 

various services and systems. In line with Hu’s “scientific development” theory, this concept clearly intends 

to enhance the overall cost-effectiveness for conducting operations and for developing capabilities. 

PLAN Missions in Near and Far Seas.

While top leaders such as Jiang and Hu offer major 

conceptual framework or strategic guidance for naval 

development, it is up to the PLA and PLAN analysts 

to flesh out the specifics of such framework and guidance. The specific missions of the PLAN in the near 

and far seas, for instance, can be gleaned from writings of these analysts. 
264

China’s 2013 Defense White Paper, a document written by analysts of China’s Academy of Military Science, for instance, states that: 

the PLAN . . . shoulders the tasks of defending national security in the maritime direction (国家海洋方

向安全) and sovereignty of territorial waters (领海主

权), and safeguarding maritime rights and interests 

(维护海洋权益).

It goes on to state that: 

according to the requirements of near-seas defense 

strategy, the navy attaches importance to raising the 

modernization level of near-seas comprehensive operations capabilities (海军注重提高近海综合作战力量

现代化水平). . . . And it enhances capabilities for farseas mobile operations and for far-seas cooperation 

and coping with non-traditional security threats (提高

远海机动作战,远海合作与应对非传统安全威胁能力),

and strengthens strategic deterrence and counterattack capabilities.11

Furthermore, it has for the first time added specific 

sections on “safeguarding maritime rights and interests,” on “safeguarding overseas interests (维护海外

利益),” and on “safeguarding international sea lanes 

security (维护国际海上通道安全).”12 Another mission 

that requires the participation of the PLAN, which 

the Defense White Paper devotes a section to, is “international disaster relief and humanitarian assistance 

(国际灾难救援和人道主义援助).”13 Along similar lines, 

PLAN commander Wu Shengli recently stressed that 

“the scientific development of navy construction is the 

unified (balanced) development to enhance both nearseas capabilities (近海能力) and far-seas protection capabilities (远海防卫能力).”14
265

The previous account suggests that the PLAN missions fall largely into two major categories: near-seas 

missions and far-seas ones. For near-seas missions, 

besides deterring Taiwan independence and securing 

traditional territorial waters, a relatively new mission 

is “safeguarding maritime rights and interests.” This 

mission is clearly associated with China’s disputes 

with other countries about jurisdictions over continental shelves and EEZs, and about sovereignty over 

islands and reefs in the near seas and the territorial 

and jurisdictional waters they may generate. 

But rather than on the frontline in these disputes, 

the PLAN is primarily required to protect and coordinate with the forward-deployed civilian law enforcement fleet, and to support other civilian maritime 

activities. According to the Defense White Paper, for 

instance, to safeguard maritime rights and interests: 

the navy combines daily war-preparation with offering security support (提供安全保障) for state maritime 

law enforcement, fishery production, and oil exploration activities; establishes coordinating and concerting 

mechanisms (建立协调配合机制) respectively with 

law enforcement departments such as China Maritime 

Surveillance and China Fishery Law Enforcement 

Command; and establishes and perfects the militarypolice-civilian joint defense mechanisms (建立完善军

警民联防机制).

Furthermore, the PLAN: 

coordinates with related civilian departments to conduct maritime survey and mapping and scientific 

research; constructs maritime weather monitoring, 

satellite navigation, radio navigation and navigationassisting signs systems; publishes timely information 

on weather and shipping; and establishes and perfects 
266

navigation safety support systems within the jurisdictional seas.15

Far-seas missions, on the other hand, refer to those 

that safeguard the security of expanding Chinese 

overseas interests, including “security of overseas energy and resources, strategic sea lanes, and overseas 

(Chinese) citizens and legal entities (海外能源资源,

海上战略通道以及海外公民,法人的安全),” as well 

as those that provide humanitarian assistance. The 

PLAN, for instance, deployed a naval frigate to the 

Mediterranean briefly in February 2011, to support 

evacuation of 35,860 Chinese nationals during the 

Libyan crisis. But more importantly, since December 

2008, PLAN has deployed naval escort groups to Gulf 

of Aden for continuous patrol to keep the sea lanes 

open against piracy. Finally, PLAN’s dedicated hospital ship Peace Ark traveled to five countries in Western 

Asia and Eastern Africa, and four countries in Latin 

America during 2010-11, to provide medical assistance to over 50,000 people living in these countries.16

Near-seas Missions as Priority.

Integrating the notion of “far-seas operations” into 

China’s naval strategy requires the PLAN to develop 

capabilities to operate in the seas beyond the near seas. 

This is also consistent with Hu Jintao’s call for the 

PLA to fulfill new historical missions, which, among 

many other things, highlights security of China’s 

newly emerging overseas interests. However, China’s 

naval strategists argue that more imminent security 

challenges to China from the maritime direction are 

largely concentrated in the near seas. 
267

These challenges include the reunification with 

Taiwan, foreign military threats and pressures, and 

disputes with neighboring countries about jurisdictions over continental shelves and exclusive economic 

zones and about sovereignty over islands and reefs 

in the near seas. Nontraditional security issues in 

the near seas include smuggling, human trafficking, 

transnational crimes, and maritime environmental 

pollution. As a result, “at present and in a long time to 

come, safeguarding near-seas security should be the 

primary goal of China’s maritime security strategy 

(维护近海安全应当是中国海上安全战略的主要目标).” 

Also: 

better near-seas security creates favorable conditions 

for marching to the far seas (为走向远海创造有利条件) 

to meet not only the need for deepening and widening the defense space against foreign threats, but also 

the needs to enhance security of sea lanes and China’s 

newly emerging overseas economic interests, to promote international cooperation, and to raise China’s 

international status.

Moreover, “marching to the far seas with clear and 

selective objectives (有针对性地, 有选择地走向远海) 

offers forceful support and coordination for resolving 

near-seas security issues.”17

Furthermore, the goal of China’s naval modernization is regionally focused, rather than globally oriented. China’s naval strategists, for instance, divide the 

world’s navies into three categories: the far-oceans offensive type (远洋进攻型, or global blue-water type), 

regional defensive and offensive type (区域防御进攻

型, or regional blue-water type), and coastal defensive 

type (沿岸防御型). The U.S. Navy belongs to the first 

category, while the British, French, German, Italian, 
268

Japanese, Russian, and arguably Indian navies belong 

to the second category. All other navies, on the other 

hand, belong to the third category. The near-term 

goal of China’s naval modernization is for PLAN to 

develop into a regional-type navy (区域型海军), or to 

become the second type. This type of navy can operate 

effectively within its own region, or for the PLAN in 

the near seas. In the meantime, it also possesses the 

capabilities to project power occasionally beyond its 

own region and operate effectively in the seas of other 

oceans, as did the British navy during the Falklands 

War.18 Recent deployment of PLAN combat ships to 

Gulf of Aden for counterpiracy missions may be regarded as another example. Such out-of-region power 

projection, however, should be an exception rather 

than the norm. This regional navy concept is also 

consistent with the 1985 strategic transition, which requires the PLA to shift its focus on preparing for “early, total, and nuclear war” against a possible Soviet 

invasion, to preparing for local, limited war to deal 

with territorial and interests disputes on the margins 

of China. 

Finally, there are major vulnerabilities and limits that may impede the PLAN’s far-seas operations. 

China, for instance, has neither overseas naval bases 

nor regularized access points in the far seas of the Indian Ocean. A limited number of at-sea replenishment 

ships and occasional port visits for resupply and crew 

rest may help in logistics support (后勤保障), but not 

in combat support (战斗保障), such as reloading missiles to sustain high-intensity conventional naval battles. The PLAN is also quite weak in its anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities, which leaves Chinese 

warships exposed to submarine attacks in the far seas. 

These may explain, in part, why China’s naval escort 
269

groups in Gulf of Aden remain as small as two combat 

ships supported by one large replenishment ship, and 

their missions are confined to dealing with low intensity, nontraditional security issues such as piracy.

Some Chinese naval strategists argue that China 

should develop overseas naval bases in the Indian 

Ocean.19 But this argument has not translated into 

any change in Chinese policy.20 A major reason is that 

China’s nonalignment foreign policy forbids China to 

develop military alliance relationship with any other 

country. This makes it difficult to establish overseas 

military bases because they usually are located in territories of close allies. Also, because overseas bases are 

associated with the legacy of colonialism and a lack 

of sensitivity toward national sovereignty, China may 

pay an image cost if it acquires any. Acquiring overseas bases may also not serve China’s national interests well because it may entangle China in regional 

and domestic disputes and conflicts.21 All these show 

that near-seas missions are the priority of the PLAN in 

the near future.

How May the PLAN Conduct Operations?

There are two different conceptual models that 

may help to understand how the PLA in general and 

PLAN in particular may conduct operations. The first 

is the concept of “information systems-based system 

of systems operations (ISSSO),” and the other is the 

traditional active defense strategy (TADS).
270

Information Systems-Based System of Systems 

Operations. 

As mentioned earlier, the concept of ISSSO was 

first endorsed by Hu Jintao in 2005. But it was not 

fully articulated and operationalized by PLA strategists until after early-2010, when a few unintended 

but serious consequences stemming from the policy 

of “informatization,” one that was endorsed earlier by 

Jiang Zemin, had become apparent. 

One such consequence, according to PLA strategists, has to do with interservice integration. Because “informatization” is “service-centered” but 

not “system-centered,” what has happened is that as 

each service (军种) becomes more informatized, more 

powerful stovepipes or “isolated information islands 

(信息孤岛)” emerge for lack of collateral information 

networking across the services. Also, each service 

tends to be “self-serving (自我完备)” under the pretext 

of enhancing joint operations, concentrating on constructing “all-round service (全能军种)” (referring to 

ground force expanding air, shore-defense, and ship 

capabilities; navy expanding air and land capabilities; 

and air force expanding land capabilities). This causes 

not only unnecessary redundancy and waste of resources, but more importantly the erosion of services’ 

comparative advantages. Moreover, service-centered 

“informatization” leads to lack of common information standards and results in information monopoly 

by each service, which may not only contribute to 

inter-service tension, but lead to loss of initiatives in 

times of war.22

PLA strategists believe that the concept of ISSSO 

may help to resolve this interservice issue because 

ISSSO requires fostering the consciousness that war 
271

can be fought and won by PLA system of systems, but 

not by individual services. As a result, the emphasis 

of military modernization should shift from “forging 

all-round services to constructing all-round system 

of systems (从打造全能型军种转向建设全能型体系).” 

This means that services should transfer ownership 

right (所有权) and command and control of their operational elements and resources to the PLA system, 

while retaining the usage right of these resources. 

Services should also become open and transparent to 

one another and share the usage right (军种共享使用

权) of each other’s and the PLA system’s resources, because services constitute and are the builders of PLA 

system of systems. “Transferring communications 

bandwidth and satellites to the system, for instance, 

can give full play to the utility of these elements.” In 

return, services benefit from the system by retaining the usage right of all the resources offered by the 

system.23

Generally speaking, future integrated operations 

(集成作战) would “reinforce services’ functions for 

constructing and managing forces, but weaken their 

role to command operations. Services will supply 

functional units and essential elements to integrated 

operations command according to operational needs.” 

To optimize the use of these units and elements, the 

integrated operations command would rely on information systems such as the all-army, unified(全军

统一)command and control network, early warning 

and reconnaissance network, communications grid 

network, weapons control network and comprehensive support(综合保障)network.24

Besides the relationship between system and services or systems, according to PLA strategists, ISSSO 

also requires construction of collateral, integrated 
272

system of systems operations capabilities centered on 

integrated networks (以集成网络为中心,建设横向一

体的体系作战能力) across all services. This networkcentered approach leverages information technologies and networks to permeate (渗透), fuse (融合), and 

connect (连通) all forces (力量), units (单元) and essential elements (要素) deployed in different distances 

and spatial spectrums, to achieve inter-connectedness 

(互联), intercommunications (互通), interoperability 

(互操作) and mutual complements (互补), particularly 

in terms of early warning and reconnaissance, command and control, communications, weapons control, 

and combat support. This interconnectivity enables 

synchronized joint action (同步联动), thus enhancing 

precision, coordination, efficiency and orderliness of 

action and strikes.25

How, then, may the concept of ISSSO enhance military operations? First, such system of systems-based 

synergy is not only what an individual service, unit, 

or weapons platform is incapable to achieve; it also 

helps to reduce its vulnerabilities as an individual service, unit, or platform. For instance: 

employing information systems to permeate, fuse and 

connect weapons systems can accomplish operational 

effectiveness that far exceeds what a single weapons 

system such as an aircraft carrier can accomplish. At 

the same time, this integration can reduce the risks of 

an aircraft carrier.”26

Moreover, according to PLA strategists, information systems-based integration leads to real-time and 

common battlefield transparency, reduces reaction 

time, and enables more precise strikes, thus creating 

conditions for dispersed (分散) and pointed (点状化) 

force deployment, but concentrated firepower. This 
273

deployment also expands from traditional spatial 

spectrums such as land, sea and air to new spectrums 

such as outer, electromagnetic and cyberspace exhibiting a trend toward “comprehensive spatial spectrums 

(全域性).” These deployment patterns of different distances, altitudes and visibilities may enhance not only 

force survivability, but also battlefield versatility.27

Traditionally, quantity superiority in manpower, 

weapons, and materiel may translate into battlefield 

effect superiority. But information systems-based 

integration makes it possible to achieve information 

superiority, which may translate into decision superiority and action superiority, and, as a result, quality superiority on the battlefield. What this means, 

according to PLA strategists, is that the side that can 

best exploit networked information systems to “coordinate the dispersed deployment of operational units, 

but concentration of information and firepower on the 

decisive targets at the decisive location and decisive 

time” would gain battlefield initiative.28

PLA strategists identify two types of decisive 

targets on the battlefield. The first is the opponent’s 

information systems, particularly its capabilities for 

information acquisition and transmission, information processing, and information use. While electronic 

warfare targets electromagnetic fields to disable information acquisition and transmission, cyber warfare 

targets computer networks to sabotage information 

processing. Because soft attacks can only temporarily 

neutralize the opponent’s information systems, and 

destruction of 5 to 10 percent of key nods may cause a 

systemic failure, “hard, precision strikes” on key nods 

are necessary to permanently disable the opponent’s 

information systems. 
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The second type of decisive targets, according to 

PLA strategists, refers to those that can cause “disequilibrium of the opponent’s system of systems 

operations (打破体系作战的平衡).” To the extent orderly flow of information, energy, and materiel relies 

heavily on the system’s equilibrium-based stability, 

disrupting the flow and destroying the links (断流毁

链) should cause dysfunction of the system. However, 

the most direct and effective method to sabotage a 

system’s equilibrium is to strike directly the center of 

gravity of the enemy’s operational system of systems 

(直接打击敌人作战体系的重心). But it is also recognized that this center of gravity is also the emphasis 

for protection and strength (保护重点和强点) of the 

opponent’s system of systems.29

Finally, PLA strategists believe that information 

systems integration can optimize PLA system of systems, and enable real-time, synchronized target acquisition, decision, mobility, strikes, and control. This in 

turn shortens decision cycles and increases operational tempo, making it possible to conduct parallel operations and achieve all-spectrums superiority (全维优势) 

on the battlefield. It is noted, however, that the PLA 

may develop similar vulnerabilities that the more advanced militaries have developed as it becomes more 

integrated by information systems. Therefore, the 

PLA should prepare for situations where its own information systems are semi-paralyzed or completely 

paralyzed, and traditional fighting methods should 

not be abandoned (传统战法仍不能丢).30

What the notion of ISSSO prescribes appears to 

approximate what Western analysts term the PLA’s 

so-called anti-access and area-denial strategy, particularly in the event of a U.S. intervention in a Taiwan 

conflict scenario. Based on the premise that informa-
275

tion systems-based integration may help to achieve 

some sort of battlefield parity or even superiority over 

the opponent, the PLA may wage a direct, frontal assault on the spearheads or comparative strength of the 

U.S. offensive such as its aircraft carrier strike groups 

and well-protected information systems. A continuous assault based on layered, multispectrum deployment of PLA forces makes it increasingly difficult 

for the intervening forces to advance the closer they 

approach China’s shores.

Some analysts suggest that this kind of PLA strategy is asymmetrical, because the PLA’s assault is 

largely based on its comparative advantage: the antiship missiles. But the term “asymmetry” may be a 

misnomer. This is because shore, ship, and air-based 

anti-ship missiles are mainly extensions of traditional 

anti-ship guns and bombs, and the PLA’s opponent is 

well armed with similar missiles and other weapons 

systems to counter. What may make a difference appears to be the detection range, shooting range, and 

precision of these missiles and weapons systems. In 

all these aspects, however, the PLA does not seem to 

have an obvious comparative advantage over the opponent. Finally, the possible time and place of such a 

frontal, force-on-force engagement are quite predictable. It is the possible lack of the PLA comparative advantages or superiority in such a frontal engagement 

that concerns some other PLA strategists. They argue 

that ISSSO may help the PLA to develop comparative 

battlefield advantages in the long run. But in the short 

run, the PLA, being the inferior side, should employ 

the traditional active defense strategy to engage a 

much more superior opponent.
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Traditional Active Defense Strategy. 

The central premise of the traditional active defense strategy (TADS) is that the PLA is the inferior 

side relative to its opponent. This means that the 

PLA would adopt a posture of interior-line strategic 

defense (内线战略防御). This defensive posture, however, is not static but active, because it involves many 

tactical-level, exterior-line, quick and offensive battles 

(外线的速决进攻战). 

A central feature of TADS is constant force movement (运动战). Constant force movement is necessary 

because in many circumstances, this strategy requires 

maneuvers to give up frontal positions in order to 

avoid the spearhead (锋芒, or comparative strength) 

of the opponent’s offensive, and it requires constant 

outflanking (迂回) to shift, divide, disperse, and isolate enemy forces, to “cause the enemy to make mistakes (让敌人犯错误),” or to “lure the enemy in deep.” 

Force movement is necessary also because this strategy requires maneuvers to identify the vulnerabilities of the opponent’s offensive, and to amass forces 

for developing local and temporary superiority over 

the opponent’s local and temporary vulnerability, in 

order to annihilate enemy forces piece by piece (在

运动中各个歼灭敌人). Even in a frontal engagement 

which is to be maximally avoided, the primary tactics 

employed include force movement-based deep-thrust 

(穿插), cut-up (分割), outflanking, and encirclement 

(包围).31

A major reason for avoiding a direct, frontal, forceon-force engagement against the opponent’s comparative strength is that such an engagement may end up 

in a war of matching attrition. Such a war clearly favors the superior side because similar casualties may 

mean only marginal loss for this side, but possibly to-
277

tal annihilation of the inferior side. On the other hand, 

shifting vital forces (有生力量) away from the brunt of 

the opponent’s major offensive, to concentrate them 

on tactical-level engagement against the opponent’s 

vulnerabilities, ensures local and temporary superiority over the opponent. This superiority makes it 

possible to win this tactical engagement with minimal 

casualties. But more importantly, the effects of winning these tactical-level battles are accumulative, because they may cause the gradual shift of balance of 

forces on the battlefield that may eventually allow for 

strategic-level offensives. 

There is ample evidence that TADS has had a substantial influence on China’s naval strategy. In explaining the near-seas defense strategy in China’s National 

Defense University in 1986, for instance, then PLAN 

commander Liu Huaqing stressed that the PLAN is 

likely to be the inferior side relative to its potential opponent in any future naval operations. As a result, in 

the general context of strategic interior-line defense, 

it is necessary for PLAN to concentrate vital forces in 

the primary strategic or campaign directions (主要战

略战役方向) through mobile operations (机动作战), to 

develop temporary and local force superiority (于一

定时间内形成局部兵力优势). This makes it possible to 

resolutely attack the enemy to achieve a victory at one 

stroke, followed by dispersion and diversion (分散转

移) and search for new fighting opportunities, while 

maintaining the freedom for force movement (保持兵

力行动自由). As he further explained:

This is the effective fighting method for the small to 

win over the large at the strategic level (战略上以小胜

大) and for the numerically superior to win over inferior at the tactical level (战术上以多胜少). In general, 

the enemy is the superior side waging the strategic 
278

exterior-line offensive (战略外线的进攻战), and we are 

in a strategic interior-line defensive position. But because the enemy’s maritime offensive line is long and 

its forces are dispersed, it necessarily has vulnerabilities that give us the opportunities to exploit (给我以

可乘之机) on the vast maritime battlefield. Although 

we are the inferior side, we concentrate superior forces 

in each campaign and battle, to conduct exterior-line 

quick and offensive operations, to strike one (enemy) 

unit (击其一部) and strive for its total annihilation (务

求必歼). To this part (局部), we are the superior and 

can fight and win. This fighting method, however, requires forces to move quickly (兵力机动快) and concentrate suddenly (突然集中), to fight and withdraw 

quickly ( 快打快撤) but not to get entangled with the 

enemy (不与敌人纠缠) and not to engage in competitive attrition with the enemy (不与敌人拼消耗), to 

eat the enemy bite by bite (一口一口吃掉敌人), thus 

achieving the objective of accumulating small victories into big victories (以小胜积大胜).32

More importantly, TADS has recently been employed by some PLA strategists to show the fallacies 

of ISSSO. They, for instance, identify two new PLA 

strategies that have been developed in order to engage 

the opponent in the future. One is system of systems 

operations, and the other is the assassin’s mace approach. For system of systems operations, these PLA 

strategists argue that: 

it is impossible to engage in a system-on-system 

confrontation (体系与体系对抗) with the powerful opponent (强手). Under the condition of obvious 

asymmetry of comprehensive power (in favor of the 

opponent), such a confrontation may repeat the historical mistake of engaging the powerful opponent in 

a ‘state-on-state, force-on-force combat (国家和国家,

大军和大军作战)’.33
279

For an assassin’s mace approach, they argue that 

“it is technically infeasible (技术上不可能) to employ 

assassin’s mace weapons to wage sabotage-and-strikewarfare (体系破击战) against the opponent’s highly 

informatized system of systems.”34

For these PLA strategists, the most effective strategy to fight a powerful and superior opponent is by 

following the TADS. First of all, they believe that there 

is no absolute inferiority and superiority; as long as 

the PLA does not engage the opponent in a systemon-system combat, there are ways to make the opponent lose initiative and superiority. Moreover, they 

suggest that commanders must possess extraordinary 

audacity, courage and insight (过人胆识) to carry the 

war on, because the objective of the superior opponent is to shock and destroy the PLA’s will to fight 

by applying superior information and firepower. Furthermore, they argue that the PLA should turn parallel operations (平行作战) into sequential operations 

(顺序作战). The superior side, according to these PLA 

strategists, prefers parallel operations, that is, to simultaneously strike all the high-value targets in order 

to impose effective control of the PLA and to reduce 

its own casualty. The PLA, however, should turn this 

first engagement into its first battle (首战), followed 

by a sequence of other battles. Similarly, the superior 

opponent prefers quick, decisive operations (快速决定

性作战) by employing superior informatized arms in 

order to realize its objectives, without protraction and 

rallying massive forces. The PLA, however, should 

strive for protracted decisive operations (持久决定性

作战) to shake the opponent’s will to fight, to regain 

control of the style and pace of war, and to force the 

opponent to yield to the PLA’s wishes and demands.35
280

Furthermore, these strategists propose that the 

PLA should follow the TADS principle of concentrating main forces to annihilate the enemy piece by 

piece (集中主要兵力,各个歼灭敌人). But rather than 

manpower, the PLA now can concentrate firepower 

to strike the opponent’s strategic and campaign-level 

weak links (薄弱环节) that may have a decisive impact 

on the will of opponent to fight. Finally, to reduce the 

opponent’s comparative superiority and to gain initiative, the PLA should force the opponent to fight in 

locations and times of the PLA’s choice, rather than 

the other way round.36

ISSSO and TADS offer two different models for 

understanding how the PLA in general, and PLAN in 

particular, may conduct operations. In the short run, 

TADS is likely to be the dominant model that guides 

PLA operations. Whether ISSSO may gain dominant 

influence in the long run, however, may depend on 

how successful information systems integration proceeds, and whether the asymmetry in favor of the “superior and powerful opponent” may be narrowed by 

this integration.

EVOLVING NAVAL CAPABILITIES

What new capabilities have been developed in recent years that have not been discussed in the earlier 

Asian Security article, and what can account for the new 

development? This section intends to answer these 

questions. The new capabilities are divided into two 

categories: far-seas and near-seas capabilities. While 

far-seas capabilities refer to major ships that can operate in both far and near seas, near-seas capabilities refer to ships that cannot operate in the far seas because 

of their limited operational radius and sustainability. 
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Far-Seas Capabilities.

In the earlier Asian Security article, it was predicted that, with integration of the concept of far-seas 

operations into China’s naval strategy, China would 

acquire aircraft carrier capabilities. This prediction 

was confirmed by the commissioning of the Type 001 

aircraft carrier, one that was purchased from Ukraine 

and refitted on September 25, 2012.37

This aircraft carrier is categorized as a scientific research and training ship. Scientific research is likely to 

refer to gaining technical and operational parameters 

and data for constructing new aircraft carriers. Training, on the other hand, apparently refers to training 

officers and crew on all the functional, technical, and 

operational specializations, and their coordination 

and integration associated with ship, ship-aircraft, 

and eventually battle group operations. While scientific research and training may take years to complete, 

the commissioning of the ship shows the PLAN’s serious commitment to big deck, fixed-wing aviation. 

In the short run, China may construct an aircraft 

carrier more or less based on the Type 001 configuration, which may feature a ski jump ramp, third generation combat aircraft, and airborne early warning 

(AEW) helicopters. In the medium run, however, China may build the next generation of China’s aircraft 

carrier program. This type may be conventionally 

powered and equipped with steam catapults, and carry third or fourth-generation combat aircraft. It may 

install steam catapults mainly because these catapults 

have had substantial technological accumulation (技

术储备) after more than 20 years of research and development in China.38 Steam catapult technologies also 

make it easier for systems integration with the steam 
282

turbines and boilers, the likely choice for the power 

plant of this new type. But more importantly, PLAN 

needs fixed-wing AEW aircraft, which is too heavy for 

the ski-jump ramp of the current Type 001 platform 

to launch. In comparison with AEW helicopters to be 

deployed on Type 001, fixed-wing AEW aircraft has 

much more powerful information, surveillance and 

reconnaissance capabilities, and therefore is crucial 

and indispensable for PLAN’s maritime information 

systems-based system of systems operations.39

In the long run, however, China may develop nuclear-powered aircraft carriers with electromagnetic 

catapults and fourth-generation low-observable combat aircraft. In 2012, for instance, China’s Ministry of 

Science and Technology introduced the 863 Project for 

Research on Key Technologies and Safety of Nuclearpowered Ships (核动力船舶关键技术及安全性研究863

项目) at Institute 719 of the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, the company that refurbished Type 

001.40 This project is clearly intended for research and 

development of nuclear power for major surface ships 

such as aircraft carriers. But because nuclear power 

plants for aircraft carriers may require expensive investment and a long research and development cycle 

in order to achieve safety and reliability,41 China is 

likely to acquire conventionally powered aircraft carriers as stopgaps in the near future.

A primary reason for PLAN to acquire aircraft carriers is to form maritime operations system of systems 

(海上作战体系), a requirement of ISSSO. A fleet without aircraft carriers, for instance, is an incomplete system of systems because it cannot reach all spatial spectrums, particularly the air spectrum in the far seas. It 

can deploy major surface ships such as destroyers and 

frigates to the far seas, but these ships are exposed 
283

and vulnerable to air, missile, and submarine attacks. 

Aircraft carrier capabilities, however, should reduce 

these vulnerabilities. This is because a carrier can provide air capabilities that can compete for air superiority and provide air cover for surface operations in the 

far seas. These air capabilities can also be deployed 

against the opponent’s air-based ASW capabilities, 

thus protecting one’s own submarines operating in the 

far seas. Finally, a carrier’s air-based ASW capabilities 

can be deployed against the opponent’s submarines, 

thus providing protection for one’s own surface ships 

and submarines operating in the far seas. Finally, for 

lack of overseas naval bases, carriers may serve as sea 

bases to sustain PLAN’s system of systems operations 

in the far seas.

Furthermore, an information systems-based system of systems may become a force multiplier, not 

only because it can accomplish what an individual 

weapons platform cannot accomplish otherwise, but 

also because it can reduce the vulnerabilities of that individual weapons platform. PLA analysts believe that 

a carrier battle group is an ideal maritime operations 

system of systems. With escorts such as destroyers, 

frigates, nuclear attack submarines, and ocean-going 

replenishment ships, this system of systems is capable 

of air operations, strikes, submarine and ASW warfare, 

air and missile defense, and electronic warfare, thus 

possessing the so-called integrated five operational 

capabilities (五为一体作战能力). If integrated well by 

the information systems, it represents the versatilely 

functional and optimally combined (功能完备,优化

组合) system of systems, where all individual weapons 

platforms together not only can constitute operational 

synergy against the opponent, but also offer support 

and protection to reduce each other’s vulnerabilities, 

particularly the vulnerabilities of the carrier itself. On 
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the other hand, it is also recognized that such a battle 

group is too massive to conceal, making it easy to detect and attack under certain conditions.42

Besides commissioning China’s first aircraft carrier, another new development in PLAN capabilities 

is mass production of 6,000-ton Type 052C destroyers 

and 4,000-ton Type 054A frigates, and construction of 

6,000-ton Type 052D destroyers. After launching of 

the first two 052Cs in 2003, there was a long interval 

of about 7 years when no new 052Cs were constructed, leading some analysts to conclude that the PLAN 

would not acquire major surface ships anymore. The 

construction, however, resumed in late-2010, accumulating to what appears to be four hulls either being commissioned or under construction by 2013. For 

Type 054As, 18 have been commissioned, launched, 

or are under construction from 2006 to 2013, with a 

surge of four hulls in 2011, and more are reportedly 

planned. 

Finally, by late-2012 and early-2013, photos showing two Type-052D destroyers in construction, an upgraded variant of Type 052C, began to emerge from 

the Chinese military websites. This new-type destroyer exhibits a larger active phased-array radar system 

in comparison with the one on Type 052C. Rather than 

48 surface-to-air missiles (SAM) imbedded in eight revolver-type six-cell vertical launching systems (VLS) 

as with 052C, the Type 052D has two canister-type 

32-cell missile VLSs. It is reported that the total of 62 

missiles may be a mixture of SAMs, anti-ship cruise 

missiles (ASCM), anti-submarine missiles, and land 

attack cruise missiles. If this is true, Type 052D may be 

China’s first dedicated multirole destroyer. 

In the earlier Asian Security article, it was suggested that Chinese naval ships acquisition is large-
285

ly based on an incremental approach where a small 

number of hulls are deployed for test and trial, followed by construction of another small number that 

incorporates remedies to the defects identified during 

test and trial.To the extent Type 052C destroyers and 

Type 054A frigates, being the workhorses of the counterpiracy missions in Gulf of Aden, were fully tested 

and trialed, their mass production indicates that the 

PLAN may be quite satisfied with their performance 

in the far seas. The maturity of Chinese shipbuilding 

techniques such as modular assembling of large ships, 

together with substantial growth of the defense budget because of rapid economic growth, may also account for this new development. The need to replace a 

large number of non-modernized Type 051 destroyers 

and Type 053H series frigates may be another reason. 

The 7-year pause for 052C construction, on the other 

hand, can be accounted for by the time-consuming 

relocation of the Jiangnan Shipyard to the Changxin 

Island outside Shanghai, but not a PLAN decision not 

to acquire major surface ships. Because the first two 

052Cs were constructed by Jiangnan, the pause may 

imply that other shipyards did not have the technological capacity to build these high-end ships during 

this period. Finally, the consideration for organizing 

aircraft carrier battle groups, or the need to develop a 

maritime system of systems, may be a major impetus 

for the surge in the production of these ships, including particularly the Type 052Ds, from late-2010s on.
286

Near-Seas Capabilities.

One remarkable development for PLAN’s nearseas capabilities is deployment of more than 60 Type 

022 FACs since 2004. Featuring a wave-piercing catamaran hull, the 220-ton craft reportedly travels at a 

maximum speed of 36 knots, and has an operational 

range of 300 nautical miles. It has also adopted stealth 

features that reduce radar, visual, acoustic, infrared, 

and electronic emissions signatures. Moreover, it is 

armed with eight 120-kilometer (km) range YJ83 ASCMs, and a data-link antenna that can receive off-board 

sensors for over-the-horizon targeting information.43

Acquisition of a large number of Type 022s can 

clearly be accounted for by the PLA’s traditional active defense strategy. The craft, for instance, reflects 

the original institutional identity of the PLAN as an 

inferior, small craft navy, which is capable of effective tactical engagement against a superior opponent 

through mobility and stealth, particularly in the 1950s, 

1960s, and 1970s. The high speed, small profile, and 

stealth features make it possible for the craft to approach a major target from multiple directions fast, 

but with low probability of being detected. The operational range combined with missile range and volume, together with data-link antenna, on the other 

hand, enables the Type 022s to cover most of the sea 

areas near China’s shores. Both enhance the chance of 

the craft to effectively engage and raise the cost of a 

superior opponent in the near seas. 

Because Type 022 is designed to sortie out in times 

of war and because of its small size and singular role, 

the craft does not have the level of sustainability and 

versatility for conducting routine patrol to show naval presence in the near seas, particularly in times of 
287

peace and crisis. As a result, the PLAN has endorsed 

the Type 056 light frigate to fill this gap. During 201113, for instance, 10 Type 056 light frigates were either 

commissioned, launched, or were under construction. The 1,400-ton ship features a “deep V” hull, 

sloped surface and reduced superstructure clutters, 

a 150-km-range air and sea search radar, and a helipad at the stern. It is armed with a 76-millimeter gun, 

two 2-cell YJ83 ASCM launchers, one 8-cell FL-3000N 

short-range SAM system, and two 3-cell anti-submarine torpedo tubes.44

These features clearly intend to enhance the speed, 

stealth, and versatility of the ship. The relatively simple and conventional weapons systems and sensors 

may also serve to reduce the production cost so that a 

large number can be acquired. It is generally believed 

that Type 056 is to support routine patrol of disputed 

areas in the near seas by China’s civilian maritime 

law-enforcement ships, either in managing escalation or engaging in small-scale maritime conflicts if 

management fails. The ship can also serve to protect 

Chinese ports and PLAN’s bases, and fulfill nontraditional security missions such as countering piracy and 

terrorism in the near seas. 

Furthermore, the need to replace a large number 

of non-modernized Type 037 corvettes is clearly another reason for the mass production of Type 056. 

That 10 hulls are constructed almost simultaneously 

in shipyards such as Hudong Zhonghua of Shanghai, 

Huangpu of Guangzhou, Wuchang of Wuhan, and 

Liaonan of Dalian, is another example of maturity 

of modular construction techniques by China’s shipbuilding industry. Finally, versatility of a system of 

systems is not only reflected in that systems can be 

deployed to different distances and different spatial 
288

spectrums, but also in that they can be deployed at 

different times. To the extent that Type 022 and Type 

056 can be deployed to similar distance but at different times of war, crisis, and peace, they have clearly 

made important contributions to constructing PLAN’s 

“system of systems” in the near seas.

CONCLUSION

This chapter shows that for China’s evolving naval 

strategy, Hu Jintao has made two conceptual contributions. At the strategic level, Hu requires the PLA to 

enhance security of China’s newly emerging development interests, including energy security, strategic sea 

lanes security, overseas market security, and security 

of overseas Chinese investment and personnel. At the 

operational level, Hu endorsed the concept of ISSSO. 

These conceptual contributions have had a critical influence on the specific missions for the PLAN to fulfill, 

and on how the PLA in general, and the PLAN in particular may conduct operations. For PLAN missions, 

besides the near-seas ones such as deterring Taiwan 

independence and safeguarding territorial waters and 

maritime rights and interests, PLAN is now required 

to fulfill far-seas ones that serve to enhance the “security of overseas energy and resources, strategic sea 

lanes, and overseas (Chinese) citizens and legal entities,” as well as provide humanitarian assistance. On 

how the PLA and the PLAN may conduct operations, 

the concept of ISSSO requires the PLA to shift force 

modernization from individual services to building a 

PLA system of systems to optimize use of resources. 

Integrated by information systems, this system of systems reportedly can achieve common battlefield transparency for systems deployed in different distances 
289

and spatial spectrums. This, in turn, would make it 

possible to conduct synchronized, parallel operations 

based on qualitative superiority stemming from information superiority. 

This chapter also shows that between near-seas 

and far-seas missions, PLAN strategists believe that 

near-seas missions are the priority. This is because 

these missions deal with issues that are more critical to China’s physical security, and they fall within 

confines of regional navy and local war concepts of 

the PLA. These missions are the priority also because 

PLAN’s far-seas capabilities are still quite vulnerable 

for lack of overseas naval bases and robust ASW capabilities. For ISSSO, some PLA strategists argue that 

its implicit premise that the PLA can achieve superiority through information systems integration, which 

warrants a direct, frontal engagement of a powerful 

opponent, is flawed. Instead, they propose that PLA 

operations should still be guided by its traditional active defense strategy, which is premised on inferior 

fighting superior. This strategy highlights not only 

strategic defense, but tactical offense as well as protraction, which should gradually help the PLA to regain strategic initiatives.

For evolving capabilities, this chapter shows that 

PLAN’s acquisition of new far-seas capabilities such 

as an aircraft carrier, destroyers, and frigates is primarily driven by the need to construct maritime system of systems, a requirement of ISSSO. Factors such 

as availability of new shipbuilding infrastructure, 

technologies, and funding, and the need to replace obsolete ships have also contributed to the surge in such 

capabilities. Acquisition of new near-seas capabilities 

such as FACs and light frigates, on the other hand, 

can be explained by PLA’s traditional active defense 
290

strategy as well as a plan for systems considerations. 

Other contributing factors include availability of new 

shipbuilding technologies and the need to replace 

obsolete ships.

What are the policy implications of the findings? 

For PLAN’s far-seas operations, they seem to be largely driven by economic concerns, and are associated 

with nontraditional security issues such as counterpiracy to enhance sea lanes security, and evacuation 

of overseas Chinese nationals in times of crisis. To 

the extent the level of economic interdependence of 

the United States and China is high, PLAN’s far-seas 

operations should offer opportunities for cooperation 

between the U.S. Navy and the PLAN, particularly in 

counterpiracy and other types of nontraditional security operations to enhance sea lanes security. 

Because the Chinese economy is still manufacturing based, resources intensive, and export driven, and 

China is relatively scarce in its resources endowment, 

its dependence on sea lanes for shipping resources imports and manufactured products is likely to increase. 

The PLAN’s far-seas fleet responsible for securing 

these sea lanes, on the other hand, is likely to stay 

vulnerable for lack of overseas naval bases and robust 

ASW capabilities. Both factors render the Chinese 

economy quite vulnerable. This vulnerability should 

provide leverages and initiatives for the United States 

in managing U.S.-China maritime relations, ranging 

from coercive measures in times of crisis to cooperative ones in times of peace, such as allowing for more 

responsibilities for the PLAN to shoulder in enhancing security of these sea lanes.

The PLAN’s near-seas operations, however, offer 

more challenges. One major challenge is disagreement 

between the United States and China over interpreta-
291

tion of United Nations Convention on the Law of the 

Sea as to what military activities are permitted within 

the EEZs of the coastal states. While the U.S. regards 

EEZs as international waters where military surveillance operations are legal and appropriate, China has 

a more restrictive interpretation. This disagreement 

has already resulted in a few dangerous incidents, 

including the United States Naval Ship (USNS) Impeccable Incident of 2009, when the ships of both sides 

operated in close proximity of one another in China’s 

EEZs. These incidents have not only put human lives 

in peril, but caused deterioration of relations between 

the two militaries, which may cause damage to overall 

bilateral relations if managed poorly. 

As more Chinese naval ships are deployed out to 

sea more frequently, however, it is inevitable that they 

may also operate in the EEZs of other countries, and be 

placed under close scrutiny by other navies. PLA analysts, for instance, complain that Chinese naval ships 

were always followed, monitored, and interrupted 

(跟踪,监视和干扰) by ships of the Japanese Maritime 

Self-Defense Force, as they operated and transited 

more frequently in the straits southwest of Japanese 

Archipelago and near Okinawa, which fall largely 

within Japan’s EEZs.45 It now seems that even though 

USNS Impeccable and PLAN ships had different missions to fulfill in other countries’ EEZs, the frustration 

stemming from the interrupted access to EEZs is quite 

identical. Similarly, Shi Xiaoqin (师小芹), a noted naval analyst at China’s Academy of Military Science, 

states that: 

it is difficult for us to imagine that fortresses can be 

built and boundary markers buried in sea as on land. 

Except for the territorial waters of 12 nautical miles . . . 
292

oceans should be freely exploited to benefit the people 

of all countries . . . rather than enclosed as one’s own 

land (圈地). . . . The goal of China’s maritime strategy 

is to safeguard, with other stakeholders, the openness 

and security of the global commons (维护全球海洋的

畅通和安全).46

What the above account indicates is that Chinese 

conception of military activities in EEZs may be evolving, largely because of an increase in China’s naval 

activities. If this evolution may gradually change the 

perspective that underlies China’s disagreement with 

the U.S. over military activities in EEZs, it offers an 

opportunity for the United States to work out a set of 

rules with China to mitigate naval ships’ interactions, 

so that incidents at sea can be avoided or minimized.

ENDNOTES - CHAPTER 7

1. “Near seas” refer to the three seas near China, that is, South 

China Sea, East China Sea, and Yellow Sea. “Far seas” refer to 

the seas beyond the near seas, or those in the Western Pacific and 

Indian Oceans.

2. See Nan Li, “The Evolution of China’s Naval Strategy and 

Capabilities: From ‘Near Coast’ and ‘Near Seas’ to ‘Far Seas’,” 

Asian Security, Vol. 5, No. 2, 2009. 

3. Liu served as the PLAN commander from 1982 to 1988 and 

CMC vice chair from 1989 to 1997. For Liu’s advocacy of the aircraft carrier program, see Liu Huaqing (刘华清), 刘华清回忆录

(Liu Huaqing’s Memoirs), 北京: 解放军出版社, 2004, Beijing, China: 

Liberation Army Press, 2004, pp. 477-481. For Jiang’s refusal to 

endorse the program, author’s conversation with informed sources in Guangzhou in 2003. See also “凤凰网专访马辛春: 十年前就

该造航母” (“Phoenix Net’s Special Interview with Ma Xinchun: 

Aircraft Carrier Should Have Been Developed 10 Years Ago”), 

Phoenix Net, October 14, 2009. In the interview, Ma, a former commander of the PLAN North Sea Fleet, made the point that some-
293

one was criticized for advocating the aircraft carrier program 10 

years before. He actually refers to an incident where a North Sea 

Fleet senior officer was reprimanded by Jiang at a National People’s Congress annual meeting for advocating the program. Later, 

however, Jiang moderated his view and endorsed the carrier program in August 2004, just before he was to transfer the position of 

CMC chair to Hu.

4. See Nan Li, “The Evolving Chinese Conception of Security 

and Security Approaches,” in See Seng Tan and Amitav Acharya, 

eds., Asia-Pacific Security Cooperation: National Interests and Regional Order, Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2004.

5. Jiang, cited in Senior Captain Tang Fuquan (唐复全) and 

Wu Yi (伍轶), “中国海防战略探要” (“A Study of China’s Sea Defense Strategy”), 中国军事科学 (China Military Science), No. 5, 

2007, p. 93. Tang is a professor at PLAN’s Dalian Ship Academy, 

and Wu is a doctoral candidate at China’s Academy of Military 

Science (AMS).

6. For an explanation of Hu’s New Historical Missions, see 

Nan Li, Chinese Civil-Military Relations in the Post-Deng Era: Implications for Crisis Management and Naval Modernization, Newport, 

RI: Naval War College Press, China Maritime Studies No. 4, 2010, 

pp. 17-18.

7. Hu, cited in Qu Jianwen (瞿健文), “中缅油气管道,两国人

心所向” (“Sino-Burmese Oil and Gas Pipelines Are Favored by 

the People of Both Countries”), 中国青年参考, (China Youth Reference), July 1, 2009. Qu is deputy dean of International Relations 

Studies Institute of Yunnan University in Kunming.

8. Hu, cited in General Political Department (总政治部), 军队

高中级干部理论学习读本, 下册, (Theoretical Studies Reader for Army’s High and Middle-Ranking Cadres, Book Two), 北京: 解放军出版

社, 2010, Beijing, China: Liberation Army Press, 2010, p. 435.

9. Hu, cited in Tang and Wu: “A Study of China’s Sea Defense 

Strategy,” p. 93.
294

10. See Major General Ren Liansheng (任连生), “对基于信息

系统的体系作战能力的初步认识” (“A Preliminary Understanding 

regarding Information Systems-based Systems of systems Operations Capabilities”), China Military Science, No. 4, 2010, p. 26. Ren 

is director of Scientific Research Guidance Department of AMS.

11. See “国防白皮书:中国武装力量的多样化运用” (“National 

Defense White Paper: Diversified Employment of China’s Armed 

Forces”), 新华社 (Xinhua News Agency), April 16, 2013.

12. Ibid. For a detailed discussion of sea lanes security, see 

Senior Captain Liang Fang (梁芳), 海上战略通道论 (On Strategic 

Sea Lanes), 北京: 时事出版社, 2011, Beijing, China: Current Affairs 

Press, 2011. Liang is a navy faculty at China’s National Defense 

University (NDU) in Beijing. 

13. “National Defense White Paper.” 

14. Wu Shengli (吴胜利), “深入贯彻主题主线重大战略思想,

积极推动海军建设又好又快发展” (“Deeply Implement Important 

Strategic Thought of Primary Theme and Primary Line, Actively 

Push Forward Better and Faster Development of Navy Construction”), 人民海军 (People’s Navy), September 20, 2011. People’s Navy

is a daily newspaper published by PLAN’s Political Department.

15. See “National Defense White Paper.”

16. Ibid.

17. See Senior Captain Feng Liang (冯梁), Senior Captain Gao 

Zichuan (高子川), and Captain Duan Tingzhi (段廷志), 中国的和

平发展与海上安全环境 (China’s Peaceful Development and Maritime 

Security Environment), 北京: 世界知识出版社, 2010, Beijing, China: 

World Knowledge Press, 2010, pp. 300-301. For primacy of near 

seas, see also Liu Huaqing, “形势要求我们搞好海军发展战略研

究” (“Situations Require Us to Do well the Research on Naval 

Development Strategy”), January 1987, in Liu Huaqing, 刘华清

军事文选,上卷 (Selected Military Works of Liu Huaqing, Book One), 

北京: 解放军出版社, 2008, Beijing, China: Liberation Army Press, 

2008, p. 529. Feng, Gao, and Duan are professors at China’s Naval 

Command College in Nanjing. 
295

18. See Liu Huaqing, “海军战略与未来海上作战” (“Naval 

Strategy and Future Maritime Operations”), April 29, 1986, in Liu, 

Selected Military Works of Liu Huaqing, p. 457; Liu, Liu Huaqing’s 

Memoirs, p. 437.

19. Senior Captain Li Jie (李杰), cited in “军事专家:中国应

考虑在东非设陆上支援中心” (“Military Expert: China Should 

Consider Establishing Land-based Support Center in Eastern Africa”), 中国评论通讯社 (China Review News Agency), May 21, 2009. 

China Review News Agency is a pro-China news agency in Hong 

Kong, and Li is an analyst at Naval Military Art Studies Institute 

in Beijing.

20. See “China Has No Plan for Indian Ocean Military Bases, 

An Exclusive Interview with Chinese Defense Minister General 

Liang Guanglie,” The Hindu, September 4, 2012.

21. For these reasons, see Senior Colonel Huang Yingxu (黄迎

旭), “未来中国需要什么样的军事力量?” (“What Kind of Military 

Force Does Future China Need?”), 学习时报 (Study Times), April 

27, 2009. Huang is director of Mao Zedong Military Thought 

Studies Institute of AMS, and Study Times is a weekly publication 

by the Central Party School in Beijing. 

22. Senior Colonel Lin Dong (林东), “基于信息系统的军事

力量体系的发展理念” (“Development Concepts on Information 

Systems-based Military Force System of Systems”), China Military 

Science, No. 1, 2011, pp. 19-21; Colonel Zhang Hong (张宏) and 

Captain Yu Zhao (于召), “基于信息系统锻造新型作战力量体系” 

(“Forge New-Type Operational Force System of Systems based on 

Information Systems”), China Military Science, No. 5, 2010, p. 12. 

Lin is an associate professor at Strategy Teaching and Research 

Department of NDU. Zhang is an associate professor and director 

of Combined Arms and Tactics Teaching and Research Office of 

Army Command College in Shijiazhuang, and Yu is a master’s 

student there.

23. Lin: “Development Concepts,” pp. 20-21.

24. Ibid, p. 22. 
296

25. Ibid; Ren: “A Preliminary Understanding,” pp. 27-29; Senior Captain Jiang Lei (蒋磊), “提高基于信息系统的海上体系作战

能力的思考” (“Reflections on Enhancing Information Systemsbased Maritime System of Systems Operations Capabilities”), 

China Military Science, No. 5, 2010, pp. 27-28. Jiang is a professor 

and director of Navy Development and Construction Studies Office of Naval Command College in Nanjing.

26. Lin: “Development Concepts,” p. 22.

27. See Ping Zhiwei (平志伟), Major Zeng Xiaoxiao (曾筱

晓),and Major Zhang Xuehui (张学辉), “基于信息系统的体系作

战机理研究” (“A Study of Mechanisms for Information Systemsbased System of Systems Operations”), China Military Science, No. 

4, 2010, p. 41. Ping is a professor and deputy director of Campaign and Tactics Department at Army Command College in Shijiazhuang, and Zeng and Zhang are lecturers in the Combined 

Arms Tactics Teaching and Research Office of that department.

28. Ren: “A Preliminary Understanding,” p. 27. 

29. Senior Colonel Luo Xiangde (罗相德), “基于信息系统体系

作战指导的若干思考” (“Several Reflections on Operational Guidance for Information Systems-based System of Systems Operations”), China Military Science, No. 4, 2010, pp. 54-56. Luo is an associate professor at Strategy Teaching and Research Office of Joint 

Operations Department of Army Command College in Nanjing.

30. Ibid, p. 56. 

31. AMS Military History Studies Department (军事科学院

军事历史研究部), 中国人民解放军的七十年 (Seventy Years of Chinese People’s Liberation Army), 北京: 军事科学出版社, 1997, Beijing, 

China: Military Science Press, 1997, pp. 278-279, 282-283, 285-

286, 288-289, 292-293, 324. These operational principles are also 

highlighted in Mao Zedong (毛泽东), “中国革命战争的战略问题” 

(“Strategic Questions Regarding China’s Revolutionary Wars”), 

in Mao Zedong, 毛泽东选集, 第一卷 (Selected Works of Mao Zedong, 

Vol. One), 北京: 人民出版社, 1991, 第二版, Beijing, China: People’s 

Press, 1991, 2nd Edition.
297

32. Liu, “Naval Strategy and Future Maritime Operations,” 

p. 481. 

33. Senior Colonel Dan Xiufa (单秀法) and Major Ning Jun 

(宁军), “毛泽东以弱胜强理论再研究” (“Re-study of Mao Zedong’s 

Theory of Inferior Defeating Superior”), China Military Science, 

No. 3, 2010, p. 67. The citation is from a comment by Mao on his 

misfortune during the Jiangxi Soviet period of early-1930s. Mao’s 

rural,mobile strategy of building rural bases and “luring enemy 

in deep,” which proved to be quite effective in countering Chiang 

Kai-shek’s encirclement and annihilation campaigns at the time, 

was criticized as “rightist opportunism.” As a result, it was replaced by a Soviet-style urban strategy endorsed by Communist 

International representatives such as Otto Braun, to attack urban 

centers to trigger urban uprisings. After January 1934, however, 

the Red Army base areas were treated as a Soviet state to be defended by a frontal, positional warfare of attrition (阵地消耗战). 

The objective was to defend this state “against the enemy who 

would be defeated outside the gate of the state” (“御敌于国门

之外”). This Soviet-style strategy of direct, frontal engagement 

proved to be disastrous, causing huge casualties of the Red Army, 

because it ended up as a war of matching attrition. By October 

1934, the Red Army had to abandon its southern bases for the 

tumultuous northward retreat, known as the Long March. For 

Mao’s comment, see Mao Zedong, 毛泽东军事文集,第二卷 (Selected Military Works of Mao Zedong, Vol. 2), 北京: 军事科学出版社, 

中央文献出版社, 1993, Beijing, China: Military Science Press and 

Central Documents Press, 1993, p. 726. Dan is an analyst at Strategy Department of AMS, and Ning is a doctoral student there.

34. Dan and Ning: “Re-study of Mao Zedong’s Theory of Inferior Defeating Superior.” p. 67. 

35. Ibid, p. 68.

36. Ibid. For a naval discussion of inferior fighting superior, 

see Captain Huang Peirong (黄培荣) and Lieutenant Commander 

Liu Changlong (刘昌龙), “持续推进立足现有装备打仗能力提升” 

(“Keep Enhancing the Capabilities for Fighting a War based on 

Existing Arms”), China Military Science, No. 4, 2012. Huang is an 

associate professor at Operations Command Teaching and Research Office of Naval Command College in Nanjing, and Liu is a 

doctoral student specializing in military strategy there.
298

37. For information on new PLAN acquisition of major combatants in this study, consult China Defense, available from www.

china-defense.com/smf/. 

38. See Jiang Yu (江雨), “飞机弹射器历史及其在中国海军的发

展前景” (“The History of Aircraft Catapult and Its Development 

Prospect for China’s Navy”), 舰载武器 (Ship-borne Weapons), August 8, 2012, p. 29. Ship-borne Weapons is a publication of China 

Shipbuilding Industry Corporation.

39. For different carrier takeoff modes and their different impacts on AEW capabilities, see Nan Li and Chris Weuve, “China’s 

Aircraft Ambitions: An Update,” U.S. Naval War College Review, 

Vol. 63, No. 1, Winter 2010.

40. See “核动力船舶关键技术研究立项”(“Research Project on 

Key Technologies of Nuclear-powered Ships Is Endorsed”), 中国

网, February 22, 2013, available from www.china.com.cn.

41. See Huo Xin (火心), “小论中国航母动力” (“A Humble 

Comment on the Propulsion for China’s Aircraft Carrier”), Shipborne Weapons, April 4, 2012, p. 39. 

42. PLA analysts, cited in “中国航母, 从今天驶向未来” (“China’s Aircraft Carrier, from Today to the Future”), 解放军报 (Liberation Army Daily), September 26, 2012.

43. See Nan Li, “China’s Navy Develops Fast Attack Craft,” 

Jane’s Intelligence Review, September 2009. For receiving targeting 

information from off-board sensors, see Huang Binbin (黄彬彬), 

“‘Sea Snipers’ from a Military Port of Eastern Shandong Manifest 

Divine Awe” (“胶东某军港海上‘狙击手’显神威”), Liberation Army 

Daily, August 28, 2009.

44. See Wang Jin (王进), “新时期新使命, 中国056型轻型护卫

舰” (“New Missions in the New Period, China’s Type 056 Light 

Frigate”), Ship-borne Weapons, August 8, 2012; Feng Huo (烽火), 

“056型轻型护卫舰的思考” (“Reflections on Type 056 Light Frigate”), 现代舰船 (Modern Ships), No. 07B, 2012. Modern Ships is a 

publication of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation.
299

45. Xing Guangmei (邢广梅), Li Jie, and Du Wenlong (杜文

龙), cited in “日本舰机频繁挑衅中国海军” (“Japanese Warships 

and Aircraft Frequently Provoke the Chinese Navy”), 钱江晚报

(Qianjiang Evening News), Hangzhou, April 9, 2013. Xing is director of Legal Studies Office of Naval Military Art Studies Institute 

in Beijing, and Du is a professor at China’s NDU.

46. Shi, cited in Wu Ting (吴挺), “中国应学会合理运用海军力

量支撑其全球秩序” (“China Should Learn to Employ Naval Forces Rationally to Sustain Its Ideal of a Global Order”), 东方早报

(Oriental Morning Post), Shanghai, August 1, 2011. Shi is an analyst 

at War Theory and Strategy Studies Department of AMS, author 

of 论海权与中美关系 (On Sea Power and Sino-U.S. Relations), 北京: 

军事科学出版社, Beijing, China: AMS Press, 2012, and deputy editor-in-chief of Strategic Studies (战略研究), a publication of AMS. 

301

CHAPTER 8

SECOND ARTILLERY IN THE HU JINTAO ERA:

DOCTRINE AND CAPABILITIES

Michael S. Chase

The views expressed in this chapter do not necessarily 

reflect the views of the U.S. Naval War College or the 

U.S. Navy.

This chapter assesses the doctrine and capabilities of China’s strategic missile force—the People’s 

Liberation Army Second Artillery Force (PLASAF)—

during the Hu Jintao era. During the Hu Jintao era, 

Second Artillery made impressive progress in doctrinal development, force modernization, and training, 

emerging as a cornerstone of China’s growing military power. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) published important volumes elaborating its doctrine for 

missile force deterrence operations and campaigns. 

After decades of vulnerability, PLASAF’s deployment of road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles 

(ICBMs) enhanced the survivability of the nuclear 

missile force and strengthened the credibility of China’s strategic deterrent. The Hu era also featured the 

expansion of PLASAF’s conventional capabilities, giving Beijing new options to employ conventional missiles for deterrence, intimidation, and precision strike 

operations. In addition, Second Artillery improved its 

command automation, intelligence, surveillance, and 

reconnaissance (ISR), communications capabilities, 

and increased the realism and complexity of missile 

force training.
302

POLICY IMPLICATIONS

• China’s growing nuclear and conventional 

missile capabilities have far-reaching implications for the United States. Specifically, China’s 

growing nuclear capabilities are likely to complicate future arms control negotiations, and 

aspects of PLASAF doctrine could create serious crisis stability and escalation management 

challenges.

• Strategic dialogue on these issues is required 

to mitigate escalation risks and lay the groundwork for future Chinese participation in multilateral arms control discussions.

• Furthermore, PLASAF’s growing conventional 

missile capabilities will allow China to pose an 

increasingly serious threat to targets like regional bases and surface ships.

• This will require the United States to rethink 

aspects of its traditional approach to military 

operations, deterrence, and assurance of allies 

and partners in the region.

INTRODUCTION

During the Hu era, Second Artillery made major 

strides in the development of its nuclear and conventional missile capabilities. In 2002, the year Hu Jintao 

became President of China and Secretary General of 

the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), China was in the 

process of replacing its CSS-4 Mod 1 silo-based ICBMs 

with the longer-range CSS-4 Mod 2s, but road mobile 

ICBMs remained under development.1 During the Hu 

era, China improved the survivability and striking 

power of its nuclear force by deploying the DF-31 and 

DF-31A road mobile ICBMs. Second Artillery’s con-
303

ventional capabilities also increased dramatically during the Hu era. In 2002, China had deployed about 350 

conventional short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) 

opposite Taiwan.2 By 2012, PLASAF had roughly tripled the size of its conventional SRBM force to about 

1,050-1,150 missiles. Importantly, China also diversified its conventional missile force to include conventional medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) and 

the world’s first anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM).

These force modernization developments have allowed Second Artillery to strengthen its ability to perform its key missions: strategic deterrence and conventional precision strike.3

 China’s 2008 Defense White 

Paper elaborates on these missions as follows: 

Second Artillery Force sticks to China’s policy of no 

first use of nuclear weapons, implements a self-defensive nuclear strategy, strictly follows the orders of the 

CMC [Central Military Commission], and takes it as 

its fundamental mission the protection of China from 

any nuclear attack. . . . The conventional missile force 

of Second Artillery Force is charged mainly of the 

task of conducting medium- and long-range precision 

strikes against key strategic and operational targets of 

the enemy.4

Similarly, Second Artillery publications indicate 

that PLASAF’s main mission is dual deterrence, dual 

operations (双重威慑,双重作战), meaning it is responsible for nuclear deterrence and nuclear counterstrikes, 

as well as conventional deterrence and conventional 

precision strikes.5

Second Artillery’s central focus remains on its core 

military capabilities. According to the Science of Second 

Artillery Campaigns (SSAC), with the powerful nuclear 

and conventional missile force capabilities that allow 
304

Second Artillery to perform its deterrence and warfighting missions, China’s strategic missile force has 

become the “trump card” for winning local wars under 

informatized conditions.6 At the same time, however, 

PLASAF is also responsible for improving its ability 

to participate in other types of operations, such as domestic disaster relief activities.7

 For example, Second 

Artillery engineering and medical units participated 

in disaster relief operations following the rain and ice 

storm in South China in early-2008 and the devastating earthquake in Wenchuan, Sichuan Province, in 

May 2008. In a review of Second Artillery’s recent accomplishments, then Commander Jing Zhiyuan and 

then Political Commissar Peng Xiaofeng highlighted 

PLASAF’s disaster relief contributions,8 and military 

media has also prominently covered PLASAF’s involvement in such activities.9

Senior PLASAF officers place all of these responsibilities in the context of the historic missions President 

Hu assigned to the PLA in 2004.10 Beyond the enunciation of the PLA’s historic missions, President Hu has 

apparently paid a considerable amount of attention 

to Second Artillery during his tenure as China’s top 

leader. According to Jing and Peng:

Comrade Hu Jintao has attached great importance to 

and placed high hope on the growth of Second Artillery, emphasizing that Second Artillery is a strategic force under the CPC Central Committee and the 

Central Military Commission’s direct command, acts 

as our country’s core force for strategic deterrence, 

and plays a particularly important role in performing the PLA’s historic mission at the new stage in the

new century.11
305

The extent to which China’s top leaders view the 

missile force as capable of supporting their broader 

political and diplomatic objectives is difficult to gauge, 

but PLASAF’s senior leaders appear increasingly confident about its ability to perform its missions. In an 

authoritative review of the development of Second 

Artillery in the reform and opening era, Second Artillery Commander Jing Zhiyuan and then Second Artillery Political Commissar Peng Xiaofeng highlighted a 

variety of achievements, including improvements in 

combat capability, weapons and equipment, exercises 

and training, political work, personnel development 

and education, and support capabilities. 12 In particular, Jing and Peng underscored the strengthening of 

the combat capability of the missile force, writing that 

the “integrated combat capability” of PLASAF “has 

been elevated significantly.”13 More specifically, according to Jing and Peng: 

Second Artillery has taken a big stride, with the combat force evolving from a unitary nuclear force into 

an armed branch combining both nuclear and conventional weapons, the combat mode evolving from 

fixed position operation to mobile combat operation, 

and combat capabilities expanded from the mode of 

near-, intermediate-, and long-range strikes to that of 

intercontinental strikes.14

This self-assessment appears reasonably accurate. 

Indeed, it reflects impressive advances in PLASAF’s 

nuclear and conventional missile force capabilities 

during the Hu era. In all, these developments resulted 

in a considerable increase in PLASAF’s deterrent and 

warfighting capabilities during the Hu era. As Jing 

and Peng put it, PLASAF’s advances in crucial areas 

such as doctrine, hardware, and training reflect “a 
306

new upgrade of the troops’ strategic deterrence and 

defense operation capabilities under informatized 

conditions.”15

The remainder of this chapter is organized as follows. Part two evaluates PLASAF doctrine during 

the Hu Jintao era. Part three provides an overview of 

key developments in PLASAF capabilities, including 

nuclear and conventional missiles; command, control, 

communications, computers, and intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR); and command 

automation systems. It also covers important developments involving training and exercises. Part four 

briefly looks ahead to some possible changes analysts 

may need to watch for during the Xi Jinping era. Part 

five recaps some of the key themes of the chapter and 

examines the implications for the United States.

SECOND ARTILLERY DOCTRINE 

IN THE HU JINTAO ERA

During the Hu era, Second Artillery has focused 

on the requirements of dual deterrence, dual operations.16 Along with the modernization of its forces, 

PLASAF has also engaged in the elaboration and refinement of its doctrine, which in turn is intended to 

guide the further development and future employment of its nuclear and conventional missile force capabilities. Determining what exactly is new in the Hu 

era in terms of doctrine is complicated by the fact that 

the key books published in the mid-2000s were based 

on documents issued in the late-1990s, specifically the 

1999 Outline for Second Artillery Campaigns and Outline 

for Joint Campaigns.

17 Nonetheless, PLASAF officers 

appear to feel as though the missile force has made 

important progress in this area. According to Yu Jixun: 
307

Especially since the beginning of the new century, 

closely following the mission and tasks given to us 

by the Central Military Commission, we have emancipated our thoughts with bold innovations, actively 

utilized modern research methods and measures, focused on the relevance, forward looking nature, and 

effectiveness of combat theory research, achieved 

a great deal of valuable and influential results, enriched and perfected the system of strategic missile 

troop combat theories, and provided solid theoretical 

support to the accelerating preparations for military 

struggle and strategic missile troop transformation.18

In particular, doctrinal publications suggest that 

important developments have been made in how Second Artillery thinks about deterrence operations and 

missile force campaigns.

Second Artillery Deterrence Operations.

Second Artillery published a considerable body of 

thinking about deterrence operations during Hu Jintao’s decade as China’s top leader. Chinese military 

publications released during this period of time, including Intimidation Warfare and SSAC (第二炮兵战役

学), clearly highlighted the missile force’s deterrent 

role. In this context, it is important to note that the 

Chinese term weishe (威慑), which is always translated 

as “deterrence” by official Chinese sources, is sometimes used in a way that encompasses both deterrence 

and compellence or coercive diplomacy, as typically 

defined in Western political science literature. Accordingly, it is sometimes more appropriate to think 

of weishe as roughly equivalent to Thomas Schelling’s 

broader concept of coercion, which includes deter-
308

rence and compellence.19 Some Chinese scholars also 

acknowledge that the meaning of weishe is closer to 

coercion. For example, according to Li Bin, “‘weishe’ 

does not mean deterrence; ‘weishe’ means coercion: 

to force others to yield to oneself.”20 Consequently, 

although this chapter follows the convention of translating weishe as deterrence, it must be noted that this 

is actually a broader concept that can encompass both 

deterrence and compellence or coercive diplomacy.

According to SSAC, Second Artillery campaign 

deterrence (“第二炮兵战役威慑”) is a series of military 

activities in which missile force units create momentum and demonstrate strength (“造势和显势”) in order 

to accomplish specified strategic and campaign-level 

objectives.21 The authors stress that campaign deterrence operations constitute an important component 

of Second Artillery’s mission of dual deterrence, dual 

operations. The goal of campaign deterrence operations is to “compel an enemy to accept our will or to 

contain an enemy’s hostile actions.” 22

Chinese military publications indicate that PLASAF campaign deterrence operations take place in 

peacetime, crisis, and wartime. Local wars under informatized conditions, the type the PLA expects it may 

need to fight in the future, often begin with campaign 

deterrence operations aimed at compelling the adversary to accept certain conditions. Second Artillery 

dual deterrence operations are one of the main activities in the prologue stages of local wars under informatized conditions. One Chinese source, Zhao Xijun’s 

Intimidation Warfare, describes missile forces on high 

alert as “like swords drawn out of their sheath, arrows 

on the bent bow, and bullets loaded.”23 Nuclear and 

conventional missile force units can thus be used to 

conduct deterrence operations designed to create an 

advantageous situation for China.
309

The objective of Second Artillery campaign deterrence activities is to compel the enemy to accept the 

conditions put forward by China through a process 

of intimidation (恫吓). This process begins with lower 

intensity deterrence actions such as warnings and 

demonstrations of strength and gradually progresses 

to higher intensity deterrence actions such as launch 

exercises or even test launches close to enemy targets.24 Chinese publications portray Second Artillery 

campaign deterrence activities as an important means 

for achieving campaign-level objectives, and even national strategic goals.25

The guiding thoughts for Second Artillery campaign deterrence actions are “building momentum 

and using stratagem, and being appropriate and effective” (“造势伐谋,适度有效”).26 The purpose is to create an advantageous situation by forming a powerful 

force that resembles a “boulder rolling down a steep 

mountain.”27 Chinese military publications identify 

several campaign deterrence missions for the missile 

force. Among these deterrence missions are: preventing wars from breaking out; deterring escalation of a 

war that has already started; using nuclear deterrence 

as a “backstop” to support conventional operations; 

and compelling submission of the enemy through 

high-intensity deterrence actions.28

Second Artillery nuclear and conventional missile 

force units use a variety of methods to support these 

objectives.29 One of the most important campaign deterrence methods for the missile force is “displaying 

strength” (“实力展示”). This mainly involves revealing missiles and various types of launch and support 

equipment, and demonstrating the high quality missile force personnel. Closely related to demonstrating 

strength is the concept of “using the troops to build 
310

momentum” (“兵力造势”). According to SSAC, this 

refers to the use of troop deployments to create an advantageous situation for China. 

At a more concrete level, Second Artillery publications discuss a variety of specific methods the missile 

force can employ to deter or intimidate an adversary. 

Some that have been carried out in recent years include 

sending commanders to inspect or review the troops, 

issuing statements about the development or deployment of new types of missiles, releasing pictures or 

videos of missile force exercises to the international 

media, and displaying nuclear and conventional missiles in National Day military parades. Chinese military publications also describe a variety of deterrence 

actions that could be employed under crisis or conflict 

conditions. These include the following:

• Moving missile launchers and support vehicles 

into view as the enemy’s reconnaissance satellites are about to pass overhead to show that 

China’s missile forces are preparing to conduct 

combat operations.

• Engaging in feint activities with a mix of real 

forces and forces equipped with fake missiles 

and equipment to create the impression that a 

larger number of forces are involved in the maneuvers, which in turn is supposed to increase 

the overall effects of the deterrence operations.

• Conducting simulated missile launches by deploying mobile missiles to training areas and 

fake launch sites just before the enemy’s reconnaissance satellites are about to pass overhead; 

the mobile missile units can then prepare their 

equipment, erect the missiles, and conduct 

pre-launch inspections. Similarly, China’s liquid-fueled missiles can “carry out simulated 

fueling.”30
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• Employing deception techniques that involve 

the use of electronic equipment and communications gear to simulate the electromagnetic 

radiation characteristics and communications 

patterns of missile force and command center 

activities.

• Creating the appearance of all-out escalation by 

ordering silo-based missiles and missile units 

at launch pads to conduct missile weaponry 

technical preparations at the same time.31

• Using the domestic and international media 

to influence other countries.32 Some of the specific methods that can be used include issuing 

threats to carry out missile strikes through 

television news broadcasts, press conferences, 

and the Internet. For example, if a strong enemy sent its aircraft carriers to intervene in a 

crisis involving China, Second Artillery could 

threaten conventional missile strikes against 

the carriers to deter the enemy.33

• Increasing the level of readiness of the missile force in accordance with the appropriate 

regulations on levels of weapons preparation 

to demonstrate different degrees of deterrent 

strength.

• Conducting launch exercises is another important method for achieving campaign deterrence 

objectives. This involves launching missiles at 

pre-determined ground or sea targets to place 

psychological pressure on enemy decisionmakers.

• Another option is test-launching missiles close 

to enemy territory or enemy ships. The objective is to convince the enemy that if it risks provoking China, it may face a devastating missile 
312

attack. One option is conducting test launches 

from both flanks, which requires launching 

missiles at two or more important enemy targets. Another is a “cross-island offensive test 

launch,” which involves launching a missile 

across an enemy-held island.

• Still another option is launching one or more 

missiles close to an enemy aircraft carrier. According to SSAC: 

when conducting deterrence strikes against 

an enemy aircraft carrier battle group that is 

intruding into our territorial waters, we can 

launch missiles near their flanks or in front of 

them to demonstrate that we have the capability and determination to carry out a destructive 

strike against the enemy’s nuclear-powered 

carrier; this will frighten the enemy into leaving 

our territorial waters.34

• SSAC also mentions the possibility of lowering 

the nuclear deterrence threshold or adjusting 

nuclear policy, meaning China could drop or 

place conditions on its long-standing “no first 

use” policy in response to particularly threatening actions by a powerful enemy. Specifically, 

they state that this method could be used when 

a powerful nuclear-armed enemy that enjoys 

conventional military superiority conducts 

continuous medium or high intensity air raids 

against major strategic targets in China. Under 

such circumstances, the supreme command 

could choose to adjust China’s long-standing 

“no first use” nuclear deterrence policy and order the missile force to “actively carry out powerful nuclear deterrence against the enemy to 
313

deter the enemy from continuously launching 

conventional air raids against [China’s] major 

strategic targets.”35

Chinese sources note that when conducting deterrence operations, Second Artillery must choose appropriate methods to influence the adversary. They 

also emphasize that PLASAF should reveal enough 

information about its preparations to deter the enemy, while at the same time concealing information 

that could expose vulnerabilities. For example, according to SSAC, because the technical preparation 

of missiles is usually carried out in central storage facilities under conditions of concealment, the enemy is 

unlikely to detect the increased readiness of Chinese 

missile systems. Consequently, Second Artillery must 

record videos of the preparations and distribute them 

via television and Internet, but the scenes that are revealed must be carefully selected in order to avoid divulging technical secrets. 

Second Artillery Campaigns.

Second Artillery also appears to have made important progress in the development of doctrine to guide 

the execution of missile force campaigns and the participation of missile force units in joint campaigns. According to SSAC, the science of campaigns not only 

provides guidance for training and the conduct of future operations, but also establishes a foundation for 

making decisions about equipment development and 

army building. It is useful for thinking about “how to 

fight battles, what kinds of weapons are needed, and 

in what forms the training of the force and soldiers 

should be organized.”36 Because PLASAF lacks actual 
314

operational experience, its campaign concepts are derived from theoretical analysis, assessments of foreign 

military operations, and its experiences in training 

and exercises.37

The 2006 edition of Science of Campaigns, published 

by the PLA’s National Defense University Press, defines a Second Artillery campaign as: 

the execution of a series of nuclear or conventional 

missile strikes as well as associated actions by a Second Artillery campaign large formation, so as to form 

operational activities in order to achieve the objectives 

of the war, either in part or overall, in accordance with 

the operational intent of the higher-level authorities.38

This definition appears to be derived from the 

PLA’s January 1999 “Outline for Second Artillery 

Campaigns” (“第二炮兵战役纲要”), which is cited in 

SSAC.39

Chinese military publications indicate that Second 

Artillery campaigns may be categorized in a number 

of ways. One is according to the scale of the forces involved. According to SSAC and SOC (2006), a campaign could be a “Missile Base Group Campaign” 

(“导弹基地群战役”) involving multiple missile bases, a 

“Missile Brigade Group Campaign” (“导弹旅群战役”) 

involving multiple conventional missile brigades, or 

a “Missile Base Campaign” (“导弹基地战役”) involving a single missile base.40 Second Artillery campaigns 

may also be categorized on the basis of whether nuclear or conventional weapons are employed. Specifically, they can be divided into two major types of 

campaigns: “conventional missile strike campaigns” 

(“常规导弹突击战役”) and “nuclear counterstrike 

campaigns” (“核反击战役").41
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Conventional Missile Strike Campaigns. 

The first authoritative definition of the conventional missile attack campaign appeared in a 1996 Chinese 

military textbook entitled Conventional Missile Strike 

Campaigns (常规导弹突击战役), and it has since been 

refined and elaborated in a number of other publications.42 In the 2006 edition of Science of Campaigns, the 

conventional missile attack campaigns is defined as: 

“the series of conventional missile strikes and related 

operational activities by Second Artillery conventional 

campaign large formation, under unified command, in 

order to achieve the goals of the war, either partially or 

completely.”43 Furthermore, according to SOC (2006), 

the conventional missile strike campaign would usually be executed as an important part of a joint campaign, but it could also be carried out independently 

under the appropriate circumstances.44 SSAC also 

indicates that a conventional missile strike campaign 

would likely constitute part of a joint campaign, such 

as the joint blockade campaign, joint island landing 

campaign, joint border counterattack campaign, or 

joint anti-air raid campaign, but could be conducted 

independently under certain conditions.45

Chinese military publications released during the 

Hu era have discussed the missions, characteristics, 

guiding thoughts, and principles of conventional missile strike campaigns. In all, Chinese military writings 

on conventional missile campaigns stress the importance of surprise and suggest a preference for preemptive strikes. 

According to SSAC, basic missions of a conventional missile strike campaign include launching 

firepower strikes against important targets in the 
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enemy’s campaign and strategic deep areas, coordinating with the air force to assist in seizing campaign 

air dominance, coordinating with the navy to assist 

in seizing campaign command of the sea, coordinating with the army to assist in seizing the initiative in 

ground operations, and implementing conventional 

deterrence. More concretely, SSAC lists a number of 

potential targets for missile strikes in support of these 

objectives, including the following: enemy strategic 

and campaign command centers; communications 

hubs; radar stations; other information and communications-related targets; guided missile positions; air 

force bases; naval facilities; railway stations; bridges; 

logistical facilities, energy facilities, electrical power 

centers, and aircraft carrier strike groups. As for the 

goals of a Second Artillery conventional missile strike 

campaign, SSAC indicates that they include: 

paralyzing the enemy’s command system; weakening 

the enemy’s military strength and its ability to continue operations; creating psychological shock in the enemy and shaking its operational resolve; and checking 

the powerful enemy’s military intervention activities 

(遏制强敌军事干预行动).46

According to SSAC, the key characteristics of a 

conventional missile campaign include the need for 

high-level decisionmaking and the reality of political 

constraints, the powerful deep strike capabilities and 

overall impact of conventional missiles as long-range 

firepower strike weapons, the complexity of coordination relationships, heavy requirements for campaign 

support owing to the technical nature of missile systems, and dangers of exposure and difficulties inherent in defending against enemy attacks, especially air 

strikes and special operations raids.47
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Second Artillery’s Role in Joint Campaigns. 

PLA and PLASAF volumes published during the 

Hu years indicate that Second Artillery would play a 

key role in future PLA joint campaigns. In particular, 

Chinese military publications underscore the centrality of missile attacks in operations aimed at achieving 

information dominance, air superiority, and sea control as well as countering third party intervention. In 

particular, Chinese military publications highlight the 

centrality of the conventional missile force in a variety 

of campaigns, including the joint amphibious landing 

campaign, joint blockade campaign, and joint anti-air 

raid campaign.

SOC (2006) defines a joint amphibious landing 

campaign as one that involves: 

sea-crossing offensive operations, under unified command and with unified planning, carried out against 

the enemy’s defended coasts and islands by the Army, 

Navy, Air Force, and Second Artillery, with the assistance and cooperation of the PAP, militia, and local 

forces.48

Such operations depend highly on information, air, 

and sea supremacy, which some Chinese military publications describe collectively as the “three supremacies.” According to SOC (2006), for example, “only 

by seizing and maintaining the ‘three supremacies’ is 

it possible to truly gain the initiative in amphibious 

landing campaigns.”49 PLASAF’s conventional missile forces would coordinate with the PLA Air Force 

(PLAAF) and special operations forces in conducting 

attacks against targets such as early warning systems; 

command, control, and communications systems; air 

defense systems; airfields, hangers, and runways; and 
318

harbors and naval bases. The conventional missile 

force would thus have a crucial role to play in seizing 

and maintaining the three supremacies, which would 

be intended to result in “comprehensively paralyzing 

the enemy’s defensive system and creating favorable 

conditions for obtaining victory in the amphibious 

landing campaign.”50

Chinese military publications indicate that the joint 

blockade campaign (联合封锁战役) involves air, naval, 

and missile force action aimed at enforcing an air and 

naval blockade of Taiwan. Specifically, SOC (2006) 

defines a joint blockade campaign as “an offensive operation that is implemented by navy, air force, Second 

Artillery and ground force campaign formation (军团) 

. . . in order to sever the enemy’s economic and military connections with the outside world.”51 As Wayne 

Ulman points out, the PLA’s joint blockade campaign 

“would be planned as a much more destructive operation than a simple quarantine or embargo. Enforcing 

the joint blockade would likely involve kinetic strikes 

against at least ports, airfields, and air-defense assets.”52 PLASAF conventional missile strikes would 

thus likely play a key role in such a campaign. Indeed, 

SOC (2006) highlights the role conventional missile 

strikes would play in achieving air, sea, and information superiority, as well as in blockading enemy ports 

and naval bases.53

Second Artillery would also play a key role in 

the joint anti-air raid campaign, which SOC (2006) 

describes as “a defensive campaign with integrated 

offense and defense, aimed at thwarting enemy air 

raids.”54 As this definition indicates, the PLA’s antiair raid campaign includes not only defensive actions, 

but also offensive operations. In particular, it involves 

air defense of critical targets on the Chinese main-
319

land to protect them from enemy precision strikes, 

and offensive air and missile strikes against targets 

such as enemy air bases, carrier strike groups (CSGs), 

and logistics and communications facilities.55 Chinese 

military publications highlight the importance of the 

anti-air raid campaign in terms of gaining, or losing, 

the operational initiative, and for China’s national security more broadly. Specifically, SOC (2006) states:

the practice of recent local wars demonstrates that air 

raids have already become the enemy’s main means 

of achieving strategic and campaign goals, and in the 

future it will be one of the greatest threats the PLA 

faces in the organization and implementation of joint 

operations.56

Second Artillery’s nuclear missile force would also 

play an important role in a future joint campaign. According to SSAC: 

In future joint operations, Second Artillery nuclear 

missile units are the People’s Liberation Army’s 

main force for carrying out nuclear deterrent, counter-nuclear deterrent and nuclear counter-strike duties; organizing and executing nuclear deterrent and 

counter-nuclear deterrent actions are the central duties for nuclear missile units during joint campaigns. 

These units aim mainly to fully demonstrate their role 

in nuclear deterrence and prevent the war from moving towards widening or spreading, and to deter the 

enemy from initiating nuclear war, and thereby controlling the war by keeping it localized, limited and 

bearable in scope.57

Nuclear deterrence thus plays an important role 

during conventional conflicts in deterring not only 

nuclear attack, but also certain types of conventional 

escalation. 
320

Second Artillery must therefore coordinate the 

actions of its nuclear and conventional missile units 

in order to achieve optimum deterrence effects.58 Because operations will take place under the shadow of 

nuclear threats, SSAC indicates: 

nuclear missile force deterrence actions and conventional missile strike operations must be fused together 

and mutually interwoven (融为一体, 相互交织) in 

order to fully bring into play Second Artillery’s deterrence and operational dual functions (慑战双重功能).59

Similarly, Zhao Xijun emphasizes that nuclear 

deterrence and conventional missile force operations 

will be conducted together as part of an integrated 

and interwoven action.60

Nuclear Counterstrike Campaigns. 

PLASAF appears to have made some progress in 

its thinking about the nuclear counterstrike campaign, 

first defined in the mid-1980s and further developed 

in the 1990s.61 As for the current definition, in SOC 

(2006), the nuclear counterstrike campaign was defined as: 

the series of nuclear missile strikes and related operational activities of a Second Artillery nuclear campaign large formation, which are strictly carried out 

under the direct command and control of the Supreme 

Command, and in accordance with the intent of the 

Supreme Command, in order to achieve specially designated strategic goals.62

The definition of the nuclear counterstrike campaign in SOC (2006) is very similar to the defini-
321

tions offered in Campaign Theory Study Guide (CTSG) 

and SSAC.63 Both of these publications note that the 

nuclear counterstrike campaign could be carried out 

either independently or as a major part of a joint nuclear counterattack campaign (联合核反击战役).64 The 

latter type of campaign would involve coordination 

with the nuclear forces of the PLA Navy (PLAN), presumably China’s Type-094 nuclear-powered ballistic 

missile submarines (SSBNs), which have entered service with the PLAN, but still await completion of the 

development of the JL-2 submarine-launched ballistic 

missile (SLBM), and possibly the PLAAF, if its bombers were to be armed with nuclear weapons. Nonetheless, Second Artillery would play the central role 

in such a campaign.65 In addition, according to CTSG, 

apart from dividing nuclear counterstrike campaigns 

into those that are executed independently by Second 

Artillery or jointly with the other services, they may 

also be categorized as large-scale or small-scale nuclear counterattack campaigns.66

Beyond the issue of categorization, the key Chinese publications provide considerable detail on 

the missions, characteristics, and guiding principles 

of nuclear counterstrike campaigns. According to 

CTSG, the basic mission of a nuclear counterattack 

campaign is: 

carrying out nuclear counterstrikes against the enemy’s important strategic and campaign targets, in accordance with the intentions of higher levels, in order 

to thwart the enemy’s strategic intentions, shake the 

enemy’s will, paralyze the enemy’s command systems, retard the enemy’s operational activities, weaken the enemy’s war potential, and deter the escalation 

of nuclear warfare.67
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Again, this tracks very closely with the discussion 

of the mission of the nuclear counterstrike campaign 

that appears in SSAC.68 As for the specific targets, they 

would include enemy command centers, communications nodes, transportation hubs, military bases, political and economic centers, important industrial facilities, and other strategic and campaign targets. 

Chinese military publications also highlight several key characteristics of nuclear counterstrike campaigns that distinguish them from other campaigns.69

One notable characteristic is the extremely harsh 

battlefield environment. This is a function of China’s 

no first use policy. Although the authors of SSAC discuss circumstances under which nuclear missile force 

deterrence operations could be used to deter conventional attacks, they nonetheless appear to assume that 

a nuclear counterattack campaign would be executed 

only after China had suffered an enemy nuclear attack. Indeed, according to SSAC: 

In light of our nation’s principled stand on the issue of 

no first use of nuclear weapons, Second Artillery can 

only carry out nuclear missile strikes against the enemy’s important strategic targets . . . after the enemy 

has carried out a nuclear raid against our nation.70

Because Second Artillery would presumably be 

an important target for initial enemy nuclear strikes, 

PLASAF command centers, missile bases, warhead 

storage facilities, and other important targets would 

suffer heavy damage from the enemy’s nuclear attack. 

The widespread destruction and disruption caused by 

enemy nuclear detonations would create extremely 

harsh conditions, under which surviving PLASAF 

forces would have to conduct nuclear counterattack 

campaign operations.71 Consequently, the requirements for protection of the force are very high.72
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Another characteristic that distinguishes nuclear 

counterattack campaigns from all other types of campaigns is the huge destructive potential of nuclear 

weapons, which necessitates highly centralized command and control. The long range and enormous power 

of nuclear weapons set them apart from conventional 

weapons. Any use of nuclear weapons would have a 

dramatic effect not only on the course and outcome of 

a war, but also on the overall state of the nation’s political, economic, diplomatic, and military struggle.73

This has obvious implications for the command and 

control of nuclear counterattack campaigns. According to Science of Campaigns (2006), whether the nuclear 

counterstrike campaign is conducted jointly or independently, because it is a strategic campaign, “it must 

be organized and carried out strictly according to the 

decisions of the supreme command.”74 SSAC and other Chinese military publications also underscore that 

highly centralized command is essential in nuclear 

counterattack campaigns. The Supreme Command 

must make all of the key decisions. This in turn necessitates command, control, and communications (C3) 

systems that are resistant to interference and destruction.75 Chinese doctrinal publications offer little information about what would happen if PLASAF units 

were unable to communicate with the Supreme Command (统帅部), but SSAC states that “when command 

is disrupted or when the situation is urgent, Second 

Artillery campaign commanders and their command 

offices should, within their limited scope of authority, act on their own judgment, in light of the strategic 

intentions of headquarters.”76
324

The guiding principles for Second Artillery nuclear counterattack campaigns are close protection 

and key point counterattacks (严密防护,重点反

击).77 “Close protection” concerns the survivability of 

the missile force, and is therefore a vital prerequisite 

for successfully carrying out a nuclear counterattack 

campaign. According to SSAC, close protection is “the 

fundamental channel through which Second Artillery 

increases survivability and the effective preservation 

of nuclear counterattack strength under nuclear conditions.” The purpose of close protection is “avoiding 

or to the greatest extent possible reducing the losses 

caused by an enemy nuclear raid or precision strike.” 

SSAC underscores the need to protect against nuclear 

attacks, conventional strikes and electronic warfare 

threats.78 The need for close protection against enemy 

attacks persists throughout a war because sudden enemy raids may occur at anytime, not only in the beginning, but also in the middle or at the end of a conflict. 

Key point counterattacks involve conducting “nuclear 

firepower key point strikes on the enemy’s crucial targets.”79 The objectives of key point counterattacks are 

“to cause huge losses for the enemy, and to cause the 

enemy to be seriously shaken psychologically, in order to achieve the goal of weakening the enemy’s will 

to wage war.”80

SECOND ARTILLERY CAPABILITIES 

IN THE HU JINTAO ERA

During the Hu era, Second Artillery made major 

improvements in its nuclear capabilities, diversified 

and enhanced its conventional missile capabilities, 

and upgraded its command automation and C4ISR 

systems. In their review of PLASAF force structure 
325

developments, Jing and Peng state that PLASAF has 

made major breakthroughs in the development of 

weapons and equipment.81 Specifically, they write: 

Implementation of the new weapon development strategy has been stepped up. Second Artillery has worked 

together with other departments concerned to run key 

research projects, succeeded in developing various 

models of missiles, thus building an armament series 

comprising both nuclear and conventional weapons 

that covers a full spectrum in terms of fire range and 

power with substantially enhanced efficacy.82

Nuclear Missile Force Capabilities.

During the Hu era, China modernized its nuclear 

forces to enhance their survivability, increase their 

striking power, and counter missile defense developments. Beijing’s goal is fielding a lean and effective 

nuclear force that meets its evolving security needs.83

China currently maintains the DF-3 intermediate 

range ballistic missile (IRBM) and DF-21 and DF-21A 

medium range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) for theater 

nuclear deterrence missions. The PRC’s intercontinental nuclear ballistic missile force consists of older, 

limited-range DF-4 ICBMs, silo-based DF-5 ICBMs, 

and the recently deployed road mobile DF-31 and DF31A ICBMs. China is also enhancing its silo-based systems.84 In addition, China may be developing a new 

mobile ICBM, possibly capable of carrying multiple 

independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs).85

Nuclear MRBMs, IRBMs, and Limited-Range ICBMs. 

China currently deploys several different missile 

systems for regional nuclear deterrence missions.86
326

The DF-3 (CSS-2), first deployed in 1971, is a singlestage liquid propellant IRBM with a maximum range 

of about 3,000 kilometers (km, 1,900 miles). The National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) 

assesses that the DF-3 (CSS-2) is transportable but 

has limited mobility. China has about 14–18 liquidfueled DF-3 (CSS-2) IRBMs with about five to 10 CSS2 launchers.87 The PRC also still deploys some of its 

limited range, liquid-fueled DF-4 ICBMs, which have 

a range of about 5,400 km (3,400+ miles).88

China has been transitioning to a more survivable, road-mobile theater nuclear force featuring the 

DF-21 and DF-21A MRBMs. According to the 2009 

Department of Defense (DoD) report on Chinese military power, the PLA has about 60–80 nuclear-armed 

MRBMs and 70-90 associated launchers.89 The DF21 and DF-21A are two-stage solid propellant roadmobile missiles with maximum ranges of more than 

1,750 km (1,100+ miles).90

Nuclear Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs). 

The silo-based DF-5 (CSS-4) ICBM, a liquid-propellant, two-stage missile, has been the mainstay of 

China’s intercontinental nuclear deterrence force since 

its initial deployment in 1981. China currently deploys 

about 20 DF-5s, which have a range of at least 13,000 

km (8,000+ miles), enough to strike targets throughout 

the United States.91 According to the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), China is “enhancing its silobased systems.”92

The most important nuclear force development 

during the Hu era has been the long-awaited deployment of road-mobile ICBMs, which has provided 

China with a much more survivable nuclear force. 
327

Under Hu, PLASAF finally fielded two types of 

road-mobile ICBMs, the DF-31 and DF-31A. The DF31 (CSS-10 Mod 1) is a three-stage, solid propellant, 

road-mobile ICBM, with a maximum range of more 

than 7,200 km (4,500+ miles).93 After a protracted development history that began in the 1980s, the DF-31 

road-mobile ICBM was finally deployed in 2006.94 The 

DF-31A (CSS-10 Mod 2) is a three-stage road-mobile 

ICBM, with a maximum range of more than 11,200 km 

(7,000+ miles). The DF-31A’s longer range allows it to 

reach targets throughout most of the United States. 

China began deploying the DF-31A (CSS-10 Mod 2) 

road-mobile ICBM in 2007.95

Another important development is China’s movement toward an operational sea-based deterrent 

to complement PLASAF’s land-based nuclear missiles. According to China’s 2010 Defense White Paper, 

the PLAN is enhancing its strategic deterrence and 

counterattack capabilities.96 The Jin-class SSBN has 

already entered service with the PLAN, but the JL-2 

SLBM has faced repeated delays.97 Nonetheless, it 

may reach initial operating capability within the next 

2 years, according to the 2012 DoD report on Chinese 

military power.98 When this happens, China will finally have an operational nuclear dyad. Nonetheless, 

PLASAF will remain the core of China’s strategic 

nuclear deterrent.
328

Conventional Missile Capabilities.

PLASAF’s conventional missile force has grown 

rapidly since its inception to enable China to implement its concepts for employing it for deterrence, 

compellence, and conventional firepower strike operations. Today, China’s conventional ballistic missile 

force includes DF-15 and DF-11 SRBMs and DF-21 

MRBMs. China has deployed the DH-10 land-attack 

cruise missile (LACM) to enhance the PLA’s regional 

precision strike capabilities. China is also developing 

and deploying an ASBM based on a variant of the DF21 MRBM. Beyond these capabilities, Taiwan officials 

have stated publicly that China is deploying new DF16 ballistic missiles, with a range of about 1,000-1,500 

km.99 In addition, PRC media reports indicate that 

China is developing another conventional missile system with a range of 4,000 km.100

Short-Range Ballistic Missiles (SRBMs). 

Since the early-1990s, when the conventional 

missile force component of Second Artillery was established, China’s SRBM forces have expanded dramatically. Indeed, estimates presented in DoD’s annual reports on Chinese military power reveal that 

the number of deployed SRBMs has roughly tripled 

since the early-2000s. By December 2010, China’s arsenal consisted of about 1,000-1,200 solid propellant 

road-mobile SRBMs, all deployed in areas opposite 

Taiwan.101 According to DoD, this includes about 350-

400 DF-15 (CSS-6) SRBMs and about 700-750 DF-11 

(CSS-7) SRBMs.102 China has also fielded a considerable force of mobile launchers for these missiles. 

NASIC estimates that China has deployed more than 
329

200 launchers for its SRBMs.103 Similarly, DoD’s most 

recent report provides an estimated order of battle 

of 210-250 total SRBM launchers, including 90-110 

DF-15 (CSS-6) launchers and 120-140 DF-11 (CSS-7) 

launchers.104

Recent editions of the DoD Chinese military power 

report indicate that although the rate of growth appears to have slowed, there have been further improvements in quality as China has continued to upgrade the capabilities of its SRBMs. In its 2010 report, 

DoD noted that China was increasing its inventory at 

a slower rate than in past years.105 DoD expanded on 

this judgment in its 2011 report, indicating that the 

number of SRBMs appears to be holding relatively 

steady, but that China is replacing older missiles with 

newer, more accurate and capable models. According 

to the 2011 report: 

As of December 2010, the PLA had somewhere between 1,000-1,200 SRBMs. The total number of SRBMs 

represents little to no change over the past year. However, the PLA continues to field advanced variants 

with improved ranges and more sophisticated payloads that are gradually replacing earlier generations 

that do not possess true precision strike capability.106

Longer-range Conventional Ballistic Missiles. 

China has deployed conventional MRBMs and is 

developing and deploying an ASBM. According to 

NASIC: “China is also acquiring new conventionally 

armed MRBMs to conduct precision strikes at longer 

ranges. These systems are likely intended to hold at 

risk, or strike, logistics nodes and regional military 

bases including airfields and ports.”107 China’s DF-21 

conventional MRBM is a two-stage solid propellant 
330

mobile missile with a maximum range of about 1,750 

km (1,100 miles).108

Perhaps of greatest significance is China’s development of a medium-range ASBM based on the DF-21 

(CSS-5). China’s interest in employing ballistic missiles to target aircraft carriers appears to date back 

at least to the 1995-96 Taiwan Strait Crisis, when the 

United States deployed two aircraft carrier groups to 

the region in response to Chinese SRBM flight tests 

and military exercises. The DF-21D ASBM is a twostage solid-propellant mobile missile with a range of 

1,500+km (932+ miles).109 According to Taiwan’s 2011 

National Defense Report, starting in 2010, China has 

been deploying the DF-21D in small numbers.110

Land Attack Cruise Missiles (LACMs). 

PLASAF has also fielded ground-launched land attack cruise missiles (LACMs), further contributing to 

the enhancement of its conventional long-range precision-strike capabilities. According to DoD, “The PLA 

is acquiring large numbers of highly accurate cruise 

missiles, such as the domestically produced groundlaunched DH-10” LACM, which has a range of more 

than 1,500 km.111 The 2012 DoD report to Congress estimates that China has deployed about 200-500 DH-10 

LACMs and 40-55 launchers.112

C4ISR and Command Automation. 

Although new platforms and weapons often 

capture the most attention, the PLA’s development 

of improved C4ISR, communications systems, and 

command automation capabilities has probably been 

equally impressive over the past decade. Indeed, it is 
331

clear that the PLA feels it made major strides in its 

communications infrastructure and related capabilities during the Hu era. China’s 2010 Defense White 

Paper highlights the PLA’s own assessment of its advances in modernizing its C4ISR architecture. According to the 2010 White Paper:

The total length of the national defense optical fiber 

communication network has increased by a large margin, forming a new generation information transmission network with optical fiber communication as the 

mainstay and satellite and short-wave communications as assistance.113

Second Artillery has clearly benefited from this 

expansion and modernization of the PLA’s C4ISR capabilities. In particular for PLASAF, some of the key 

developments during the Hu era have included advances in ISR and communications technology and 

the development of capabilities like the integrated 

command platform. 

In a retrospective on key developments during 

this period, Lieutenant General Wei Fenghe, who was 

Second Artillery’s Chief of Staff from 2006-10, subsequently served as a Deputy Chief of the General Staff, 

and is now PLASAF Commander, highlights major 

improvements in ISR, communications, and precision 

guidance capabilities.114 In addition, according to former PLASAF Deputy Commander Zhang Xiang, another key development in the PLASAF’s modernization during this period was the deployment of mobile 

command systems.115

According to Chinese sources, another area of particular emphasis during the Hu years was improving 

Second Artillery’s command automation capabilities.116 Subsequently, according to Wei, PLASAF: 
332

successfully completed the development of the fundamental automated command system and installed 

it in the various units one after another, marking an 

important milestone in the history of construction of 

command equipment of Second Artillery.

 In March 2007, Wei reports that PLASAF: 

organized a test of all the essential elements and the 

full-load functions of the command system, which 

proved that the commanding platforms at different 

levels all possessed advanced properties, were running reliably, and that all the norms met the requirements for use in combat operations.117

Chinese military media reports highlight the main 

advantages of PLASAF’s employment of the integrated command platform, indicating that it enables 

commanders to coordinate and direct the operations 

of multiple brigades and launch units with different 

types of equipment,118 and to conduct structured attacks.119 According to one report, “the integrated command platform is the very kernel of material support 

for the development of command capability under informatized conditions,” and an essential aspect of the 

PLA’s efforts to improve its ability to conduct information-system based system of systems operations.120

Training and Exercises.

The PLA has focused on improving training, and 

Second Artillery has been no exception. Indeed, its top 

leaders have frequently emphasized the importance of 

training. In January 2011, for example, PLASAF Commander Jing Zhiyuan and Political Commissar Zhang 
333

Haiyang issued an order emphasizing the central role 

of training in further enhancing the combat capabilities of the missile force. Jing and Zhang urged the missile force to “uphold military training as a key focus 

in expanding and deepening preparation for military 

struggle, the basic way to generate, consolidate, and 

enhance combat power, and regular, core work in the 

development of [missile force] units.”121 Reflecting this 

high-level emphasis on the importance of training, 

Chinese military media reports suggest that PLASAF 

training increased in realism and complexity during 

the Hu era. 

Overall, PLASAF emphasizes that “troops should 

train as they will fight,” meaning that exercises should 

take place under realistic conditions to temper the 

skills their units will need in actual combat. One important way in which many PLA exercises now attempt to enhance the level of realism is by incorporating opposing forces.122 The employment of blue forces 

in exercises is a noteworthy development because it 

makes training more realistic and challenging, encourages officers to take the initiative in response to 

changing situations, and gives troops exposure to possible adversary tactics.

Other reports indicate that training sometimes 

forces participating units to deviate from their prepared plans. This is done to prepare officers and soldiers to cope with actual combat situations in which 

they may lose the ability to communicate with higher 

headquarters or find that the enemy has reacted to 

their actions in unexpected ways. Along these lines, 

PLASAF units have practiced moving to alternate 

launch sites and erecting temporary launch pads 

when primary launch positions are “destroyed” during exercises.123 PLASAF training has also emphasized 
334

intertheater deployments, which entail considerable 

operational and logistical challenges. Indeed, recent 

Jiefangjun bao reports have highlighted progress in 

cross-region mobility training.124 In addition, Chinese 

military media reports indicate that PLASAF units are 

conducting nighttime maneuver training.125

PLASAF has also practiced a variety of techniques 

to counter enemy intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), precision strike, jamming, and 

electronic warfare attacks.126 In keeping with the emphasis on training in a complex electromagnetic environment contained in recent General Staff Department training guidelines, this is intended to improve 

the PLA’s ability to operate in an electronic-warfare 

(EW) environment and to allow military units to 

practice various types of counter-reconnaissance, 

electronic warfare, and counter-EW techniques. In addition, Chinese media reports indicate that PLASAF 

is conducting exercises that test its ability to employ 

increasingly sophisticated decoys and camouflage 

methods to counter adversary airborne and spacebased ISR capabilities, including optical, infrared, and 

radar imagery systems.127 Still another important area 

of emphasis in training is command automation and 

missile force C2. Current senior leadership training 

guidance highlights the importance of the informatization of the missile force and the development of information system-based system of systems operations 

capabilities.128

Finally, a sometimes overlooked but important 

element of the PLA’s training reform program is 

standardization of training and the development and 

application of more stringent criteria for examination 

and evaluation. This emphasis on rigorous screening 

and evaluation is reflected in the recent promotion of 
335

“two commanders, one operator” testing and evaluation, which focuses on assessing the capabilities of 

missile launcher and launch battalion commanders 

and specialist operators in PLASAF.129 This marks a 

particularly important change in that more rigorous 

evaluation of training can help identify problems and 

shortcomings and contribute to the development of a 

more realistic appraisal of readiness and combat capabilities. In addition, PLASAF has issued a series of 

regulations intended to standardize training practices 

and promote more robust testing and evaluation of 

nuclear and conventional missile-force units.130

Although PLA and Second Artillery reporting on 

training and exercises continues to highlight deficiencies in certain areas and underscore the need for further improvements, PLASAF’s own self-assessments 

suggest that overall they made major strides in training and exercises during the Hu years. As Jing and 

Peng put it, “The degree of actual combat lifelikeness 

has been constantly enhanced for military training.”131

Moreover, they state: 

. . . Second Artillery has perfectly completed a number of major exercises and combat-readiness-related 

tasks assigned by the Central Military Commission. 

In particular, in the past few years, during major live 

campaign exercises based on complex electromagnetic 

scenarios, missile brigades participating in the exercises used various types of missiles to deliver precision 

fire strikes on a variety of targets in several rounds, 

accurately hitting all the targets.132

Similarly, Wei Fenghe highlights the importance 

of tempering the troops through rigorous training, 

and highlights achievements in training and exercises, including live missile launches, during the Hu 
336

years. In addition, one recent Jiefangjun bao report 

highlighted summer 2012 training involving several 

missile brigades as reflecting a historic leap in the core 

military capabilities of China’s strategic missile force, 

especially its ability to conduct long distance mobile 

combat operations and its growing precision strike 

capability.133

LOOKING AHEAD: SECOND ARTILLERY 

IN THE XI JINPING ERA

In a December 2012 meeting with delegates to 

Second Artillery’s 8th Party Congress, Xi Jinping 

described PLASAF as “the core strength of China’s 

strategic deterrence, the strategic support for the 

country’s status as a major power, and an important 

cornerstone safeguarding national security.”134 Beyond Xi’s exhortation to build a powerful and technologically advanced missile force, however, little has 

been revealed about the specifics of his views on the 

future development of PLASAF’s nuclear and conventional missile capabilities. China’s limited transparency further complicates efforts to predict future 

missile force developments, but trends during the Hu 

era and the comments of senior missile force officers 

probably offer a reasonable guide to understanding 

PLASAF’s likely direction under Xi’s leadership. According to former Second Artillery Commander Jing 

Zhiyuan, future developments across the missile force 

will include improvements in ISR, ability to penetrate 

missile defenses, destructiveness, survivability and 

protection, precision strike, and rapid reaction capabilities.135 As for future nuclear missile force developments, China is all but certain to deploy the forces it 

perceives as required to ensure it will have an assured 
337

retaliation capability. Jing writes that China’s limited 

development of nuclear weapons will not compete in 

quantity with the nuclear superpowers. Instead, he 

writes, Beijing intends to maintain the lowest level of 

nuclear weapons that is sufficient for the PLASAF to 

guard the national security. Nonetheless, this is likely 

to entail considerable further growth in the size of 

China’s nuclear missile force. According to DIA, “China’s strategic missile force . . . currently has fewer than 

50 ICBMs that can strike the continental United States, 

but it probably will more than double that number by 

2025.”136

Toward this end, according to DoD, “China may 

also be developing a new road mobile ICBM, possibly 

capable of carrying a multiple independently targeted 

re-entry vehicles (MIRV).”137 This statement followed 

many years of speculation about possible follow-on 

ICBM systems. Rumors about a possible DF-41 ICBM 

program have been in circulation for well over a decade,138 and photos of a large, eight-axle transporter 

erector launcher (TEL) that appeared on the Internet 

in 2007 have contributed to renewed discussion about 

new road mobile ICBMs.139

With regard to the continued modernization of the 

conventional missile force, PLASAF appears poised to 

continue extending the power and reach of its conventional precision strike capabilities. According to Mark 

Stokes, after the deployment of the DF-21D, the logical next step for China would be to develop a longerrange ASBM, capable of threatening U.S. aircraft carriers out to a distance of at least 3,000 km, possibly by 

the end of the 12th Five Year Plan in 2015.140 Another 

possibility is that Beijing might choose to pursue new 

longer-range conventional strike missions and capabilities for Second Artillery.141 Specifically, future 
338

developments may include further expansion of its 

conventional MRBM force and possibly conventional 

IRBMs. According to the 2011 DoD report on Chinese military developments, “China’s ballistic missile 

force is acquiring conventional medium-range and 

intermediate-range ballistic missiles that extend the 

distance at which it can threaten other countries with 

conventional precision or near-precision strikes.”142

Moreover, according to a Chinese media report, China is developing an intermediate-range conventional 

missile with a range of about 4,000 km. The missile, 

which is reportedly scheduled for deployment in 2015, 

would enable Second Artillery to launch conventional 

strikes against targets as far away as Guam.143

Although it is possible to sketch the outlines of 

some potential developments over the next decade, 

a number of important questions about Second Artillery’s future remain unanswered: What new nuclear 

and conventional missile capabilities will Second 

Artillery deploy during the Xi Jinping era? Will Second Artillery acquire new missions, such as offensive 

counterspace operations? How will strategy and doctrine evolve as PLASAF capabilities continue to improve and the missile force potentially takes on new 

responsibilities?

CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS

In the Hu Jintao era, Second Artillery made impressive strides in the development of its nuclear 

deterrence and conventional strike capabilities. The 

deployment of substantial numbers of road mobile 

ICBMs is giving China the assured retaliation capability it has long sought for its growing, but still relatively 

small nuclear missile force. The expansion and diver-
339

sification of PLASAF’s conventional missile force has 

greatly enhanced China’s conventional deterrence, 

coercive diplomacy, and regional precision strike 

capabilities. Furthermore, Second Artillery’s institutional stature appears to have increased along with 

these force modernization developments, as reflected 

by the central role PLASAF has been assigned in PLA 

joint campaigns and the elevation of Second Artillery’s Commander to membership in the CMC. Over 

the next 10 years, China can be expected to continue 

to strengthen PLASAF’s nuclear missile force, which 

will remain the most important element of China’s 

nuclear deterrent posture, even after the anticipated 

introduction of Type 094 nuclear-powered ballistic 

missile submarines and JL-2 SLBMs into the PLAN’s 

inventory. Perhaps the most important development 

in this regard could be the deployment of MIRVed 

road-mobile ICBMs. China can also be expected to further enhance PLASAF’s conventional precision strike 

capabilities with upgraded SRBMs, MRBMs, and ASBMs. In addition, it may add some longer-range conventional missile systems to its inventory. 

The development of Chinese nuclear and conventional missile capabilities has implications in a number of areas. First, even though China does not seem to 

be interested in seeking parity with the nuclear superpowers, China’s growing nuclear arsenal will make it 

a more important consideration in discussions about 

future nuclear arms control agreements. China’s integration into the global nuclear reduction process that 

President Barack Obama outlined in his 2009 Prague 

speech will eventually be required to move toward the 

long-term goal of a world free of nuclear weapons.144

Beijing is well aware of the possibility that China will 

face greater pressure as a result. Teng Jianqun of the 
340

China Institute of International Studies, for example, 

sees Washington’s approach as still focused mainly on 

Russia at present, but notes that “as bilateral disarmament progresses, the U.S. will certainly pay increasing attention to China’s arms control policies.” 145 But 

China is clearly far from eager to be drawn into the 

process, especially given the asymmetry in the size 

of China’s nuclear arsenal compared to those of the 

United States and Russia.146 It should be noted, however, that China has not specified exactly what number would constitute an appropriate level, suggesting 

that Beijing will remain reluctant to enter into such 

negotiations. Nonetheless, over time, dialogue on 

these issues could help lay the groundwork for future 

Chinese participation in multilateral arms control 

discussions.

Second, challenges for escalation management that 

arise from PLASAF capabilities and doctrine will also 

merit consideration. Taken together, nuclear and conventional missile force developments, especially some 

of China’s thinking with respect to using the missile 

force to conduct deterrence operations to send signals 

aimed at influencing an adversary, also raise the possibility of miscalculation or inadvertent escalation in a 

crisis or conflict scenario. Miscalculation in the midst 

of a crisis is a particularly troubling possibility, one 

that could be heightened by uncertainty over the message that one side is trying to convey to the other or by 

overconfidence in the ability to control escalation. The 

most serious concern is that some of the signaling activities described in Chinese publications could easily 

be interpreted not as a demonstration of resolve or as 

a warning, but as preparation to conduct actual nuclear missile strikes, possibly decreasing crisis stability 

or even triggering escalation rather than strengthen-
341

ing deterrence. Indeed, some Chinese sources contain 

references that raise troubling questions about potential miscalculations that could result from attempts 

to increase the intensity of deterrence during a crisis 

or in the midst of a conventional conflict.147 Although 

Chinese authors appear to demonstrate at least some 

awareness of the danger that actions intended to deter 

an adversary could instead trigger escalation, the discussions of these risks in the relevant publications are 

quite limited.148 One possibility is that such issues are 

too sensitive to be addressed in greater detail in these 

publications. On the whole, however, the available 

sources suggest that Chinese thinking about the risks 

of specific actions may be rather underdeveloped, 

which in turn could make attempts at escalation management in a U.S.-China crisis or conflict extremely 

challenging and potentially very dangerous for both 

parties. Strategic dialogue on these issues could help 

mitigate escalation risks. 

Finally, PLASAF force structure improvements, 

enhanced capabilities for the employment of missile 

force units in joint campaigns, and related doctrinal 

developments clearly pose serious tactical, operational, and strategic challenges for the United States 

and its friends and allies in the region. The trends that 

have taken shape during the Hu era suggest Second 

Artillery is likely to make further improvements in 

these areas under the new leadership. Along with 

China’s growing air, naval, space and counterspace, 

and information and electronic warfare capabilities, 

the continuing modernization of PLASAF’s nuclear 

and conventional missile forces will likely require 

substantial changes in the U.S. military’s operational 

concepts and capabilities. Specifically, it will probably 

necessitate changes in America’s traditional approach 
342

to deterrence and assurance of U.S. allies and security 

partners, which has long relied heavily on regional 

military bases and forward deployed forces such as 

land-based tactical aircraft and U.S. Navy aircraft carrier strike groups.

ENDNOTES - CHAPTER 8

1. Annual Report on the Military Power of the People’s Republic of China, 2002, Washington, DC: Department of Defense, 

2002, pp. 2-3.

2. Ibid., pp. 2-3.

3. China’s National Defense in 2008, Beijing, China: State Council Information Office, January 2009, available from www.english.

gov.cn/official/2009-01/20/content_1210227.htm. 

4. Ibid.

5. People’s Liberation Army Second Artillery Force (中国人

民解放军第二炮兵), 第二炮兵战役学) (Science of Second Artillery 

Campaigns [SSAC]), 北京: 解放军出版社, 2004, Beijing, China: PLA 

Press, 2004, p. 138.

6. Ibid., p. 138.

7. Jing Zhiyuan and Peng Xiaofeng, “凭潮砺剑铸辉煌” (“Riding on the Tide, Sharpening the Sword, and Creating Glory”), 辉

煌年代: 回顾在改革开放中发展前进的第二炮兵 (Glorious Era—

Looking Back on Second Artillery’s Development and Advances in the 

Period of Reform and Opening), Beijing, China: Zhongyang Wenxian Publishing, 2008, pp. 1-22.

8. Ibid.

9. “第二炮兵千人百车火速驰援救灾一线 国家地震灾害救援队

救出4 名幸存者” (“2nd Artillery ‘Thousand Person 100 Vehicle’ 

High-Speed National Earthquake Disaster Rescue Team Saves 

Four Survivors”), 解放军报 (PLA Daily), April 16, 2010.
343

10. Jing and Peng, “Riding on the Tide.”

11. Ibid.

12. Ibid.

13. Ibid.

14. Ibid.

15. Ibid.

16. SSAC, p. 138.

17. See the postscript in SSAC for confirmation that the book 

is based on the Second Artillery Campaigns gangyao and Joint 

Campaigns gangayo, both of which were issued in 1999.

18. Yu Jixun, “新世纪新阶段的战略导弹部队作战理论创新发

展” (“The Innovative Development of Combat Operations Theories of the Strategic Missile Force at the New Stage and in the 

New Century”), 辉煌年代: 回顾在改革开放中发展前进的第二炮

兵 (Glorious Era), pp. 441-446. 

19. On the distinctions between deterrence and compellence, 

see Thomas C. Schelling, Arms and Influence, New Haven, CT: 

Yale, 1966, pp. 69-78. 

20. Li Bin, “China’s Nuclear Strategy,” presentation at Carnegie International Nonproliferation Conference, Washington, DC, 

June 25-26, 2007, available from www.carnegieendowment.org/files/

deter_disarm_li.pdf. 

21. SSAC, p. 270.

22. Ibid.

23. Zhao Xijun, 慑战--导弹威慑纵横谈 (Intimidation Warfare: A 

Comprehensive Discussion of Missile Deterrence), Beijing, China: National Defense University Press, May 2005, p. 114.
344

24. SSAC, p. 271.

25. Ibid., p. 271.

26. Ibid., pp. 277-278. 

27. Ibid., p. 278; Intimidation Warfare, p. 80.

28. SSAC, pp. 271-274.

29. Ibid., pp. 281-296; see also Intimidation Warfare, p. 34.

30. See SSAC, p. 289. 

31. Ibid., pp. 289-290.

32. Ibid., p. 282.

33. Ibid., p. 283.

34. Ibid., pp. 292-293.

35. Ibid., p. 294. 

36. Ibid. , p. 18.

37. Ibid., p. 36.

38. Zhang Yulang, ed., 战役学 (Science of Campaigns [SOC]), 

Beijing, China: National Defense University Press, 2006, 

pp. 616-628.

39. SSAC, p. 42.

40. Ibid., pp. 46-47.

41. Ibid., pp. 45-46.

42. Ibid., p. 41.

43. SOC (2006), p. 617.
345

44. SSAC, p. 317.

45. Ibid., p. 317.

46. Ibid., p. 318.

47. Ibid., pp. 318-322.

48. SOC (2006), p. 293. 

49. Ibid., p. 294.

50. Ibid., p. 296.

51. Ibid., pp. 276-292.

52. Wayne A. Ulman, “China’s Military Aviation Forces,” 

Andrew S. Erickson and Lyle J. Goldstein, eds., Chinese Aerospace 

Power: Evolving Maritime Roles, Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute 

Press, 2011, p. 42.

53. For more on the joint blockade campaign, see SOC (2006), 

pp. 276-292.

54. Ibid., p. 312. 

55. Ibid., pp. 312-330.

56. Ibid., p. 312.

57. SSAC, p. 139.

58. Ibid., pp. 90-91.

59. Ibid., pp. 90-91.

60. Intimidation Warfare, p. 90.

61. SSAC, pp. 40-41.

62. SOC (2006), pp. 616-628 
346

63. For the precise wording of the other definitions, see SSAC, 

p. 297, and Xue Xinglin, ed., 战役理论学习指南 (Campaign Theory 

Study Guide [CTSG]), Beijing, China: National Defense University 

Press, 2001, p. 384.

64. See CTSG, and SOC (2006). 

65. SSAC, p. 297.

66. CTSG, p. 384.

67. CTSG, pp. 384-385.

68. SSAC, p. 298.

69. CTSG, pp. 385-386.

70. SSAC , p. 298.

71. Ibid., pp. 298-299.

72. Methods of protection listed in SSAC include improving 

early warning systems, ensuring appropriate dispersal of positions, hardening missile silos, storage facilities, and command 

centers, employing air defense, ground defense, and electronic 

warfare capabilities, and emphasizing concealment and camouflage to hide the activities of missile force units.

73. SSAC, p. 300.

74. SOC (2006), p. 46.

75. SSAC, p. 300. 

76. Ibid., p. 300. 

77. CTSG, pp. 386-387.

78. SSAC, p. 303.

79. Ibid., p. 304.
347

80. Ibid., p. 304.

81. Jing and Peng, “Riding on the Tide.”

82. Ibid.

83. Jing Zhiyuan, “建设净杆有效战略导弹军队为维护世界

核安全做出贡献力量” (“Creating a Lean and Effective Strategic 

Missile Troop Contributing to International Nuclear Security”), 

中国军队 (China Armed Forces), No. 6, 2010, pp. 4-5 (Chinese), 

pp. 6-7 (English).

84. Lieutenant General Ronald L. Burgess, Jr., “Annual Threat 

Assessment,” Statement Before the Senate Armed Services Committee, United States Senate, February 16, 2012, available from 

www.dia.mil/public-affairs/testimonies/2012-02-16.html.

85. Burgess, “Annual Threat Assessment.”

86. Ballistic and Cruise Missile Threat, NASIC-1031-0985-09, 

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH: National Air and Space Intelligence Center, April 2009, p. 14.

87. Ibid., p. 17.

88. Ibid., p. 21.

89.Annual Report on the Military Power of the People’s Republic of 

China, 2009, Washington, DC: Department of Defense, 2009, p. 66. 

90. Ballistic and Cruise Missile Threat, p. 17.

91. Ibid., p. 21.

92. Burgess, “Annual Threat Assessment.”

93. Robert D. Walpole, ‘Statement for the Record to the Senate 

Subcommittee on International Security, Proliferation, and Federal Services on the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States’, 

February 9, 2000, Washington, DC, available from www.cia.gov/

news-information/speechestestimony/2000/nio_speech_020900.html4. 
348

94. Annual Report on the Military Power of the People’s Republic 

of China, 2009, p. 24.

95. Ballistic and Cruise Missile Threat, p. 21.

96. China’s National Defense in 2010, Beijing, China: State 

Council Information Office, 2010.

97. Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s 

Republic of China 2012, Washington, DC: Department of 

Defense, p. 23.

98. Ibid.

99. Russell Hsiao, “Taiwan’s Intelligence Chief Warns about 

the PLA’s Growing Strategic Weapon Systems,” China Brief, Vol. 

11, No. 5, March 25, 2011, available from www.jamestown.org/programs/chinabrief/. 

100. Zhang Han and Huang Jingjing, “New Missile ‘Ready 

by 2015’,” Global Times, February 18, 2011, available from military.

globaltimes.cn/china/2011-02/624275.html.

101. Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China, 2011, Washington, DC: Department of 

Defense, p. 30.

102. Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China, 2010, Washington, DC: Department of 

Defense, p. 66.

103. Ballistic and Cruise Missile Threat, p. 13.

104. Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s 

Republic of China, 2010, p. 66.

105. Ibid., p. 31.

106. Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s 

Republic of China, 2011, p. 30.

107. Ballistic and Cruise Missile Threat, p. 14.
349

108. Ibid., p. 17.

109. Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s 

Republic of China, 2010, p. 2.

110. National Defense Report Editorial Board, 中華民國壹百

年國防報告書 (Republic of China Centennial 2011 National Defense Report), Taipei, Taiwan: Ministry of Defense, 2011, p. 60.

111. Ibid., p. 29.

112. Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s 

Republic of China, 2012, p. 29.

113. China’s National Defense in 2010.

114. Wei Fenghe, “使命重于泰山” (“Our Mission is Weightier 

than Tai Shan”), 辉煌年代: 回顾在改革开放中发展前进的第二炮

兵 (Glorious Era), pp. 493-500.

115. Zhang Xiang, “二炮信息化建设发展历程” (“History of 

the Informatization Development of Second Artillery”), 辉煌年

代: 回顾在改革开放中发展前进的第二炮兵 (Glorious Era), pp. 

528-538.

116. Wei, “Our Mission is Weightier than Tai Shan, Our 

Struggle Achieves Excellence.”

117. Ibid.

118. Chang Sheng and He Tianjin, “某基地加强逐级集成训练

提升核心军事能力纪实” (“Base Steps Up Level-by-Level Integrated Training, Boosts Core Military Capabilities”), 火箭兵报 (Rocket 

Force News), June 21, 2010, p. 2.

119. Ding Haiming and Liang Pengfei, “中国战略导弹部队演

兵场目击之三第二炮兵 4 支导弹旅联合训练实弹发射精准命中目

标 ‘精准’”(“Four Second Artillery Missile Brigades in Joint Training Conduct Live Launches, Hit Targets Exactly”), 解放军报 (PLA 

Daily), July 17, 2009, p. 5. 
350

120. “成都军区司令部依托学习掌握一体化指挥平台推进指挥

方式变革” (“Chengdu Military Region Headquarters Promotes 

Study of Integrated Command Platform to Advance the Revolution in Command”), 解放军报 (PLA Daily), December 14, 2011.

121. Jing Zhiyuan and Zhang Haiyang, “第二炮兵二0一一年

军事训练动员令” (“Mobilization Order for Second Artillery’s Military Training in 2011“), 火箭兵报 (Rocket Force News), January 1, 

2011, p. 1.

122. Xu Changlei, Chen Leixiang, and Li Yongfei, “某旅瞄准

训练转变, 设置对抗演练新课目” (“A Certain Brigade Takes Aim 

at Transformation of Training, Sets Up New Opposing Force Training Exercise Subjects“), 火箭兵报 (Rocket Force News), February 

19, 2011, p. 2.

123. Yu Juncheng, “临时发射场即刻建成” (“Temporary 

Launch Pad Established Immediately”), 火箭兵报 (Rocket Force 

News), May 20, 2006, p. 1.

124. Liang Pengfei and Liu Gang, “点击第二炮兵某基地跨

区驻训关键词” (“Clicking on the Keywords of a Certain Second 

Artillery Base’s Cross-Region Field Training“), 解放军报 (PLA 

Daily), August 15, 2012.

125. Ma Zhongbo, “全员全装全要素, 多路多向多课题” (“AllPersonnel, All-Equipment, and All-Element Exercise Involving 

Multiple Approaches, Directions, and Subjects”), 火箭兵报 (Rocket Force News), August 1, 2006, p. 2.

126. Yan Xifei, Tang Licheng, and Zhang Jiangang, “‘蓝军’在

行动 “ (“Blue Force in Action”), 火箭兵报 (Rocket Force News), June 

11, 2010, p. 4.

127. Wang Tie and Wu Yanbing, “全军伪装专业组副组长

王向伟:我的事业就是弄虚作假“ (“All-Army Camouflage Specialty Group Deputy Head Wang Xiangwei: My Profession Is 

‘Fraud and Deception’”), 中国青年 (China Youth), October 1, 

2003, pp. 24-26.

128. Jing and Zhang, “Mobilization Order for Second 

Artillery’s Military Training in 2011.”
351

129. See, for example, Yue Xiaolin, Li Fumin, and Yu Xihong, 

“某基地致力强化核心战位人员的核心作用: ‘两长一手’ 演兵场

上竞风流” (“A Certain Base Exerts Works Toward Strengthening 

the Core Function of Core Battle Position Personnel: Admirable 

Competition on “Two Commanders, One Operator” Exercise 

Ground”), 火箭兵报 (Rocket Force News), July 31, 2010, p. 2.

130. Zhang Ligang, He Tianjin, and Kang Fashun, “第二军

事训练会议在某基地召开” (“Second Artillery Military Training Conference Held at a Certain Base”), 火箭兵报 (Rocket Force 

News), August 15, 2006, p. 1.

131. Jing and Peng, “Riding on the Tide.”

132. Ibid.

133. Liang Pengfei and Cai Ruijin, “第二炮兵已完成从“山沟

里的部队”到“车轮上的部队”的全面转型, 精确打击 能力大幅跃升” 

(“Second Artillery has Completed a Comprehensive Transformation from a ‘Force in Mountain Valleys’ to a ‘Force on Wheels,’ 

and it has Greatly Increased its Precision Strike Capability”), 解放

军报 (PLA Daily), August 27, 2012.

134. See “Xi Jinping Calls for Powerful Missile Force,” Xinhua, 

December 5, 2012; and Wei Fenghe and Zhang Haiyang, “努力

建设强大的信息化战略导弹部队” (“Dilligently Build a Powerful, 

Informatized Strategic Missile Force”), 人民日报 (People’s Daily), 

December 13, 2012.

135. Jing, “Creating a Lean and Effective Strategic Missile 

Troop.”

136. Burgess, “Annual Threat Assessment.”

137. Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s 

Republic of China 2010, p. 2.

138. Pamela Pun, ‘Experts: DF-41 Could Force US to Adjust its 

Strategy’, Hong Kong Standard, October 15, 1999, p. 6.
352

139. Seymour Johnson, “Sighting of Road Mobile Chinese 

ICBM Emerges,” Janes Missiles and Rockets, May 16, 2007, available 

from articles.janes.com/articles/Janes-Missiles-And-Rockets-2007/

Sighting-of-road-mobile-Chinese-ICBM-emerges.html. See also Richard D. Fisher Jr., “Red Alert—China Modernizes its Nuclear Missile Force,” Jane’s Intelligence Review, May 14, 2009; and Richard 

D. Fisher Jr., “Two Cheers for the 2007 PLA Report,” June 20, 

2007, available from www.strategycenter.net/research/pubID.162/

pub_detail.asp. 

140. Mark Stokes, China Evolving Conventional Strategic Strike 

Capability: The Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile Challenge to U.S. Maritime 

Operations in the Western Pacific and Beyond, Project 2049 Institute, 

September 14, 2009, p. 2.

141. James C. Mulvenon, Murray Scot Tanner, Michael S. 

Chase, David Frelinger, David C. Gompert, Martin C. Libicki, and 

Kevin L. Pollpeter, Chinese Responses to U.S. Military Transformation and Implications for the Department of Defense, Santa Monica, 

CA: RAND, 2006, p. 95. See also Stokes, China Evolving Conventional Strategic Strike Capability, Project 2049 Institute.

142. Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s 

Republic of China, 2011 Washington, DC: Department of Defense, 

2011, p. 33.

143. Zhang Han and Huang Jingjing, “New Missile ‘Ready by 

2015.’” Although the report did not specify the missile’s mission, 

it quoted an unnamed military source as stating that the project 

“extends the range of China’s missiles and will therefore greatly 

enhance the national defense capabilities.”

144. The 2010 Nuclear Posture Review reflects this challenge, 

stating, “over time” the United States “will also engage with other nuclear weapon states, including China, on ways to expand 

the nuclear reduction process in the future.” See Nuclear Posture 

Review Report, Washington, DC: Department of Defense, April 

2010, p. 12.

145. Teng Jianqun, “China’s Perspectives on Nuclear Deterrence and Disarmament,” Malcolm Chalmers, Andrew Somerville and Andrea Berger, eds., Small Nuclear Forces: Five Perspec-
353

tives, Whitehall Report 3-11, London, UK: Royal United Services 

Institute, December 2011, p. 50.

146. Ibid.

147. Zhao, Intimidation Warfare, p. 185.

148. Ibid., p. 35. 

355

CHAPTER 9

“WHO CARES IF YOU’VE BEEN IN A WAR?”

VETERAN ACTIVISM, STATE REPRESSION,

AND CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS 

IN HU-ERA CHINA

Neil J. Diamant

MAIN ARGUMENT

Relying mainly on blog posts and military websites, this chapter examines protesting, petitioning, 

and other forms of activism among People’s Liberation Army (PLA) veterans, and the frequent repression of these protests, as an important way of gauging 

the social, political, and cultural status of the military 

during the Hu Jintao era.

Looking to move beyond propagandistic images of 

heroic soldiers in the official media, I find that, overall, many PLA veterans have had difficulty adjusting 

to the massive changes in the reform period, many of 

them finding themselves in a precarious position in 

the state and society. The chapter further argues that 

veterans, including officers, are not a viable threat to 

the regime mainly on account of their old age, physical problems, lack of large scale organization, and dependence on the state. Further modernization of the 

PLA on the basis of force reduction is unproblematic, 

given the resources the Chinese Communist Party 

(CCP) has invested in domestic security units.
356

POLICY IMPLICATIONS

• When observing patriotic or nationalistic protests in China, the United States would do well 

to avoid overestimating the Chinese public’s 

support for the PLA, or conflict. Although 

there is a popular element in these activities, 

there also is a significant degree of state orchestration that is intended to gain leverage in 

negotiations.

• The Chinese public’s support for the PLA is not 

reflexive or blind; in fact, many oppose military 

benefits and refuse to consider military service 

themselves. If there are significant costs to a 

military exchange—impacting trade, employment, stability, investment, and travel opportunities—the Chinese public will not support 

it. The United States should remind China of 

these potential costs in a variety of fora.

• In every policy arena, Chinese policymaking 

must be conceptualized through the prism of 

fragmentation, decentralization, competition 

between factions, and unclear lines of authority—very much contrary to the image presented by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 

government to the world at large. The PLA, it 

follows, is but one institution vying for power, 

resources, and prestige. When considering the 

possibility of a flare-up in the South China Sea, 

the interests of multiple nonmilitary agencies 

must be evaluated as well.
357

INTRODUCTION

On March 18, 2010, Xu Lingjun(胥灵军), a disabled PLA veteran, starved to death while in a “Legal 

Training Center”(法制培训中心), more accurately 

described as a government detention center for troublesome petitioners. According to the investigations 

launched by reporters from several newspapers in the 

aftermath of Xu’s death, as well as in Internet postings 

on veteran websites (blog.boxun.com/hero/voiceofveteran

and www.junhunw.cn), Xu was born in 1964, joined 

the PLA after middle school, and was injured during his service. Sent to a factory producing spirits in 

1988, he lost his job in the 1990s as a result of factory 

reforms, despite Civil Affairs Preferential Treatment 

(优抚)regulations that were supposed to protect 

the jobs of disabled veterans. Factory officials allegedly said, “The factory’s been privatized, so nothing 

can be done about it.” Unwilling to keep quiet about 

the matter, and probably in desperate financial straits, 

Xu began petitioning in 2005, most likely encouraged 

by propaganda promoting a fairer shake for China’s 

rural areas. Not receiving any assistance securing his 

job, he continued to visit the central authorities, thus 

acquiring a reputation as a troublemaker (缠访者) in 

the county government. By 2008, in a move reflecting 

the more conservative tenor of the Hu era, the county 

established its legal training center for petitioners. 

Staffed by six officials assigned from the Public Security Bureau, Political-Legal Committee, Court, and the 

Letters and Visits Bureau, the training center’s main 

task was to prevent petitioning in the first place, as 

well as to detain petitioners for 3-8 months (without 

formal arrest), during which time they were to receive 

instruction in the State Council Regulations for Peti-
358

tioning, moral education, and military-style drilling. 

In 2009, when Xu went to Beijing yet again, the county—which surely had him under surveillance, dispatched officials to the capital to bring him back. According to his brother, Xu Lingjun, who also served in 

the PLA and was also arrested for petitioning, Xu was 

only given two meals a day, and only plain noodles 

for dinner and limited drinking water. When he got 

into a fight with another detainee, he was punished by 

being denied food. By late-2009 and early-2010, he had 

a beard, looked haggard, dirty, and thin—”not at all 

like a soldier,” according to his brother. In March, he 

died. After his death his distraught family went to the 

local procurator and court to file suit, but the case was 

never accepted. His brother tried to follow up in Xi’an 

and Beijing. Probably as a result of veterans’ blogs, the 

case came to the attention of several newspapers, all 

of which posted roughly similar versions of the story 

during July 2011. It is not clear if anything was done to 

the officials responsible. 

To be sure, individual veterans and their families are not the only ones protesting job loss and the 

failure of the state to guarantee veteran benefits as 

firms restructure and privatize. Despite promises 

and regulations issued in 2004 that the CCP would 

place a high priority on veteran affairs, the Hu era has 

witnessed hundreds, if not thousands, of protests by 

large groups of organized veterans, including enlisted 

men and senior officers. In 2010, for example, a group 

of officers from Zhejiang claiming to represent 20,000 

officers wrote an open letter to provincial authorities 

(party, government, military, and work units) and 

ordinary people demanding social justice.1 In earlySeptember 2007, thousands (estimates ranged from 

1,000 to 2,000) of rural veterans, mostly enlisted men, 
359

rioted at Railroad Ministry-run job training centers in 

Baotou, Wuhan, and Baoji over poor conditions, the 

small demobilization grant (10,000-20,000 renminbi 

[rmb]), and the lack of assistance with meaningful job 

training. As a result of this rioting, the government 

issued an emergency decree to cease schooling in all 

Railway Ministry schools and to send all veterans back 

to their native places. This order resulted in even more 

protests. In mid-September, the Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao reported that in Heilongjiang Province, 

approximately 1,000 veterans-turned-students at the 

Qiqiha’er school “began to do damage to the teaching building and dormitory with beer bottles and also 

attempted to break out of the school and head for the 

railway station.” The veterans were surrounded by 

several hundred public security and special police 

personnel “armed with loaded weapons.”2 Then there 

were cases involving hundreds of army engineers in 

Guangdong (2008) “complaining that the local authorities have failed to implement Beijing orders to pay 

their pensions.”3 Farther north, around 100 veterans, 

including officers and enlisted men, from Weifang in 

Shandong appeared at the State Council Bureau of 

Letters and Visits to demand that “local authorities 

enforce central state policy and allow them to get the 

benefits that they deserve.”4 Similar demands were 

made by 300-400 veterans in Shaanxi who held a 

mass sit-in at the Provincial government to demand 

that the government enforce “Document #140,” give 

them appropriate resettlement and release petitioners representatives who had already been arrested.5

Both of these protests were small compared to one in 

Guangxi involving 1,000 veterans from China’s war 

against Vietnam who marched through Guilin City 

Center holding banners calling for the government to 

increase their financial compensation.6
360

As is clear from these sketches and in the cases 

described in greater detail, veterans are not entirely 

helpless when it comes to interacting with state authorities. By gathering in large numbers from villages 

and various cities, veterans clearly have organizational and networking skills; they engage in what political 

scientist Kevin O’Brien has called “rightful resistance” 

(mainly by farmers) by citing documents and regulations that support their case; their rhetoric often appeals to high-minded ideals such as the CCP’s revolutionary history, personal sacrifice, and protection of 

the territorial integrity of the homeland. High-ranking 

officers, no slouches when it comes to understating 

the regime from within, have been involved. Do these 

protests threaten the regime in any way? Are former 

PLA officers in a position to challenge the supremacy 

of the CCP because of their proven loyalty to party 

and country? Can the scale and frequency of veteran 

protests prevent further modernization of the PLA as 

it seeks to become more reliant on technology than 

large manpower resources?7

In this chapter, I argue that the CCP has been quite 

successful managing these protests, thanks to far superior resources (especially funding for security services) 

and a monopoly over violence in many different forms, 

including beatings, arrests, and detention. Thanks to 

its experience in dealing with many other disgruntled 

populations in the reform era, the state has developed 

a well-honed repertoire for dealing with veterans; one 

rarely sees even very large-scale protests generating 

more than a lawsuit or containable violence. The CCP 

has been assisted by happenstance as well—many of 

the veterans it faces were drafted during the Maoist 

years. Quite a few are poor and in their 60s-80s; disability limits contentious action; some were involved 
361

in militarily ambiguous battles and “projects.” Then 

there is the issue of veterans’ demands, which overwhelmingly focus on material improvements rather 

than political change. Finally, owing to state policy as 

described below, the majority of the veterans involved 

in protests and petitioning movements appear to be 

concentrated in relatively peripheral areas, such as rural Shandong, Yunnan, Guangxi, Shaanxi, Henan, and 

Guangdong, reflecting the lower-class composition of 

the PLA itself. 

Even if veterans currently do not pose a serious 

threat to the regime and face problems such as poverty, health, and economic insecurity that are not entirely different from many underprivileged groups, it 

still behooves us to delve deeper into their distinctive 

situation during the last decade or so. Methodologically, this chapter argues that veterans—the policies 

about them, how they are treated, and how they interact with different levels of government as well as 

with ordinary people—speak to issues beyond their 

potential threat or grievances. Veterans, after all, do 

not appear on the political scene out of the blue—they 

served in the PLA during specific periods, some quite 

controversial, perhaps engaged in battles or domestic 

repression, hail from a particular locale, enjoy a stateproffered reputation, and have close association with 

state policies enforced by multiple administrative entities (Civil Affairs, Health, Labor and Social Security; 

Justice). Unlike farmers and workers who have been 

virtually ignored as national symbols in the reform era 

(class struggle, after all, is over) or as the beneficiaries 

of special treatment policies, the PRC, in its numerous 

veteran-related regulations, propaganda campaigns 

(Army Day and Spring Festival), popular media, and 

investment in wartime commemoration in the form of 
362

martyr shrines, history museums, and patriotic education sites, officially treats military personnel as an 

entitlement group—that is, as a group that is said to 

deserve better treatment than others because of their 

national contributions to state security and national 

sovereignty.8 Veterans take this seriously and expect 

that the government will fulfill its commitments and 

treat them with more respect than if they were just 

ordinary citizens. Because of this, veterans’ expectations from the state tend to be higher than others from 

their socio-economic background. At the same time, 

however, veterans are subject to the exact same macro-economic and technological trends that have characterized the Hu era more generally; most notably, 

fiscal decentralization and the deepening of Internet 

penetration. Veterans, therefore, might be said to lie 

smack in the middle of many intersecting historical, 

military, political, economic, social, and even cultural 

vectors. For example, veterans speak to issues of governance—why do they frequently complain that policies are not enforced by localities (不落实政策)? Veterans can speak to issues such as martial values: Do 

people appreciate the PLA’s contribution? Certainly 

veteran issues, including veteran policy, speak to issues regarding state priorities and even legitimacy. In 

the United States, the rising power and status of veterans between World War I and World War II, as well as 

the popular views about those conflicts, can be seen 

in the differential treatment afforded to the latter compared to the former (more benefits, recognition, and 

influence). In China, is it possible that the protests involving its Vietnam War veterans reflect widespread 

ignorance, confusion, or profound disagreements over 

what that war was actually about? 
363

Policy Legacies.

Despite official recognition by the state that veterans are worthy of preferential treatment, in actual 

practice, with only several exceptions, the CCP’s approach toward the overwhelming majority of its veterans since its takeover has focused on keeping them 

at arm’s length from significant political power, as 

well as authentic cultural and social representation. 

China, unlike most countries we now call “modern,” 

has never had a national army, and Leninist doctrine, 

embraced by the Guomindang and the Communists, 

always called for strict military subordination to civilian authorities. China does have regulations governing many aspects of veteran affairs, but it has never 

passed a single statute guaranteeing them benefits, 

nor have senior leaders openly and forcefully advocated for veterans as a corporate group with full integration into the state, in contrast to the Union of Soviet 

Socialist Republics (USSR) during the perestroika era.9

Unlike most all Western countries, its Asian counterparts, and Leninist sister states, China has never allowed veterans to organize on any scale beyond local communities—China does not have an equivalent 

to Taiwan’s Veterans Affairs Commission (國軍退除

役官兵輔導委員會), the Republic of Korea’s (ROK) 

Ministry of Patriots and Veterans, or the American 

Legion or Veterans of Foreign Wars. From a cultural 

perspective, China probably has produced more war 

movies than any other country in history, but hardly 

reflecting an authentic veteran post-war experience 

(like “The Best Years of Our Lives” in 1946 or “Born 

on the 4th of July”), nor have its veterans published 

books reflecting their military experiences (Catch 22; 

The Naked and the Dead; All Quiet on the Western Front). 
364

During the very first parades staged in the PRC, veterans were ignored while groups such as artists, athletes, minorities, and other “united front” personalities were represented.10 These legacies, which reflect 

a certain approach toward civil-military relations, can 

be seen contemporarily in current policy as well as in 

veteran activism. To understand veteran policy in the 

Hu era, it helps to take note of five key policy continuities, especially because Hu Jintao, consistent with his 

political record overall since being Secretary General 

of the CCP, did not offer much by way of new policy 

initiatives.11

1. Native Place Resettlement (原籍安置). During 

the Mao years, with the exception of 1969-71—perhaps 

the height of PLA influence in the Chinese political 

system—the overwhelming majority of demobilized 

soldiers were sent back to their native places, even if 

their villages had been ravaged by war in the 1940s or 

if their family members were no longer living there. 

There is no international precedent for this requirement, and it reflected both the overwhelmingly rural 

composition of the PLA at the time, the CCP leadership’s post-1949 prioritization of socialism built upon 

the Soviet Union’s model of heavy industry, as well 

as, I suspect, the disdain that educated Chinese often 

heap upon their rural brethren (according to the political scientist Victor Shih and his collaborators the 

majority of Central Committee members during most 

of the Mao years were May 4th [1919] intellectuals, 

albeit Leninists).12 The yuanji anzhi policy was both a 

violation of the 1954 Constitution, which gave citizens 

freedom of residence, but more importantly, veterans’ 

most fundamental desire throughout the history of 

the PRC—to acquire the benefits of urban residence. 

In the 1950s, veterans were understandably confused 
365

by this policy. After having liberated the country, why 

could they not move freely within it? Thousands, in 

fact, voted with their feet. Despite the policy, veterans sold off their belongings in the countryside and 

“blindly” moved to cities, according to irate urban 

officials. Shandong, a popular recruiting area for the 

PLA and therefore home to many veterans (even today), witnessed a large outflow of military personnel. 

In 1954, nearly 3,000 veterans departed the province 

and headed northeast after selling their farm material 

and personal possessions.13 Resistance to the yuanji 

anzhi policy continued well into the late-1950s, relaxing only somewhat in the years prior to the Cultural 

Revolution. Yet, despite a long history of resistance 

to yuanji anzhi, and China’s exposure to alternative 

models of veteran governance, very little has changed 

in this fundamental approach. Of course, the rural 

economy has changed, and more veterans, particularly in wealthier coastal areas, have been absorbed into 

township and village enterprises, but the party’s view 

of military personnel—seeing them as a deployable 

state resource rather than as people with particular 

aspirations—has not. Many protests involving veterans today involve those who were demobilized to the 

interior countryside, and now find themselves in difficult financial straits.

2. Organization. Yuanji anzhi is not the only unusual feature of the PRC’s long-standing veteran 

policy. Another is its ban on any significant form of 

veteran self-organization—large fraternal associations 

and/or interest groups that historically have been 

an important force behind gains in veteran rights 

(for instance, in the United States, the American Legion drafted the GI Bill of 1944). Leninist principles 

of civil-military relations cannot explain this: after 
366

World War II, the USSR had a national level veteran’s 

association—the Soviet Committee of War Veterans 

(SKVV)—which was an effective lobbyist for veterans’ rights in the immediate years following Stalin’s 

death in 1953 when China was busily learning from 

its Soviet “elder brother.” According to Mark Edele’s 

research, the SKVV was not simply “a recognition 

‘from above’ of popular aspirations, but rather an appropriation ‘from below’ of an institution which was 

created for fundamentally different purposes.” (It was 

organized because the Soviets wanted to participate 

in the World Veterans Federation as “an arena for 

cold war propaganda.”14) Similar to the resistance to 

resettlement policy, PRC veterans have a long history 

of attempting to form their own organizations whenever circumstances allowed. Veterans organized during the Hundred Flower Campaign (1956) and formed 

many units during the Cultural Revolution on both 

the conservative and rebel side. In the early years of 

the reform era, roughly 6,000 veterans in Guangdong 

organized a “Grieving Hearts Army” because: 

thousands of young peasants cast their fortunes with 

the Army only to have landed back in the impoverished area and discovered that their families have 

lost money through their absence, village girls pursue 

prosperous peasants and good jobs are not to be had.

After an incident in which this “army” took over 

a Communist Party headquarters, provincial authorities repressed it, sending its leaders to prison.15 This 

approach continued into the later reform period—veterans still do not have recognized county, provincial, 

or national level fraternal associations—but, like with 

the other veteran policies, veterans have been able to 

take advantage of the Internet to find their voice and 
367

network. Two of these forums—the “Army Spirit Network” (“军魂网”), a BBS, and the “Voice of Veteran” 

blog post site (hosted on U.S.-based servers)—include 

very useful information on veteran organization in the 

shadow of state surveillance, which is intensive.

3. The reliance on policies, statement, regulations and bureaucracy. Another legacy of the preHu PRC veteran policy that has continued unabated 

is the state’s unwillingness to give statutory form to 

benefits provided to veterans and other military related personnel: China has nothing equivalent to a 

“Veteran’s Law.” From the very beginning, the center, 

as well as localities, has issued a wide range of documents in veteran policy. These include: “policies,” 

(“政策”); ”decisions” (“决策”); “regulations” (“规定”); 

“provisional regulations” (“暂行条例”); “notices” 

(“通知”); “opinions” (“意见”); “measures” (“办法”); 

and, “circulars” (“文件”). These might be issued by 

the State Council, provincial governments, and ministries. Between 1949 and 1978, hundreds of these documents have been issued by authorities, and since the 

reform period, many “laws” relevant to veterans have 

been added, like the Labor Law (1994), Labor Contract 

Law (2008), the Revised Military Law (2011; veterans 

are expected to find work themselves), and the Constitution (2004 Revision, Article 35: Citizens of the 

People’s Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, 

of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession, 

and of demonstration). Chinese lawmaking is, probably by design, very poor in ensuring predictability, 

transparency, and anything resembling uniform application. Many laws are purposely vague, the result of 

compromises between different ministries, industries, 

and other interest groups, and usually leave multiple 

“out clauses” for local officials in the name of ensuring 
368

maximum flexibility and adaptability, what Elizabeth 

J. Perry and Sebastian Heilmann have described as 

“guerrilla-style” policymaking.16 This policy “style” is 

also reflected in the very high level of fiscal decentralization: local authorities pay for most all veteran benefits out of their own pockets (what we call unfunded 

mandates), resulting in a built-in tension between 

national level policies, many of which are vague and 

sometimes contradictory, without clearly identifying 

who pays for their implementation.

While policy style shows continuities between the 

pre-reform and reform areas, citizens’ access to information about these policies during the Hu era represents a sharp disjuncture. Unlike veterans of previous 

generations who were often blind in terms of policy 

knowledge, veterans today can upload policy documents and locate the clauses relevant to their cause 

from the web. They do this with frequent gusto, brandishing a wide variety of national and local regulations, the Military Law, and Human Resources and 

Social Security circulars in their confrontations with 

authorities. This frustration leads many veterans, 

who feel entitled to better treatment, to the streets 

complaining about “lack of enforcement” and calling 

upon the center to come to their rescue.

4. Propaganda. Since the Beijing Olympics in 2008, 

one of the most challenging aspects of pedagogy is to 

convince students that the Chinese state, writ large, 

does not function as well as its Olympic Organizing 

Committee. Bolstered by a budget of roughly $65 billion and supported by the CCP as the top priority for 

2008, the Olympics were a masterpiece of state stagecraft: thousands of performers dancing in lock-step, 

volunteers everywhere, and blue skies thanks to factory closings. China seemed to be a “can do” state. 
369

What the Olympics actually demonstrated was that 

the CCP, like the dynasties it replaced, places more 

emphasis on controlling imagery, texts, symbolism, 

and making proactive use of China’s abundant cultural storehouse than ruling through coherent law and 

regulations. As noted by historian Chang Tai-hong, 

the focus on imagery reflected the CCP’s realization 

that “seizing power was more than a political and 

military campaign; perhaps even more important was the 

aesthetic battle over the control of colors, signs, symbols and 

visual vocabulary.”17 Today, the CCP’s Department of 

Propaganda remains one of the most powerful posts 

in the party, controlling vast, revenue-producing resources (film, TV, publishing, radio, etc.) and is largely 

unaccountable.

Veterans, like the PLA, were expected to be beneficiaries of this system. There was never a time in PRC 

history when veterans were portrayed in a critical 

light. Veterans are said to have a flesh and blood relationship with the revolution, a red heart with steadfast 

bearing. Campaigns long emphasized the close connection, even love, between the people and the army 

(军爱民;民爱军). During the Hu era, a constant stream 

of propaganda films about the PLA and its heroics 

during World War II, the Civil War, and Korean Wars 

flooded the airways (commemorating 60 years since 

the end of World War II; the 90th Anniversary of the 

Founding of the CCP; and the 80th Anniversary of the 

Founding of the PLA). The CCP, unlike the Communist Party of the former Soviet Union or Vietnam, has 

never allowed its veterans, writers, film makers, and 

artists to deal with wars’ many complications, compromises, and moral ambiguities, let alone wars with 

outcomes that are not very flattering, such as China’s 

war with Vietnam in 1979. Also given short shrift are 
370

other projects the PLA was involved in during the 

Mao years—building railways, tunnels and transportation projects abroad (Pakistan), or Xinjiang. Under 

Hu, CCP ahistorical triumphalism, so evident in the 

Olympics and contemporary military and Yanan-era 

revolutionary period propaganda, has been the dominant approach to governing the cultural sphere. 

Veterans and other military personnel, as might be 

expected, have always been aware of these messages. 

In many cases, positive imagery of military prowess 

contradicts their own experiences in the field. Their 

dealings with state authorities and the people frequently depart from the image of love. Thanks to the 

Internet boom during the Hu years, veterans as well 

as soldiers can dig into the layers of lies upon which 

official military history rests.18 The notion that PLA 

soldiers are the most cherished people (最可爱的人) 

has morphed in protests in which veterans describe 

themselves as the most pitiable people ( 最可怜的人). 

In many respects, the CCP runs a propaganda state 

more than a state of laws (依法治国). By doing this, it 

constantly runs the risk that everyday inglorious realities will run face first into the high expectations generated by propaganda. 

5. Veteran repression. Two types of veteran petitioning and protesting will be discussed: (1) former 

enlisted men, especially those who were involved in 

or disabled by the war with Vietnam, protesting for 

more recognition and benefits; and (2) protests involving former PLA officers and senior noncommissioned 

officers (NCOs) who became state cadres (军转干部) 

in industry, challenging the drastic reduction in their 

status during the Hu years. After these cases, I will 

look more closely at the internal workings of state security repression of veterans. I take this repression as 
371

a reflection of where state priorities have been during 

the Hu era in civil-military relations.

VIETNAM

The available evidence I currently have at my disposal strongly suggests that the source of many problems in civil-military relations that faced Hu Jintao 

were, and continue to be, the products of policies and 

wars fought before his tenure; I have found fewer cases 

of collective action and group petitioning by veterans 

in their mid-20s—most of whom, I presume, are relatively healthy and require less assistance securing a 

basic living. In the available sources on veterans in the 

Hu era, the largest and most symbolically problematic 

protests have been mounted by veterans of China’s 

involvement in Vietnam, both in the 1960s and after 

1979. These were veterans who had a very difficult 

time from the beginning, as suggested in the “Grieving 

Hearts Army” case mentioned earlier. Largely hailing 

from poor counties and provinces (Guangxi and Yunnan especially), many returned home only to find that 

those who had not participated in the war were enjoying greater prosperity. “Sacrifice” for the state did not 

pay off in a new era in which materialism, consumerism, and individualization become the dominant 

leitmotifs. Just like many veterans discharged after the 

Korean War found that the fruits of the victory in the 

revolution had already been distributed (land and political power),19 Vietnam War veterans in China have 

truly been a lost generation in terms of veteran policy, 

as well as their place in the larger political culture. Unlike China’s “victory” against the United States during the Korean War, currently celebrated by China’s 

so-called “nationalists,” the ambiguous outcome in 
372

Vietnam (acknowledged by netizens in blog posts), 

the need to maintain good ties to the Association of 

South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the near 

absence of war veterans in top leadership positions 

have not provided a conducive environment for these 

veterans to press their claims. Of course, this is never 

easy, even in democracies. What has made the difference in policy and culture has been the existence of 

large scale veteran organizations with devoted, wellconnected, and feisty membership, which China lacks. 

In the United States, it was the Vietnam War Memorial Fund, led by veterans, that sponsored the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and well-heeled veterans of 

the war like film director Oliver Stone have proved 

very instrumental in fostering a more welcoming 

environment.

Let us now discuss cases of individual and collective petitions as examples of how Vietnam veterans 

have fared and how they have interacted with authorities (this might be called the bottom-up perspective 

on civil-military relations). Xu Kaisheng, from Lingao 

County, Hainan, joined the PLA in 1977, and the CCP 

in 1979. According to his self-narrative, he was injured 

in the war and awarded “level-3 meritorious service” 

honors. He was among the fortunate to receive work 

after his discharge. From 1980 to 1992, he was employed at a grain bureau. In 1992, however, he was 

laid off and had to rely on welfare (低保金) from the 

county party committee, local government, and civil 

affairs. Unemployed for 10 years, he finally found a 

position, but when that company was sold to a private 

firm in 2007, he had “no labor relations with them.” 

Now, he said, he was old, infirm, wounded, disabled, 

and often ill but lacked medical insurance to cover his 

many injections. This, in his view, was a clear violation 
373

of the benefit regulations for veterans (军人抚恤优待条

例). Medical problems and lack of other resources led 

him to protest. Together with his fellow veteran Wang 

Shaoxiong, he made repeated visits to the county party committee and government. Now well into the Hu 

era’s obsession with internal security, Xu and Wang 

found themselves targets of state investigation—their 

“lawful and normal petitioning” became “opposing 

the government and party.” This became more than 

a local matter. Flush with funding, a state security 

(国安) official operating under the Provincial Public 

Security Department was dispatched to the county 

to assist with their security work. This official threw 

the book at Xu and Wang, charging them with crimes 

ranging from financial fraud, illegally occupying an 

official post, and disturbing public order, among 

others. The two were thrown in the county prison.

This list of crimes was not coincidental. The security authorities had been gathering information about 

their activities, which they used to tie them up in legal 

knots. “Illegally occupying an official post” referred 

to a 2009 incident in which Xu and Wang petitioned at 

the Central Military Commission, but as soon as they 

got there were arrested by Hainan officials, sent back 

to Lingao, and detained for 24 days; “financial fraud” 

was all about Xu and Wang establishing a registered 

Service Center for Disabled Veterans in Lingao County, which was designed to help veterans with medical 

insurance payments (in the letter they provided the 

registration number). When Xu cited state violations 

of its own regulations, the security officer crystalized 

the current view of the regime: “We [state security] 

don’t care about the enforcement of disabled veteran 

policy; you having gone to war has nothing to do with 

us.” In the end, the police compiled a case against 
374

him and forwarded it to the county procurator. The 

procurator, however, did not authorize arrest on the 

grounds of insufficient evidence. Instead, the county 

public security bureau placed him under home surveillance (September 2009). Xu escaped, and was, at 

the time of his posting, a fugitive beggar in Beijing. He 

attached multiple documents: his rap sheet, hospital 

forms, bail release, and others to demonstrate his worthiness of support. Other veterans had access to his 

case through the Military Spirit bulletin board.20

Several things stand out in this case, which is not 

all that unusual in the “Voice of Veteran” files.21 The 

PRC’s veterans’ policy is embedded in larger structural changes in the economy (layoffs, privatization, and 

development of the Internet) and is closely tied to past 

conflicts as well—the case flowed from his disability, 

age, and inability to secure stable employment. We 

can also see the regime’s willingness to take decisive 

action against repeated petitioners, no matter their 

past contributions to national security. Moreover, 

we can also see what happens when veterans organize themselves and register with the state, even on a 

small scale: they expose themselves to prosecution by 

leaving a paper trail. 

There is no data about how many veterans pursued individual or small group solutions and how 

many gathered in larger numbers. Both were security concerns, because individual veterans, using blog 

sites like “Military Spirit,” could get their cases out 

in the open, but the public protests were different in 

terms of the moral and political legitimacy of the CCP. 

The spectacle of hundreds of veterans, most of them 

old, standing outside government compounds in bad 

weather, was embarrassing, which is why local governments made a point of quickly dispatching them 
375

elsewhere. In Gansu Province, for instance, photos of 

a group of roughly 50 veterans of the Laoshan Campaign gathered,, wearing their uniforms and medals 

with both socialist and Confucian-inspired slogans: 

“Long Live the Spirit of Laoshan!; Long Live the CCP!; 

We want work; we want to eat; we want to provide 

for our elders; we want to raise children.”22 In 2010 

in Hunan’s Taoyuan county, some 350 representatives 

of the county’s Vietnam War veterans petitioned for 

better treatment, making a point to complain that they 

get less money than veterans who pacified Tibet after 

the riots there (wars on foreign soil deserve more compensation—even foreign countries do it that way, they 

argued), and that the war in Vietnam is not understood 

or discussed. Their protest, they noted, was just of one 

of thousands occurring all around the country in the 

last several years.23 Sometimes protesters from the war 

might gather in the thousands, connecting with each 

other via their QQ or “E两会” accounts. According to 

the Hong Kong Information Service for Human Rights 

and Democracy:

around 1,000 PRC veterans who fought in the Vietnam War staged a demonstration in Guilin in Guangxi 

Province on 26 December (the 118th anniversary of the 

birthday of Mao Zedong), demanding that the government grant them a 300 yuan monthly subsidy, which 

is much lower than the subsidy their counterparts in 

Beijing and Shanghai receive.24

This demonstration was observed by thousands of 

people who passed by, but it is highly unlikely that 

onlookers were able to pressure the government in 

any meaningful way. 
376

A case involving Vietnam War veterans, as well as 

veterans from Korea and nuclear weapons projects, in 

Shatang Village in Beiliu City in Guangxi Province is 

an excellent example of civil-military relations in the 

Hu era. Like their counterparts around the country, 

Beiliu veterans from different villages sought to get 

together. In their usual modus operandi, local security 

officials at the township, fearing a petition effort, tried 

to stop them through preventative detention. Several 

incurred soft-tissue injuries as they were pushed into 

a police van.

After this, the Beiliu City “Comrade-in-Arms 

Society”(”战友会”)took action. They filed a lawsuit against the authorities under the provisions of 

the Administrative Litigation Law (ALL, otherwise 

known as “民告官”). They secured the assistance of 

Mou Guangyu, a Vietnam veteran himself, who was 

a lawyer in nearby Yuzhou District to represent them 

in court in Beiliu City. Unsurprisingly, given the subservience of local courts to the government in China, 

the Beiliu court refused to take the case, arguing that 

it did not “satisfy the conditions for litigation under 

the ALL.” Lawyer Mou appealed to the Yulin City 

Intermediate Court, which, surprisingly, ordered the 

Beiliu City court to accept and register the case. By 

this time, veteran websites were ablaze with blog 

entries about the case and mobilized to support the 

plaintiffs. A photograph shows veterans lined in neat 

rows of three, 15 deep, marching to the hearing, with 

one wearing the sign “Old War Veterans Representative” (“参战老兵代表”). On the “Military Spirit” site, 

an entry from May 11, 2011, noted that the trial did not 

last long, but was attended by a thousand people from 

many cities and the provinces. After the trial, veterans 

seemed optimistic that someone from the security services and local politicians would be held accountable.
377

On October 10, 2011, bloggers on “Military Spirit” 

posted an update about the verdict under the header 

“Devastated” (“惨败”). More than a thousand people, 

including Vietnam and Korean War veterans, veterans involved in nuclear power and uranium mining, 

as well as representatives of martyrs and military families (烈军属代表), congregated in front of the court 

and elected 60 people to observe the trial (10 were 

Korean War veterans, some were combatants from 

the 1974 Xisha [Paracel] Islands naval battle, but most 

were Vietnam War veterans). Holding banners, they 

sat and waited for the announcement. In its verdict, 

posted online, the Beiliu court ruled that the plaintiffs had not demonstrated a direct causal connection 

between the defendants and their injuries (bruises, 

and a torn shirt). This, in fact, was not all that surprising because the plaintiffs did not have witnesses 

or other evidence. The veterans vowed to appeal to 

the Yulin Intermediate Court, hoping that officials 

from the Guangzhou Military Region would send 

a representative to help them. If this did not work, 

the veterans vowed “to carry Liao to Beijing and let 

the Central government decide.”25 As many of them 

surely realized, Beijing security police would be quite 

prepared for their arrival. Veteran protests, as this 

case shows, might begin with small claims for more 

money, but the security apparatus, by using preventative detention and extensive surveillance, can unintentionally cause them to escalate into the hundreds 

and thousands. 
378

DOWNSIZED: PLA OFFICERS AND THE STATE

In the materials I have collected thus far, the most 

vocal and organized veterans who protest against the 

party (at all levels) have been a subset of PLA officers and senior staff members, probably senior NCOs, 

whose circumstances under Hu-era policies have 

changed the most dramatically. For the most part, 

these were PLA personnel who, during the Mao years 

and throughout the 1980s and early-1990s, were demobilized into industrial units as state cadres junzhuan 

ganbu (军转干部) or qiye guojia ganbu(企业国家干部)

but have essentially lost their political status and the 

benefits as industrial units restructured. Hundreds of 

thousands of these veterans now claim to have status 

no higher than an ordinary unemployed worker. In 

their protests and petitions, they enjoy several assets: 

age (most are not infirm), health, and insider knowledge of how the state works. What pushed them into 

opposition, however, was simply bad luck—hundreds 

of thousands of their former comrades-in-arms who 

were demobilized to state (国家) and institutional (事

业) units could be content with their lot and have no 

reason to protest. Industrial-unit officers, rather than 

officers in a more general sense, have been the deepest 

thorn in the side of the security-obsessed Hu regime 

since the gap between their expectations and their 

present circumstances has been the widest.

From the very first years of the Hu era, junzhuan 

ganbu have made their presence known. In 2005, an 

eyewitness account from Beijing reported that “about 

2,000 retired members of the People’s Liberation 

Army, wearing their old uniforms, gathered outside 

the PLA’s General Political Department,” which is 

close to Tiananmen Square. These former PLA mem-
379

bers, representing some 20 provinces, were “mostly 

officers, including former division commanders.” 

Always orderly, they sat in rows in order to “express 

grievances about pension benefits and post-retirement 

jobs.” As the reporter accurately noted, “the decline of 

the state-enterprise system means that management 

jobs for former officers are scarce.”26 In July 2009, 

several hundred veterans from Weifang in Shandong 

gathered to petition in Beijing. A reporter interviewed 

a former officer, who pointed out that: 

We came to Beijing to petition to demand that central policy be enforced; junzhuan ganbu policy is not 

enforced locally; the central government sends down 

documents relevant to our situation but nothing is 

implemented. Those who are here petitioning now are 

all junzhuan cadres whose enterprises have changed 

their status.

Another said, “We no longer get the benefits of a state 

cadre and have become regular employees or retired 

employees so we have to petition.”27

 The occasion of the mass tributes to the 80th Anniversary of the PLA in 2007 was an opportune time 

for veterans to protest the gap between the propaganda and their circumstances. In a report entitled, “Old 

Soldiers Fading Away,” the reporter noted that “some 

decommissioned officers feel they have little to celebrate and that nobody is listening to their grievances. 

These former cadres believe they have fallen through 

the cracks caused by the mainland’s seismic economic 

and social changes.” One officer, formerly based in 

Beijing, noted that, “We were originally party cadres, 

but now we are left with nothing.” Local governments 

were blamed—their entitlements to housing, medical benefits and pensions were not being honored 
380

locally “despite specific government orders.” There 

was more than just money involved, however. They 

sensed, perhaps accurately, that their plight generates 

little to no sympathy. According to a former naval officer (47 years old): 

There is no one to help us assert our rights. And once 

we visit government departments, we are labeled a 

‘destabilizing element’...farmers, workers, even the 

homeless, get looked after. But we don’t have anyone 

to stand up for us.

In the month prior to the 80th Anniversary (veterans mostly refrained from protest during the anniversary year 2007-08 it seems), mass protests broke out 

in Beijing, Guangdong, and Shandong, including one 

in Yantai (Shandong) “involving as many as 2,000 decommissioned officers.”28

Little appears to have changed policy-wise between 2007 and 2009. On May 14, 2009, in Luoyang 

and its various counties, according to a report from 

the Hong Kong Information Center for Human Rights 

and Democracy, “about 2,000 retired PLA officers 

and servicemen . . . began demonstrating outside the 

municipal government at 9 AM yesterday. These retired officers and servicemen demanded that a series 

of issues concerning their work and livelihood be resolved.” Their main goal, according to the report, was 

to meet with government officials to air their grievances, convinced, like many other groups in China, 

that higher level authorities are unaware of on-theground realities because local officials file misleading 

and and/or patently false reporting.29

In their efforts to restore their status, junzhuan veterans have not limited themselves to demonstrations. 

In 2007, a group of Yantai veterans wrote an open let-
381

ter directed to 17 PLA generals pleading for their intervention in the National People’s Congress.30 In another tactic, they targeted one agency whose policies 

drew the most ire—the Human Resources and Social 

Security Ministry. In a class action lawsuit filed (but 

not accepted) in the #2 Intermediate Court in Beijing, 

162,183 veterans from all over China sued the minister, Yi Weimin, for violating Administrative Law and 

the rights of veterans who were assigned by the state 

to enterprises. Multiple laws were cited as the basis 

for their suit, including the ALL (Article II, Clauses 

11, 5, 8), the Military Service Law (Article 2), Officer’s 

Law, the “General Rules of Civil Law” (”民法通则”), 

Article 75, Section 2, and the National Defense Law, 

Article 61. Their demands were quite specific: restoration of their status and benefits they deserve and 

financial compensation (for example, 480,000 rmb for 

a general). The bulk of the lawsuit, however, focused 

on issues over the loss of dignity. The officers, accustomed to a certain level of deference and respect, were 

very upset when the Party responded to lawful petitioning by labeling them as an illegal organization 

that incited and colluded with foreign hostile forces, 

and attributed their problems only to a minority with 

ulterior motives and an ax to grind. The Human Resources and Social Security Ministry, the veterans felt, 

goes its own way, ignoring national policy about veterans, all the while blaming the reforms for the problems, not bad policies.31 In 2010, veterans claiming to 

represent 20,000 former officials in Zhejiang posted an 

open letter claiming that one-fourth of all post-1949 

officers had their rights expropriated, and traced this 

development to the early-1990s (when industrial reform began).32
382

Former officers in China have been cited by officials and activists as a highly sensitive sector of the 

population who might swing a tide of public opinion 

in their favor and against the ruling Communist Party.33 Many veterans, I would argue, would not identify 

with this role at all. As noted in an open letter posted 

by a group of officers in Hunan protesting outside the 

provincial party compound:

in peacetime we are the group that is forgotten about, 

stuck in a nook in a remote corner and only thought 

about when the country and people need us; we are 

weaker than the most vulnerable group (弱势群体), 

and we discover this only after we have taken off our 

uniform and reenter society.

In part, this was because the media does not dare 

interview them and lawyers do not dare take their 

cases. Both of these, as we know, are key elements of 

the Hu-era internal security policy.34

FULL-COURT PRESS: THE TOOLS 

OF REPRESSION

More than anything, in the long historical view the 

Hu era will likely be remembered for what I would 

call its Confucian fascist political style—its blend of 

propaganda about a harmonious society with virtually unlimited capacity to squash organized and sustained dissent thanks to its truly gargantuan security 

budget. With regard to veterans, the regime pursues 

a strategy of limited tolerance for petitioning, online 

complaining, and political gathering to allow people 

to “let off steam” (ala Hundred Flowers). Its scattershot (guerrilla) policy style toward veterans—seen in 

the wide range of regulations, laws, and documents 
383

affecting them—promotes competition and jealously 

between them. Groups can mobilize but cannot institutionalize their demands via a national organization. 

The Hu regime also employs a range of tactics from 

the Mao years, as well as those improvised to handle 

petitioners around government offices. All this is done 

under the program of preventative security or stability maintenance (weiwen [维稳] hereafter), closely associated with former Public Security Minister Zhou 

Yongkang.

As seen in the very limited number of articles on 

veteran petitioning in the official press,35 the Hu regime has been very effective limiting media coverage of veteran petitioning and protest, particularly 

the larger ones. On the other hand, the government 

has not shut down veteran blogs and bulletin boards, 

probably, mainly, because the audience for these is 

limited to people already “in the know,” it provides a 

useful channel for population management and intelligence about veterans plans and activities—I am sure 

government agents have infiltrated these discussion 

groups, as they have patriotic websites—and much of 

it does not suggest imminent collective action.

The state has other softer methods of maintaining strict civilian control over its former military 

personnel. For example, in Xuzhou in Jiangsu Province, a policeman named Sun Quanxin, a veteran 

himself, was declared a candidate for model status 

for preventing other veterans from going to Beijing 

to petition and otherwise doing good weiwen work.36

Newspapers also heaped praise on local officials 

who proactively dealt with veteran problems rather 

than allowing them to develop into protests and petitions.37 As part of a similar campaign in 2008, in 

Daxing Anling District in Heilongjiang Province, 
384

local officials organized a special troubleshooting 

meeting for resolving contradictions among veterans, which prevented all petitioning incidents.38 A 

document posted by the Civil Affairs Bureau on the 

website of Haikou City on February 29, 2012, noted a 

special weiwen work meeting focused on monitoring 

the activities of veterans who either have welfare and 

resettlement problems, demand recognition of having participated in battle, or former civilian workers

(民工)and people’s militia personnel who were in 

the Xisha (Paracel) Naval battle who seek benefits. 

“When veterans such as these leave our jurisdiction,” 

the document instructed, officials had to track them 

down in “man-on-man coverage whenever and wherever they went.”39

These reports, emphasizing Mao-era models, 

campaign-style mobilization around certain political 

calendar events (Army Day) and grass-roots cadres’ 

bursts of activism on behalf of veterans, largely represent the softer side of Hu Jintao’s social management 

program, and therefore the side more likely to be reported in the official press. Quite a different perspective can be seen in the numerous posts by veterans 

who were involved in various forms of individual and 

collective action. In these posts, convincing veterans 

to return home, tracking, and man-to-man coverage 

are euphemisms for an entire system of surveillance 

(real world and online), phone tapping, beatings, 

detentions, and forced education of the type that resulted in the death by starvation of Xu Lingjun, the 

veteran’s case discussed at the beginning of this chapter. For example, a veteran named Peng Guansheng 

from Shandong was detained recently for 17 days just 

for mentioning plans to join some of the 90th Anniversary celebrations [of the CCP] on July 1st online. The 
385

police, he said, “had him under surveillance for highlighting some of the inequalities and injustices in the 

treatment of veterans,” and noted that “another veteran from Wuhan had his computer confiscated after he 

traveled to Henan province to meet with other former 

PLA personnel.”40 In a town under the jurisdiction of 

Chengdu, seven veterans were having tea one summer day in 2011 when they were approached by an 

official with 30 plainclothes policemen who requested 

that the veterans go with them. The veterans asked, 

“Is having tea illegal?” “We are war veterans,” and 

“Give us a formal subpoena.” One cop said, “If we did 

that, you’d already be goners” (你们就完了), and then 

took them away. At the Wannianchang police station 

in Chengdu, one veteran, hoping that his military 

credentials would help him, said, “We are war veterans,” to which the policeman reportedly said, “You’ve 

fought in a war, what’s so glorious [about that]?” The 

veterans were indignant and retorted, “If repelling a 

foreign invasion isn’t glorious, what is? Corruption? 

Hiring prostitutes? If we went to war by mistake, ask 

the government to take us to the people of Vietnam 

and apologize.” This silenced the police on that issue, 

but they still wanted intelligence: “What were you 

guys talking about?” What are you planning on the 

28th?” After this ordeal, the tea-time veterans posted 

their experience online and claimed to have received 

responses from comrades all around the country who 

wanted the government to demand an explanation for 

what happened.41

As already discussed in the previous sections, 

there have been protests involving veterans throughout the Hu era, and even as recently as late-February 

2012, when former officers from the army and navy 

staged a protest outside PLA headquarters in Beijing, 
386

some calling for the military to step in to fight political corruption (which they blame for their lack of pension income) and others claiming compensations for 

injuries received while on duty on the PLA’s research 

and testing units.42 Weiwen is not skin tight. But what 

happens when veterans arrive in Beijing, provincial 

capitals, and township offices demanding better treatment? Does military service “cut them a break” when 

dealing with the security apparatus? Reports filed by 

veterans suggest that petitioning as a veteran is not 

very different than petitioning as an ordinary person 

after the crackdown in mass petitioning in 2006. In 

a town near Shenzhen, a Vietnam War veteran surnamed Li claimed in a written report posted on the 

“Military Spirit” site, that he was beaten by the party 

secretary, who also forced his wife to get an abortion 

and tubal ligation, after he began petitioning (because 

it made the party secretary “lose face”). He was also 

placed under surveillance. Li may have been particularly troublesome because, after the war he could 

not do agricultural labor, and was involved in a local 

“Veterans Friendship Association” that pushed for 

more assistance with medical expenses. According 

to the veteran’s recollection of their conversation, the 

party secretary noted that veterans’ problems “belong 

to the previous government and have nothing to do 

with him.”43

Similar abuses can also be seen at the county level. 

In May 2010, 30 unemployed and disabled veterans 

were waiting at a train station in Sichuan while on 

their way to petition in Beijing. But they were not 

alone. Tracked by officials in their home community, they were pushed out of the waiting room by 

the party secretary of the Political-Legal Committee 

of Zhongjiang County and others who did not have 
387

clear identification. The veterans claimed that they 

were beaten at the ticket inspection area. The veterans 

poured out their frustrations, complaining that they 

have endured ridicule, cold treatment, intimidation, 

threats, and beatings by local officials. “Are we nobodies (蝼蚁)?” “What mistakes have we committed?” 

“Society! How did disabled veterans end up in this 

tragic state?” “Government! How have the heroes of 

the past become your burdensome nuisance and victims of today?”44

We cannot know how many veterans started their 

journey to Beijing from the provinces and never made 

it there because of these local level security operations. 

Actually making it to the capital is no small achievement. But escaping the locality is no guarantee of an 

anonymous arrival. It appears that veterans are closely tracked by county and provincial representative 

offices in Beijing, and these representatives are under intense pressure (under a quota system) to make 

sure that “their” veterans do not remain for long. In a 

long letter written by a former Air Force colonel from 

Changsha (Liu Nanzheng, joined PLA in 1968 and 

CCP in 1970; a revolutionary martyr’s son) to Premier 

Wen Jiabao, we can see how this works. On January 

12, 2010, Liu, with 100 other officers from his county, 

went to the State Council’s Letters and Visit’s Office to 

report about veteran officers problems. After their petitioning was over, the Changsha Beijing Office took 

him and his comrade, who had already been beaten 

by the Xicheng District Public Security Bureau on a 

previous petitioning run, to the Beijing Anyuanding 

Security Firm, where they remained in custody for 3 

days. While in detention, they met other officers who 

had been swept up, including one from Shaanxi who 

previously had been held at the Shaanxi Beijing Office. 

Before they were sent back to their respective prov-
388

inces (courtesy of the Letters and Visits officials in the 

representative offices), the officers tried to figure out 

the detention system by asking their guards, mostly 

20-year-old men. Their guards were loose-lipped, and 

told the officers that they were mostly enlisted soldiers with the Central Guards Bureau, but other such 

firms employed soldiers of the security staffs of ministries and commissions. The Anyuanding firm, which 

was a private enterprise that employed roughly 3,000 

people and earned U.S.$3.1 million in 2008, worked 

very closely with the Beijing Public Security Bureau 

and Letters and Visits Office—the unit some petitioners think will help them out. Their specialty was guard 

work, “especially bringing petitioners in Beijing back 

to their home towns.” The former officers assessed the 

motives and operations: local officials want to make 

people disappear so that the existence of petitioners in 

Beijing will not damage their careers, and they pay for 

the service of extracting petitioners, leaving the logistics to their representative offices. Following the financial trail here is difficult—county governments pay a 

security firm that hires soldiers—but discerning the 

larger pattern is not easy.45 The paranoid concern with 

social stability and harmony has empowered security 

forces that operate without much regard for regulations, policies, or the Constitution, leaving many veterans in the same boat as other vulnerable populations 

in contemporary China.

CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

FOR THE UNITED STATES

Looking at veterans protests and petitioning and 

how they are treated by civilian officials, this chapter has argued that they occupy a fairly precarious 
389

position in the PRC’s political system, as well as in 

the economy (since many are not well-off, the latter 

surely impacts the former). Civilian authorities hold 

the trump cards. Different government organs issue 

regulations, opinions, and guidelines that, when not 

confusing everyone, serve to prevent strong organizational cohesion—officers are mainly fighting for themselves, not enlisted men—making interest aggregation 

quite challenging. Of course, there are veterans who 

have found work after their demobilization, and their 

interests will diverge from those of the protesters. 

Divide-and-rule, or what the historian Chen Yungfa called controlled polarization, is very effective in 

preventing a united front. To date, veteran organizations operate at the local level and are vulnerable to 

state penetration and repression. The government has 

limited the capacity of courts, lawyers, and the media 

from championing their cause, and ordinary civilians 

do not appear to be particularly enamored of their heroic contributions. The security apparatus is powerful, 

rich and virtually unaccountable. 

The precarious political and economic status of 

military personnel in China is not lost among China’s 

youth, who might be quite proud of China’s growing 

strength but who also show extremely little interest 

in military affairs or a military career. In a study of 

recruitment problems in National Defense (国防) magazine, Liu Wei, Can Mou, and Ma Zengfei found that all 

the problems affecting veterans make it difficult to attract people to the PLA. Among reasons cited for lack 

of interest were financial loss, insufficient benefits, 

poor compensation, and meager allowances and salaries. Moreover, upon discharge, getting a job is very 

difficult. Wei, Mou and Ma note that in every area it 

is commonly reported that the number of veterans 

getting jobs gets lower year-to-year, and that the phe-
390

nomenon of getting a job then losing it is a common 

occurrence. Tellingly, and in contrast to the hyperbole 

of street protesters, the authors stressed a “weakening” defense consciousness among draft-age youth, 

who sought to pursue advanced studies, get a job—

and perhaps after this join the PLA. In a questionnaire 

of 10,000 recently graduated youth in one city, less 

than 5 percent might even consider joining the army 

(”可以考虑参军”).46 Veterans’ observations that the 

poor treatment meted out to them would have serious 

consequences in terms of morale and support for the 

PLA in society appear to have been on the mark.

These findings have several policy implications for 

the United States. First, the United States should be 

careful not to overestimate the Chinese public’s support for the PLA, or conflict, based on transient, media-saturated events, like anti-American or Japanese 

protests, or calls for boycotts on nationalist websites. 

Although there is a popular element in these activities, there also is a large degree of state orchestration, 

intended to gain leverage in negotiations (as in “we 

cannot compromise because of our patriotic public 

opinion”). We simply do not know which factions 

are mobilizing which protesters, and why people are 

out on the street (in the recent protests against Japan, 

I heard that many protesters were children of downsized veterans and pensioned off workers who were 

more upset about their life circumstances than about 

the Diaoyu Islands; the sanctioned protests gave them 

an opening to speak out). Nor do we have a handle 

on how many patriotic bloggers get paid by the government per character they write. My chapter, therefore, urges a consideration of Chinese militarism or 

patriotism from the perspective of on-the-ground interactions and behaviors, not imagery, propaganda or 

formal policy. 
391

Second, the United States should always keep in 

mind the extremely complex nature of Chinese feelings about the PLA and CCP. In contrast to the media 

accounts, both in China and the United States, which 

tend toward a monochromatic and frequently negative depiction of Chinese views toward us, Japan, and 

areas of dispute such as the Diaoyus,47 I would argue 

that Chinese frequently disagree with anti-American 

government propaganda, contest the official line 

about the legitimacy of its wars, and tend toward a 

high degree of pragmatism when you dig a bit under 

the surface. (For example, there is no evidence that applications for U.S. visas to study here has declined). 

If there are significant costs to a military exchange, 

one that will impact trade, cause unemployment and 

unrest, divestment, and restricted access to American 

institutions of higher education, I am dubious that 

the government or the public will support it. In this 

respect, concern with domestic stability is an internal 

bulwark against rash military adventurism. 

Finally, Chinese policymaking needs to be understood through the prism of fragmentation, decentralization, competition between factions, and unclear 

lines of authority—very much contrary to the image 

presented by the Chinese government to the world at 

large. In the case of veterans, we can see that the PLA 

has very little clout in protecting their former personnel from abuse, local governments ignore national 

policy at little cost to them, and privatization of state 

functions—even public security—makes it hard to figure who is responsible for policymaking and implementation. Americans should never buy into the aura 

of cohesiveness that the Chinese state projects toward 

its domestic and foreign audiences.
392

ENDNOTES - CHAPTER 9

1. See “浙江省企业退役军官上访申诉团成立告全省人民书” 

(“An Inaugural Open Letter to the Zhejiang Province by the Association of Retired Officers of Zhejiang Enterprises”), available 

from blog.boxun.com/hero/201107/voiceofveteran/63_1.shtml. 

2. See Christopher Bodeen, “Over 2,000 ex-soldiers riot in 

North China over railway training—HK Paper,” Associated Press 

Archive, September 11, 2007; “HK Paper: Demobilized SoldiersTurned-Students in Heilongjiang Clash with Police,” Ming Pao

(Internet version), World News Connection database, News Edge 

Document Number 200709151477.1_52290238d22f2c6d, September 15, 2007. 

3. Ivan Zhai, “Retired Army Engineers Stage Rally over 

Pension,” BBC Worldwide Monitoring-Asia Pacific, December 19, 

2008. Article originally appeared in the South China Morning 

Post website.

4. “山东潍坊约百退伍军人到天安门” (“About One Hundred 

PLA Veterans from Weifang, Shandong Came to Tiananmen”), 

Radio Free Asia, July 21, 2009. 

5. See blog.boxun.com/hero/201108/voiceofveteran/17_1/shtml. 

6. “广西千名对越战争老兵游行要求生活补助” (“In Guangxi 

1,000 Vietnam war-era old soldiers marched to demand economic 

assistance”), Radio Free Asia, December 27, 2011. 

7. To be sure, veteran protests and petitions are, like all protest movements, minority phenomena—most African-Americans, 

after all, did not march in Selma, AL, or Washington, DC, and 

most of those did not write about their experience. The majority of Americans did not join Occupy Wall Street or write about 

it. This, however, does not mean that the protests did not reveal 

something much larger occurring in politics and society: the Civil 

Rights protesters called attention to real and widespread racism 

and Occupy Wall Street to significant and real income inequality.

8. “Entitlement group” has been used by Mark Edele in his 

exhaustive study of Soviet veterans. See his Soviet Veterans of the 
393

Second World War: A Popular Movement in an Authoritarian Society, 

1941-1991, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2008, p. 185.

9. Ibid., p. 187.

10. See Chang-tai Hong: “Mao’s Parades: State Spectacles in China in the 1950s,” The China Quarterly, No.190, June 

2007, pp. 417-418.

11. This section relies heavily upon my findings in Neil J. Diamant, Embattled Glory: Veterans, Military Families and the Politics of 

Patriotism in China, 1949-2007, Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2009.

12. Victor Shih, Wei Shan, and Mingxing Lu, “The Central 

Committee Past and Present: A Method for Quantifying Elite Biographies,” Paper presented at the Workshop on Methods and 

Sources in Chinese Politics, Ann Arbor, MI, University of Michigan, November 3-5, 2006.

13. Shandong xinzheng gongbao (Shandong Provincial 

Archives, Jinan), December 1954, p. 13. 

14. See Edele, p. 162.

15. See Michael Weisskoft: “3,000 Veterans Said to Revolt 

in Protest Over Treatment,” The Washington Post, December 12, 

1981; Diamant, Chapter 8. Weisskoft calls them the “Disillusioned 

Army.” 

16. See Sebastian Heilmann and Elizabeth J. Perry, eds., Mao’s 

Invisible Hand: The Political Foundations of Adaptive Governance in 

China , Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012.

17. Chang-tai Hung, “Oil Paintings and Politics: Weaving a 

Heroic Tale of the Chinese Communist Revolution,” Comparative 

Studies in Society and History, Vol. 49, No. 4, October 2007, p. 784. 

Emphasis by this author. 

18. See Lily Qu, “New Army Regulations Underscore the 

Plight of the Chinese Army,” Chinascope, October 2005, p. 19.

19. See Diamant, Chaps. 2 and 3.
394

20. See “叙开生的雪泪申诉:在京城讨饭逃亡我也要将维权继

续进行下去” (“Xu Kaisheng’s appeal: A fugitive begging in Beijing, I also want to continue to protect my rights”), available from 

blog.boxun.com/hero/201106/voiceofveteran/26_1.shtml /.

21. See, for instance, “广东省河源市老隆港务局退伍军人给刘

市长的一封公开信” (“An open letter to Mayor Liu from veterans 

employed by the Laolong Harbor Bureau of Heyuan City, Guangdong”), available from blog.boxun.com/hero/201107/voiceofveteran/12_1.shtml. 

22. “甘肃省越战老兵上访图集,” (“Photos of Vietnam veterans 

petioning in Gansu”), available from blog.boxun.com/hero/201107/

voiceofveteran/45_1.shtml.

23. “湖南省桃源县籍350名援越抗美参战老兵强烈要求获得应

得的待遇” (“350 veterans from the war to “Support Vietnam and 

Resist the United States” in Taoyuan County, Hunan, strongly request the treatment we deserve”), available from blog.boxun.com/

hero/201107/voiceofveteran/44_1.shtml.

24. Posted on World News Connection, via Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, December 29, 2011.

25. For the early part of the case, see “广西省北流市参战军

人梁广发,刘海林参与上访遭到派出所殴打"(“Combat veterans 

Liang Guangfa and Liu Hailin were beaten by police while petitioning in Beiliu City, Guangxi”);"玉林市参军战友会为之鸣不

平” (“The grievance of comrades-in-arms in Yulin City”), available from blog.boxun.com/hero/201107/voiceofveteran/49_1.shtml. 

The verdict is available from blsfy.chinacourt.org/public/paperview.

php?id=703196. 

26. Hamish McDonald, “Veterans’ protest unsettles Beijing,” 

The Age, April 16, 2005.

27. “山东潍坊约百” (“About One Hundred PLA Veterans 

from Weifang, Shandong”), Radio Free Asia, July 21, 2009.

28. Ng Tze-wei and Minnie Chan: “Old Soldiers Fade Away,” 

South China Morning Post, August 3, 2007.
395

29. “Mass protests reported in China’s Henan, Shandong and 

Tianjin,” BBC Monitoring Asia-Pacific, May 23, 2009. 

30. “烟台军转干部要求在十七大反映专业后困境” (“Yantai 

zhuanye ganbu seek to express their post-demobilization plight at 

the 17th NPC”), Radio Free Asia, August 23, 2007. 

31. “全国162,183 名军队转业干部状告人事部起诉状” (“A 

lawsuit filed by 162,183 zhuanye ganbu from around the country 

against the Human Resources Ministry”), available from blog.

boxun.com/hero/201106/voiceofveteran/14_1.shtml. For another class 

action lawsuit (rejected on the grounds of jurisdiction in ALL 

cases) in Hubei, filed in the Provincial Supreme Court by 6,823 

veteran officers, see “关于湖北省最高人民法院拒收湖北省6823

名企业专业干部状告人保部诉状的情况简报” (“Situation report 

about Hubei Supreme Court’s refusal to accept the lawsuit filed 

by 6,823 zhuanye ganbu in industry against the Human Resources 

Ministry”), available from blog.boxun.com/hero/201107/voiceofveteran/19_1.shtml.

32. Available from www.thegreatwall.com.cn/public/index.

php?C_ID=33835&B_ID=11174&action=C_edit.

33. “Call for Army to Fight Graft,” February 23, 2012.

34. “退伍军人和专业士官致湖南省委” (“Veterans and zhuanye

soldiers and officers went to the Hunan Party Committee”), available from blog.boxun.com/hero/201106/voiceofveteran/19_1.shtml.

35. I have conducted a Boolean search of the CNKI database of 

the PRC press (the largest in the world) for 退伍军人上访/复原军

人上访 (veterans petitioning) and come up almost empty handed.

36. See n.a. “徐州市第二届道德模范候选人事迹公示” (“Announcement of the deeds of Xuzhou’s second round of candidates 

for models of moral behavior”) Xuzhou ribao, February 10, 2011. 

37. See n.a. “推进双拥优抚安置工作” (“Advance the “Two 

Supports”—preferential treatment for military dependents and 

martyr families and veteran resettlement”), Xuancheng ribao, 

February 26, 2008. 
396

38. See n.a. “我区双拥共建工作” (“My district’s ‘mutual 

support’ work”), available from www.dxalrb.com/news_view.

asp?newsID=15052.

39. “海口市民政局关于做好’两会’期间复原退伍军人维稳工作

的紧急通知” (“Urgent notification of the Haikou City, Bureau of 

Civil Affairs regarding stability maintenance work among veterans during the national congresses”) available from www.haikou.

gov.cn/root9/0112/201202/t20120229_469810.htm. For a similar 

document issued by the Public Security Bureau of the Zhanjiang 

border district in Guangdong, see “广东湛江边防支队辖区352名

越战退伍军人连续三年零上访” (“352 veterans from the Zhenjiang 

Border Control Detachment area of control have been petititioning for three consecutive years”) available from www.mps.gov.cn/

n16/n80254/n1126657/2388971.html. According to this report, this 

area had 352 veterans, largely from the Vietnam War. Seventyfour percent of the veterans were farmers. In 2005 and 2006, they 

petitioned on 16 separate occasions, and in May 2006, 20 went to 

Beijing and quietly sat in Tiananmen Square. 

40. “Veterans Protest Over Welfare,” Radio Free Asia, June 

29, 2011.

41. “成都七名对越参战老兵喝茶被抓” (“Seven old Vietnam 

veterans from Chengdu were detained while drinking tea”), 

available from blog.boxun.com/hero/201106/voiceofveteran/7_1.shtml. 

42. “Call for Army to Fight Graft,” Radio Free Asia, February 

23, 2012.

43. The .jpg document was copied to the Voice of Veterans 

site from “Military Spirit.” See “深圳参战老兵遭遇强折有家难归” 

(“Old combat veterans from Shenzhen were forcibly returned 

home”), available from blog.boxun.com/hero/201106/voiceofveteran/5_1.shtml.

44. See “四川省德阳市中江县下岗伤残军人被当地政府镇压

殴打” (“Unemployed disabled veterans beaten and repressed by 

local government officials in Zhongjiang county, Deyang City, 

Sichuan”), available from blog.boxun.com/hero/201106/voiceofveteran/13_1.shtml. 
397

45. This security firm has since been shut down, perhaps because of these officers’ connections, after exposes in Caijing and 

Southern Metropolitan Daily. See Andrew Jacobs, “China Investigates Firm Linked to ‘Black Jails’,” New York Times, September 

27, 2010.

46. See Liu Wei, Can Mou, and Ma Zengfei (刘维, 参谋, 马

增飞): “征兵工作面临的矛盾问题及对策思考,” (“Problems in Recruitment Work and Thoughts about Countermeasures”), Guofang (National Defense), No. 5, 2011, pp. 22-23.

47. The official view of Japan’s foreign policy is articulated 

in the State Council’s Information Office’s “The Diversified Employment of China’s Armed Forces,” April 2013. “Japan is making trouble over the issue of the Diaoyu Islands.” The United 

States was not mentioned by name, but was accused to increasing tensions in the region by strengthening its military alliances and expanding its presence in the region. See eng.mod.gov.cn/

TopNews/2013-04/16/content_4442750.htm.

399

CHAPTER 10

TOWARD STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP:

CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY PEOPLE’S 

LIBERATION ARMY RELATIONS 

IN THE HU ERA

Timothy R. Heath

The views expressed by this author are his own and do 

not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of 

the U.S. Pacific Command, the Department of Defense, 

or the United States Government.

The author would like to recognize John Corbett for 

serving as discussant and for his invaluable help in 

reviewing drafts of this chapter. The author is also 

grateful for insightful comments from Chad Sbragia, 

Lonnie Henley, Michael Chase, and Paul Mancinelli.

MAIN ARGUMENT

The CCP’s decision to define itself as a “governing 

party” at the start of the Hu Jintao era represented a 

critical shift in the dynamics underpinning the party’s 

leadership of the military. During the era of Hu Jintao, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) deepened 

reforms that bolstered its ability to lead a professionalizing military. The reforms aimed to strengthen the 

CCP as an organization, render party-military relations more functional and resilient, and improve the 

CCP’s ability to provide strategic leadership. These 

changes have enabled a greater degree of dynamism 

and flexibility in the CCP’s leadership of the People’s 

Liberation Army (PLA). However, the reforms have 

also encouraged a fragmentation of party authority 
400

along national and military lines. This fragmentation 

of authority, exacerbated by the persistence of weak 

state and military institutions and the CCP’s overall 

political vulnerabilities, introduces new challenges to 

ensuring party leadership of the military.

POLICY IMPLICATIONS

• Reforms designed to improve the effectiveness 

of party leadership without surrendering control of the military are likely to continue under 

Xi’s CCP leadership. These reforms have resulted in a more flexible, competent CCP regime 

capable of leading the military’s peacetime activities. So long as the CCP continues to make 

necessary adjustments to its leadership style, 

the PLA has considerable room to grow as a 

professional force even as it remains a partyled military.

• The long-term survival of the PLA as a partyled military, however, is less clear. The longterm prospects for the party’s evolving style 

of leadership ultimately depends on the CCP’s 

willingness to adopt changes that touch on fundamental principles of Leninist rule, such as 

measures that limit party penetration and control of all organizations.

• Despite the reforms, the PLA continues to suffer from the CCP’s broader problems of political weakness and fragmentation of authority. 

These vulnerabilities are likely to exacerbate 

problems of command and control in unanticipated situations. Understanding the complexity of the relationship between national CCP 

and PLA leadership can help U.S. policymakers 
401

navigate security-related foreign policy crises 

with Beijing.

INTRODUCTION

The role of party leadership in the reform-era PLA 

has been analyzed from many perspectives. Some 

scholars have explored the challenge that a professionalizing PLA has posed to traditional mechanisms 

of party control.1 Others have noted the growing state 

presence, positing a party-state-military.2 Yet still others have studied party-military relations within the 

context of elite politics.3 Most of these studies agree 

that the PLA has evolved into a unique system featuring elements of both a political and professional 

military.4

However, as the CCP discards even the most basic 

tenets of Marxist orthodoxy in pursuit of a more flexible, pragmatic ideology, questions for the post-Mao 

PLA have gained a new sense of urgency. What does 

communist leadership of a military mean without the 

party’s commitment to communism? Can a political 

military operate apart from its original political identity? This chapter will argue that the CCP’s decision 

to define itself as a “governing party” at the start of 

the Hu Jintao era represented a critical shift in the 

dynamics underpinning the party’s leadership of the 

military. It will explore this shift by first providing an 

overview of party military relations and then highlighting elements of the PLA’s evolution in political 

identity. Turning to the Hu era, the chapter will argue 

that political reforms to improve the CCP’s political 

effectiveness have profoundly shaped the party-military relationship, creating a more flexible, dynamic 

form of leadership better suited to the needs of a rapidly modernizing PLA. However, the relationship 
402

carries significant vulnerabilities, stemming primarily 

from difficulties linked to the CCP’s incomplete transition to a more stable form of single party rule. 

OVERVIEW OF PARTY-MILITARY RELATIONS

The PLA serves the CCP. As such, it swears ultimate allegiance to the CCP, not to the state, although 

it serves simultaneously as the military of the People’s 

Republic of China (PRC). Authoritative writings in 

turn distinguish between the CCP’s political leadership and command authority. The PLA’s Regulations 

on Political Work explains, for example, that “ultimate 

leadership authority” rests with the CCP Central 

Committee, while “command authority” rests with 

the Party’s Central Military Commission (CMC).5

The distinction between the functions of the party’s national and military leadership is critical to understanding the PLA’s political nature. The largely 

civilian party leadership at the national level provides 

overall political and strategic guidance, while the military’s leadership provides leadership for the armed 

forces in accordance with the will of the national leadership. A brief review of both levels of leadership may 

help illuminate how the two interact. 

National CCP Leadership. 

The CCP is organized along Leninist principles, 

one of the most important of which is the idea of party 

penetration of organizations. The CCP exists primarily as an extensive network of hierarchically organized 

political organs, or cells, that are embedded in, and 

control, decisionmaking for virtually all major social, 

economic, political, cultural, and military organiza-
403

tions in the Chinese polity, to include state bureaucracies, and nonofficial organizations. The party organs 

typically consist of the most important decisionmakers 

in their respective organizations and are designed to 

ensure that political, organizational, and operational 

decisions are consistent with the directives of the national leadership. Notoriously stovepiped, the Party’s 

various systems are functionally integrated primarily 

at the highest levels.6

In theory, the highest level of national party leadership is the National Party Congress, which meets every 5 years. The CCP Constitution delegates authority 

between congresses to the Central Committee, which 

serves as the primary leadership body.7 In reality, the 

Central Committee delegates day-to-day authority 

to the Political Bureau, within which resides the supremely powerful Political Bureau Standing Committee (PBSC). Each of these bodies plays a specialized 

role in approving authoritative documents, issuing 

guidance, and providing leadership.8 For this reason, 

this chapter will invoke the term “CCP national leadership” to refer primarily to the PBSC, but with the 

awareness that the Politburo, Central Committee, and 

National Party Congress augment and complement 

the authority and power of the PBSC and are integral 

parts of the Party’s national level leadership as well. 

Military Leadership.

The PLA’s political system is designed to ensure 

the military reliably executes the will of the CCP national leadership. While not all PLA members are 

CCP members, all officers and other important decisionmakers belong to the party. The most important 

leadership body in the military is the party’s CMC, 
404

which also serves as the duplicate, largely redundant, 

state CMC. However, the primacy of party leadership 

is echoed throughout the military. All military units 

are penetrated and controlled by party organizations. Party committees (党委) supervise higher level 

commands, while party branches (党支部) supervise 

lower level ones. These organizations exercise political, organizational, and operational authority within 

PLA units.

Mirroring its operation throughout the Chinese 

polity, the military’s party organizations consist of the 

most important decision-makers such as commanders, technicians, and specialists in the party’s work 

(called “political workers”). The PLA’s political workers play an especially important role in cultivating the 

military’s loyalty to the Party through indoctrination, 

propaganda, training, and the control of promotion 

and other benefits. However, it is worth highlighting 

that these political workers are not inserted into the 

PLA from outside by CCP authorities—instead, they 

are trained professionals drawn from the ranks of the 

military.9

The fact that party leadership in the PLA is largely 

identical to the military’s leadership raises the critical 

question of loyalty. How does the CCP national leadership ensure that military leaders are loyal, above all, 

to the CCP, and only secondarily to the military as an 

institution? The answer traditionally has rested in the 

PLA’s identity as a political military focused on political goals. The system of Party leadership that suffuses the PLA was originally designed to support a 

communist party committed to a program of political 

revolution. A program of political revolution, after all, 

provided the most compelling justification for political leadership of the military. The premium on politi-
405

cal skill and expertise necessary to realize revolutionary goals also bolstered the authority of party leaders. 

While the form of the PLA as a political military has 

remained largely consistent over time, the CCP’s 

gradual turn away from revolutionary politics toward 

a more pragmatic stance has profoundly shaped the 

content of its authority within the PLA. A full history 

of China’s party-military relationship is beyond the 

scope of this chapter, but a brief summary may provide a sense of the evolution. 

In the era of Mao Zedong, the CCP’s commitment 

to revolutionary ideals and Maoist ideology shaped 

a highly politicized military that strongly resembled 

the classic model for communistic militaries. The PLA 

intervened in domestic politics and in turn national 

CCP leaders tried to shape the military to conform 

to communist ideals. The leadership of this era was 

characterized by the thorough interpenetration of political and military elites, with many military leaders 

having extensive experience with political revolution, 

and many political leaders having extensive military 

experience.10

As Deng Xiaoping led the CCP away from the excesses of Maoism and toward reform and opening up, 

he set the PLA onto a path of modernization. However, 

reflecting the low level of institutionalization and technical competence of Party officials, the PLA’s overall 

institutions and standards of professional competence 

remained low compared to industrialized countries. 

The PLA occasionally intervened in domestic politics, 

as it did in Tiananmen in 1989. Again mirroring the 

CCP’s focus on rapid economic growth, the PLA immersed itself in commercial activities to contribute 

to that growth. The “interlocking directorate” faded 

with the death of so many aging revolutionaries, but 
406

Deng remained at the nexus of the party and military 

leadership.11

Following Deng’s passing, Jiang Zemin consolidated the trend in both the CCP writ large and the 

PLA toward greater technical competence, specialization, and commitment to modernization. Jiang led the 

CCP leadership to enact further market reforms and 

improve its professional competence as governing authorities. Concurrently, the PLA focused on external 

responsibilities and professional development, ended 

its commercial focus, and reduced further its tendency 

to intervene in domestic politics. Although rule of law 

remained weak, the CCP leadership at various levels 

made initial efforts to delimit and institutionalize its 

political authority, developments which the military 

replicated in its own domain. The interlocking directorate disappeared by this time, as Jiang became the 

first CMC chair to lack military experience and the 

PLA uniformed presence on the senior decisionmaking bodies declined.12

This brief discussion illustrates two important 

trends. First, the CCP’s declining interest in revolutionary politics over time has corresponded with the 

PLA’s declining requirement to support revolutionary 

political activity. Second, the CCP’s growing focus on 

developing professional competence in governance 

has similarly corresponded with the PLA’s growing 

requirement to cultivate professional competence. 

The link in the trends between the CCP and PLA is 

not surprising, given the fact that the PLA exists as 

a subordinate “armed wing” of the CCP. However, 

these trends do raise questions about the conventional 

understanding of party-military relations in China, a 

relationship that has only grown more complex following key political developments in the Hu era. 
407

CCP-PLA RELATIONS IN THE HU ERA: 

POLITICAL CONTEXT

On the eve of Hu’s accession to the post of General Secretary, the CCP leadership made a momentous 

decision. It adopted a new conceptual framework, or 

paradigm, that conclusively relegated the idea of the 

CCP as a revolutionary party to the dustbin of history. 

The 16th Party Congress Work Report, issued in 2002, 

became the first to state that the CCP now regarded 

itself as a “governing party” (“执政党”) oriented toward addressing the public’s “fundamental interests” 

(“基本利益”).13

In some ways, this decision clarified and refined 

the idea, evident in the preceding party congress 

work report, that reform and opening up policies represented a turn toward a more “scientific” approach 

to realizing communism through incremental, pragmatic adjustments.14 At a deeper level, however, it 

represented a decisive turn away from the lingering 

remnants of communist idealism to which the Party 

leadership remains committed in name only. In defining “socialism” as the “management and realization 

of the interests of the people and nation,” the CCP 

has instead embraced a functionalist view that shares 

more in common with advanced (capitalist) industrial 

nations than communist states. In many ways, this 

new conceptual framework provides a firmer intellectual foundation for the Party’s ambition to evolve into 

a higher level of technical competence. For this reason, 

this decision was arguably the Party’s most important 

since it adopted a political and ideological stance amenable to reform and opening up at the Third Plenum 

of the 11th Party Congress in 1978. 
408

The significance of the CCP’s adoption of the governing party paradigm may be seen in the way that 

its adoption has coincided with political reforms designed to gradually rationalize virtually all Party functions. The purpose behind the party’s political reforms 

may be summarized as the transformation of the CCP 

into a stable, competent, rational bureaucratic actor 

capable of effectively governing an increasingly 

powerful, technologically advanced, prosperous nation with global interests. 

The concept of “rationalization” is an important one and requires definition. This term refers to 

the transformation of a process, activity, or system 

of thought characterized by increased functionality, 

effectiveness, and efficiency in accordance with rationally defined objectives. The concept emphasizes 

qualities of standardization, predictability, systematization, and scientific control. Although the Chinese do 

not use the word “rationalization,” they do use terms 

that collectively evoke this concept, such as “scientific 

management” (“科学管理”), “system building” (“体系

建设”), “regularization” (“正规化”), and “institutionalization” (“制度化”).15

While an evaluation of political reforms in line 

with this paradigm is beyond the scope of this chapter, a few highlights may illustrate the trend. During 

the Hu era, the CCP sought to strengthen itself as an 

organization through efforts to institutionalize procedures, improve recruitment and training of personnel, 

and other measures.16 It sought to clarify and rationalize the CCP’s relationship with the state and society, 

primarily through the promulgation of party and state 

laws and regulations, implementation of norms for 

terms of service, and the strengthening of state institutions.Lastly, the regime sought to enhance its ability 
409

to deliver strategic leadership by systematizing and 

rationalizing its ideology to better serve the needs of 

policymaking.17

Despite difficulties in implementation, the reforms 

have succeeded enough to enable the CCP national 

leadership to guide China’s growth in a complex era of 

globalization. The leadership has successfully guided 

the nation’s economy to become the second largest in 

the world, one thoroughly integrated with the global 

economy.18 This period has also coincided with considerable stability in elite politics. Although the CCP 

relies heavily on a massive state security apparatus to 

maintain stability, it has made incremental progress 

in increasing the flexibility with which it handles domestic problems, as evidenced by its handling of the 

unrest in Wukan in 2010.19 Such rapid growth has generated a variety of intense domestic pressures, but the 

CCP’s position nevertheless does not seem seriously 

threatened. Even accounting for the Bo Xilai contretemps, the regime seems secure. 

However, the adoption of the governing party 

paradigm is not without perils. The extensive corruption pervading the regime is symptomatic of deeper 

problems of ideological demoralization and the inadequacy of state institutions independent of party 

control that are necessary for effective governance. 

Caught in a transition between a discredited Maoist past and the possibility of a more stable political 

system, the CCP remains politically vulnerable. It carries all the baggage associated with the disasters of 

Maoism but with little of the legitimacy that could be 

gained by successful transition to a more stable model 

of competent governance. While the CCP’s successes 

in realizing three decades of growth may have earned 

it a credit of goodwill among the public, without sus-
410

tained progress in reforms, shortfalls in performance 

could generate systemic crisis. 

REFORMING THE PLA’S POLITICAL 

LEADERSHIP

These political reforms have deeply influenced 

the party’s leadership of the military. With the CCP’s 

“political” mission now defined in terms of the management of the nation’s interests, the military by definition is becoming one whose primary responsibility 

concerns the nation’s interests. Put another way, the 

PLA is evolving into the functional equivalent of a 

modern, national military even as it remains one organized along Leninist principles. However, the military’s Leninist features are not unaffected by this 

process. The modernization of the military, like the 

modernization of the governing apparatus, requires 

a “modernization” of the CCP’s Leninist structure in 

order for the party to maintain power. The key political innovation in the late Jiang and Hu eras is the 

CCP’s adaptation of its Leninist structure to more effectively accommodate, and guide, the modernization 

of the state, economy, society, and the military. 

The process by which the party is carrying out this 

adaptation with regard to the military consists of reforms to: 1) strengthen the Party as an organization 

within the military; 2) rationalize the CCP’s relationship with the PLA; and 3) improve the CCP’s ability 

to provide strategic leadership to the military. Each of 

these lines of effort is explored in greater detail below.
411

Strengthen the Party Organization in the PLA.

As part of the broader effort to revitalize the Party, 

the military’s leadership, led by the CMC, has pursued 

measures to strengthen party authority in the PLA by 

deepening efforts to: 1) carry out political campaigns 

to enhance party cohesion; 2) improve the quality of 

CCP personnel in the PLA; 3) rebuild ties with the 

rank and file; and 4) control corruption. 

Carry Out Political Campaigns. 

The CMC duly carried out its responsibilities 

as part of the broader Advanced Nature campaign 

launched by the Central Committee to strengthen 

internal cohesion and align the CCP with the new 

requirements as a governing party.20 Within the military, the Advanced Nature campaign concluded with 

the issuance of an Opinion by the General Political 

Department (GPD) aimed at consolidating gains from 

the campaign. The GPD introduced specific provisions 

outlining the objectives, requirements, and the main 

content for training, as well as measures to strengthen 

organizational leadership. The GPD also aligned performance reviews of party cadres to accord with the 

frequent turnover of most military positions.21

Improve Quality of Party Members in the PLA. 

Party leaders within the military have revised 

regulations to improve the quality of its membership. 

In March 2004, the CMC issued the second revision 

to the Regulations on Party Member Recruitment by PLA 

Party Organizations. The purpose was to increase the 

professional quality of members and standardize pro-
412

cedures for recruitment.22 In February 2009, the GPD 

issued regulations to standardize the process by which 

party cadres are recruited and employed. It outlined 

procedures, steps, and measures for the selection and 

promotion and nominations of cadres, solicitation of 

popular feedback, and procedures for relevant decisionmaking at party committee meetings, including 

for ballot voting.23 The PLA has also established a 

broad variety of recruitment programs at college campuses and other venues to increase the quality of officers and technical personnel.24

The military has announced new training initiatives to improve the quality of personnel in line with 

the PLA’s desire for leaders and technicians capable 

of fighting and winning hi-tech war. Military topics are increasingly common for training party leaders. As one example, in 2010 the GPD announced a 

3-year study plan for senior and mid-ranking cadres 

to enhance both political and professional military 

education.25

Rebuild Ties with Rank and File. 

The military leadership has increased efforts to 

shore up the CCP’s relationship with the rank and file. 

In 2005, the CMC issued its first set of regulations on 

Party branches. Designed to enhance the connection 

of the Party to troops, the regulations standardized 

guidance on the organization, responsibilities, and 

tasks of the party branches. The CMC also outlined requirements for Party committees to carry out face-toface meetings with the rank and file to better address 

their concerns.26
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Control Corruption. 

Corruption throughout the period remained a festering problem, as witnessed by the downfall of PLA 

Navy Deputy Commander Wang Shouye in 2006.27

To combat corruption, the CMC in 2010 issued the 

first set of regulations standardizing the work of the 

Discipline Inspection Commission. The regulations 

reportedly stipulate requirements for membership, 

procedures, and specific responsibilities for commission members.28 The CMC has also issued regulations 

to more tightly govern the behavior of its members 

within the military. In 2011, it issued a military version of the Party’s regulations on the ethical integrity 

of its leaders. The regulations prohibit officials from 

accepting gifts, feasts, or other entertainment or arrangements that could impair the ability of the official 

to carry out his duties impartially.29 Pending dramatic 

progress in the CCP’s overall effort to control corruption, however, it remains unclear how much impact 

these regulations have had.

Assessment.

The PLA has enjoyed incremental progress in its 

efforts to strengthen the CCP as an organization within the military. Indirect evidence of improved party 

leadership may be seen in the anecdotal reports of 

progress in restoring morale and discipline following 

the political strife characteristic of the last Jiang years. 

Reports of widespread PLA indiscipline, demoralization, and declining proficiency common in Hong 

Kong press in the late-1990s had diminished considerably by the end of Hu’s tenure, probably reflecting 

better leadership, as well as improved conditions of 
414

service.30 Western scholars have noted some progress 

in Chinese efforts to improve the quality of training 

and recruitment of party/military cadres and personnel overall, but evidence of success in meeting all of 

the PLA’s objectives remains less clear.31 However, reporting suggests limited progress in the PLA’s efforts 

to control corruption.32 Moreover, the reforms have 

only somewhat mitigated the CCP’s broader problems 

of political atrophy.33

Rationalize Party-Military Relations.

Just as the CCP has carried out reforms to render 

more functional and efficient its leadership of the state 

and society, the PLA’s leadership has initiated reforms in the military to: 1) strengthen the role of party 

leadership bodies in the PLA; 2) focus party work to 

enhance the military’s combat effectiveness; and 3) 

regularize party activities.

Strengthen the Role of Party Leadership Bodies. 

As organizations comprising the most essential decisionmakers in any military unit, party committees 

and branches have emerged as especially crucial tools 

to maintain party leadership. To enhance the leadership role of party committees, the CMC has promoted 

the standardization of its activities and better recruitment. Regulations revised in 2011 delineated the 

responsibilities of party committees, standing committees, secretaries, and members. The regulations 

outline procedures and principles for decisionmaking, 

holding meetings, and the formulation of resolutions. 

Mirroring the CCP’s focus on professional elites, PLA 

party committees now recruit heavily from military 

professionals and technical experts.34
415

An article in a PLA newspaper illustrates how 

the party committees guide efforts to improve the 

military’s performance. In response to problems with 

carrying out joint training, a party committee in Nanjing’s air force developed a mechanism for carrying 

out system-wide force-on-force exercises. The party 

committee also organized various elements such as 

command and information systems to improve the 

effectiveness of operational units.35 The military also 

relies on party committees to oversee operational and 

technical commands. In the escort missions in the Gulf 

of Aden, the PLA appointed political commissars and 

set up ad hoc party committees. For technical tasks 

such as weapons development, the party committee 

drew from “leading commands at high levels, manufacturers, technical personnel, and tasked units” to 

exercise “concentrated and unified leadership.”36

Focus Party Work to Enhance the 

Military’s Combat Effectiveness. 

The CCP’s abandonment of revolutionary politics 

has severely weakened the traditional rationale for the 

PLA’s political commissars, party organs, and propaganda machinery. The PLA has responded to this 

development by repurposing many of these instruments to support the military’s focus on combat effectiveness. The political workers now provide services 

to enhance morale and welfare, personnel administration and other combat service support to military 

units. The PLA continues to undergo political training, but the content of that training has increasingly 

featured practical and military-related topics.37

The CMC has directed many other aspects of its 

political work to support military modernization and 
416

operations. The 2003 revision to Political Work in the 

PLA explicitly focused political work to build a military capable of winning hi-tech warfare. The regulations expanded sections on activities to enhance the 

combat function of political work, such as “public 

opinion, psychological, and legal warfare” as well as 

activities to “nurture the fighting spirit of the armed 

forces.”38

Regularize Party Activities. 

Party leaders within the military have introduced 

a series of regulations to standardize virtually all 

CCP activities in the military. Regarding personnel, the military’s Party leadership has standardized 

routine promotion and retirement procedures of key 

Party leaders, including those in the CMC since at 

least 1997.39 Norms have been introduced for military 

members who participate in Party congresses.40 Party 

leaders within the military have begun to standardize decisionmaking procedures. In 2004, the CMC issued regulations for party committees that outlined 

procedures for decisionmaking, voting, filing reports, 

and holding meetings.41 The Political Work Regulations

similarly strengthened provisions for discipline and 

inspection organs, and standardized the frequency 

and timeliness of reporting requirements within lower 

level party units.42

Assessment. 

The CCP has seen incremental progress in its effort 

to rationalize its authority within the military. Despite 

prolific publication of regulations, the persistence of 

corruption and other abuses suggests that enforce-
417

ment remains inconsistent at best. The weak leadership ability of the noncommissioned officer (NCO) 

corps suggests the PLA continues to struggle with 

sustaining institutions capable of exercising decisionmaking power free from party interference.43 However, there appears to be some progress in institutionalizing norms for personnel actions, as seen in the 

increasingly predictable patterns for retirement and 

promotion.44 Moreover, the overall increased technical competence and capabilities of the PLA suggest 

that the military has succeeded in standardizing and 

regularizing many activities related to modernization 

and operations. 

Enhance Ability to Provide Strategic Guidance.

A critical ingredient of the party’s effort to improve its leadership of the PLA consists of reforms to 

improve the CCP’s ability to provide strategic leadership. Party leaders at the national level and within 

the military have introduced reforms designed to enhance the ability to formulate, implement, and enforce 

strategic guidance to the military. Of these, the most 

important are: 1) the formulation of the historic missions concept, 2) the rationalization of Party theory to 

guide modernization and operations, and 3) measures 

to ensure compliance.

Historic Missions of the Armed Forces. 

The significance of the concept for party-military 

relations is three-fold. First, it aligns the military’s fundamental missions with the party’s. Second, it explicitly aligns the military’s political posture to support 

the governing party paradigm. Third, it represents the 

overall trend toward the rationalization of ideology. 
418

Hu Jintao issued the historic missions in 2004, 

roughly 7 years after the 15th Party Congress identified the CCP’s “historic tasks” in 1997 as “propelling 

the modernization drive, achieving reunification, and 

promoting world peace.”45 Political considerations 

likely drove the delay. Before issuing the new missions 

to the PLA, party leaders first had to gain consensus 

on the question of whether to adopt the theoretical 

concepts and political reforms associated with the 

governing party paradigm, such as the authorization 

of CCP membership to capitalists, entrepreneurs, and 

other business and technical elites. Reporting at the 

time described considerable resistance, from mostly 

leftist party leaders, to the many of the political and 

ideological reforms promoted by Jiang Zemin. It took 

years of political work, to include purges and other 

disciplinary measures, to overcome the leftist opposition and secure consensus within the party leadership 

to carry out the political and ideological reforms.46

The CCP leadership achieved this consensus by 

the time of the 16th Party Congress in 2002, when it 

endorsed the Three Represents concept, a key theoretical idea that justified and underpinned the governing 

party paradigm. Political sensitivities surrounding 

the leadership transition probably further delayed the 

issuance of additional important strategic concepts, 

such as the historic missions, until after Hu had assumed control of the military in September 2004. By 

December, however, Hu had consolidated his control 

over the military enough to issue the historic missions. 

Formally known as the “historic missions of the armed 

forces in the new century in the new period,” these 

consist of four requirements: 1) “provide a security 

guarantee for the CCP to consolidate its governing position;” 2) “provide a security guarantee for the period 
419

of strategic opportunity;” 3) “provide strong strategic 

support for the defense of national interests;” and 4) 

“play an important role in bringing about world peace 

and common development.”47

These military missions support and expand on the 

Party’s historic tasks, reflecting the fruit of additional 

analysis during the intervening years. For example, 

the military’s second mission provides a broad expansion of the Party’s first task of “propelling modernization.” For the military, this appears to require the PLA 

to provide a stable internal and external security environment that can enable the CCP’s focus on national 

development. 

The military’s third mission expands on the Party 

task of achieving reunification by directing the military to support the Party’s effort to secure a much 

broader array of interests, including contested territorial and sovereignty claims, and other security and 

economic interests beyond PRC borders. However, 

the fact that this concept is built around the CCP’s imperative to achieve reunification suggests that this remains the paramount security priority for the military 

as well. The fourth mission, meanwhile, directly supports the Party’s task of promoting world peace and 

common development, which may be understood to 

mean shaping a favorable international environment 

for China’s rise.

The only mission of the PLA that does not directly 

support a Party historic task is the first one; that of 

providing a security guarantee for the Party to consolidate its governing position. The significance of 

this mission is several-fold. Most obviously, this mission tasks the military with defeating efforts by all 

enemies, foreign and domestic, who may threaten the 

Party and its efforts to govern China. However, the 
420

mission is also carefully phrased to ensure the military’s support for the CCP national leadership’s focus 

on improving its governing capacity. It thus carries 

the unstated political corollary that rules out military 

support for disaffected elements within the Party that 

reject the governing party paradigm. 

Finally, the historic missions concept is another example of the Party’s increasingly scientific functional 

system of ideological strategic concepts that guide policymaking. The historic missions is a major element of 

the Party’s military guiding theory and adds a degree 

of consistency of language and clarity of thought not 

observed in functional equivalents issued by previous 

leaders. 

Party’s Military Guiding Theory. 

Party leadership within the military has sought to 

reform its ideology to facilitate its strategic leadership 

within the military through the formulation of a military guiding theory. The Party’s military guiding theory aims to provide authoritative theoretical guidance 

for the most significant aspects of military life, such 

as its mission, doctrine, and modernization. It consists 

of the study of the laws and guiding patterns of warfare and national defense as expounded by Marx, and 

refined by Engels, Lenin, and CCP leadership led by 

Mao, Deng, Jiang, and Hu. The theory also includes 

ideas and concepts drawn from analysis of foreign 

militaries, historical developments, and military science research. The PLA completed a major research 

project that systematized the Party’s military guiding 

theory in 2005.48
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Mechanisms for Compliance. 

The CMC’s main mechanism for ensuring the compliance of military policies with the party’s strategic 

guidance consists of regulations and administrative 

measures to hold cadres accountable. A key mechanism is the requirement that all relevant laws, policies, 

and regulations be revised as necessary to conform to 

the strategic guidance following any major changes to 

the Party’s Marxist theory. This pattern can be seen 

in the revision of virtually all forms of political work 

regulations following the 16th Congress, which incorporated the Three Represents into its theory, and the 

17th Congress, which adopted the Scientific Development Concept.49 

Party leadership in the military has also enacted 

administrative procedures to enforce compliance. It 

has implemented a cadre assessment and evaluation 

procedures similar to their nonmilitary counterparts. 

Party committees play an especially important role 

in overseeing implementation through meetings designed to hold officials accountable. The CMC also 

employs traditional mechanisms such as indoctrination, study sessions, and propaganda to promote military’s compliance with party guidance.50

Assessment. 

Reforms have improved the regime’s ability to provide strategic leadership, but also exacerbated political vulnerabilities. In systematizing and rationalizing 

its ideology, the CCP leadership reinvigorated its political theory, shored up its faltering Marxist ideology, 

and improved the utility of the party’s political language for analyzing problems and articulating guid-
422

ance. The CCP’s delegation of more authority to bureaucratic systems such as the PLA has also enhanced 

its flexibility and effectiveness. Indirect evidence of 

successful adaptation may be seen in the CCP national 

leadership’s delegation of authority to military leaders 

who oversee operations far from Chinese soil, as seen 

in PLA participation in the many United Nations-led 

peacekeeping operations around the world. 

The rationalization of party ideology is not without drawbacks, however. The focus on a scientific, 

functional approach to its political theory detaches 

the CCP from its Marxist heritage and further erodes 

its political credibility. The CCP’s transformation of 

its ideology from a tool of mobilizing the population 

against privileged elites into one of mobilizing policymaking elites to manage the population undercuts 

the party’s mass appeal and further weakens its base 

of popular support. Finally, the persistent weakness 

of state and military institutions impedes the CCP’s 

ability to translate its guidance into consistent policy.

TOWARD A NEW UNDERSTANDING

OF PARTY-MILITARY RELATIONS 

The evolution of party-military relations can perhaps be illustrated by contrasting two versions of an 

analogy of driving and navigating a car. The earlymodel version represents the party-military relationship in the Mao era. Imagine a 1950s era car, which 

seats two persons: the passenger represents the party’s 

national leadership, while the driver represents the 

military’s leadership. The car is a primitive one characterized by minimal automation—this is the military. 

Although the driver and the navigator each has slightly more experience than the other in his respective du-
423

ties, both are fully capable of taking turns driving and 

navigating. The close relationship between the driver 

and passenger and low level of technical complexity 

of the car in the analogy evokes the Mao-era CCP’s 

focus on revolutionary politics, the interpenetration 

of national and military leadership, and the national 

leadership’s deep familiarity with the operational and 

tactical details of the low-tech PLA. The word “control” is appropriate to describe the party’s relationship to the military in this model, as the PLA in this 

era served primarily as a tool of the CCP’s political 

endeavors. 

A late-model version of the same analogy illustrates the advances that had appeared by the Hu era. 

This time, the car is high performance, highly automated, inhabited by a single occupant—the driver. 

However, the driver is only vaguely aware of the 

destination and route. He is instead guided to his 

destination via continuous wireless communications 

by a remote dispatcher. Moreover, the car is intelligent enough to feature a computer navigation aid 

that suggests possible routes, which the driver may 

negotiate with the dispatcher. Reflecting the specialization of party authority, the driver represents the 

military’s leadership, while the dispatcher represents 

the party’s national level leadership. The high performance, automated car represents the overall higher 

capabilities and technical sophistication of a modernizing military. Just as the dispatcher and driver in the 

illustration are primarily concerned with supervising 

and correctly steering the car, so the party’s national 

level and military leadership are primarily concerned 

with supervising and guiding the modernization and 

operational activities of the military. Here the word 

“leadership” seems a more appropriate term to de-
424

scribe the CCP’s role in the military. The military is a 

less simple tool than a semi-autonomous machine that 

is set in motion and guided by the watchful national 

and military leadership. 

The analogy gives some sense of the advantage and 

disadvantage of the evolving style of party leadership 

in the military. On the one hand, the increased technical expertise and rationalization of party authority 

offers the possibility of superior performance at the 

national level in terms of improved strategic planning 

and policymaking. It also offers the possibility of a 

superior military performance, in terms of enhanced 

operational capabilities. Properly managed, the CCP 

national leadership can wield the military as an instrument of policy to versatile ends far beyond the capabilities of a Mao era PLA. But the downside is clear as 

well—the national party leadership, further removed 

from the military, is less aware of its inner workings. 

The largely civilian national leadership today has less 

experience with the military at a time when the military is developing increasingly specialized technical 

capabilities and its own distinct professional culture. 

Moreover, the military’s professionalization exacerbates questions of loyalty and identity among military 

leaders. The PLA’s missions, weaponry, training, doctrine, uniforms, and organization all appear increasingly similar to that of other modern, national militaries. As professionalism continues, PLA personnel are 

likely to be tempted to view themselves primarily as 

military members who happen to belong to the party, 

rather than as party members who happen to serve in 

the military. 

The party’s adaptation of its Leninist structure to 

support and guide the military’s modernization defines the essence of the paradoxical professional polit-
425

ical military that is the PLA today. The process of adaptation is both proactive and reactive: the party both 

directs and guides the process of military modernization, and it also accommodates the PLA’s demands for 

standardized, consistent, competent authority generated by the process of military modernization. Three 

developments associated with this political transformation are worth highlighting: 1) the CCP’s changing 

locus of legitimacy as a driver of military professionalization; 2) the fragmentation of party authority; and 

3) the growing importance of institutions and the state 

for party leadership.

First, the shifting locus of legitimacy drives the 

CCP leadership’s demand for a professional military. 

The CCP national leadership’s increasing focus on 

the management of national interests as the locus of 

legitimacy drives its requirement for a professional, 

modern military capable of securing those interests. 

Far from subverting control, the professionalization 

of the PLA directly supports Beijing’s agenda. The 

CCP supports professionalization because the Party 

requires a PLA capable of defending a growing array of security interests essential for China’s rise as a 

great power. Moreover, the CCP’s pursuit of institutionalized political processes suggests that it no longer desires military intervention in domestic politics. 

Professionalization is attractive to the CCP national 

leadership precisely because it keeps the PLA focused 

on military, not political, topics. The PLA in turn supports the idea of the CCP’s development into a governing party because such reforms promise to result 

in a more stable, predictable, rational bureaucratic 

regime that can ensure social stability and prosperity, 

thus freeing the military from the need to intervene 

in domestic politics. A competent CCP regime is also 
426

more likely to be capable of resourcing and effectively 

guiding the PLA’s modernization. 

Second, party authority is fragmenting along bureaucratic lines. The party-military relationship increasingly features two levels of leadership united by 

the commitment to uphold Communist Party authority and its strategic objectives. While at a very general 

level this characterization may be said to have been 

true of the CCP-PLA relationship in the past, the driving focus on revolutionary politics and low level of 

technical specialization required of the PLA in earlier 

eras enabled a much higher degree of unity between 

party and military authority. 

The fragmentation of party authority along the 

lines of bureaucratic expertise has clarified over time. 

At the national level, the CCP leadership now oversees the formulation, dissemination, and implementation of strategic guidance for the nation. The CCP 

leadership also develops and refines the theoretical 

assessments and concepts that underpin its strategic 

guidance. The PLA leadership, meanwhile, focuses on 

formulating, disseminating, and implementing military related objectives and guidance to support the 

national leadership’s agenda. The PLA’s party leadership also develops and refines the security-related 

assessments and elaborates the military application of 

the party’s theoretical concepts. The two levels of party authority interact continually, with the CCP leadership providing top down guidance, and the PLA leadership providing expert input to refine that guidance. 

This specialization of authority offers several advantages to both national party and military leadership. Empowering military leaders to provide details 

on how to apply party concepts and guidance gives 

the military more of a stake in supporting the CCP 
427

national leadership’s agenda. It also allows the CCP 

national leadership to leverage expertise within the 

military for its ends. For the PLA, responsibility for 

elaborating the military application of party concepts 

and guidance offers an institutionalized mechanism 

to leverage party guidance to demand resources and 

influence policy.

Third, effective CCP leadership of the military 

increasingly hinges on the successful institutionalization of relations between party, military, and state. 

One of the most significant symptoms of the evolution of the party military relationship is the growing 

role of the state, as noted by many observers.51 Commentators have questioned the long-term viability of a 

robust state presence in the military, given the CCP’s 

fundamental Leninist inclination to penetrate, co-opt, 

and control all forms of authority and power. However, the CCP’s adoption of competent governance 

as the locus of its legitimacy has challenged the assumptions underpinning the traditional understanding of the Leninist features of CCP rule. Because the 

CCP’s evolving style of leadership is fundamentally 

premised on the rationalization of political processes, 

the most logical way for the CCP to consolidate its authority is to deepen the rationalization of its political 

power. Above all, this means the development and 

enforcement of party, state, and military laws, norms, 

and institutions to stabilize, standardize, and render 

more efficient decisionmaking and bureaucratic processes to facilitate the smooth operation of the party, 

state, and military. 

The CCP national leadership appears to have 

reached similar conclusions. Since as early as 2000, 

the CCP national leadership has increasingly emphasized the importance of creating a consistent, predict-
428

able, and fair system of party and state laws and institutions to sustain economic growth, facilitate social 

stability, and consolidate party rule. Similarly, over 

the past decade, the PLA has overseen an extensive 

growth in party and state laws, rules, and regulations 

aimed at enabling the party leadership to focus on a 

higher level of strategic leadership.52 As conceived 

by party leaders, the growth of institutions and state 

power complements the CCP’s evolution as a leadership body that specializes in formulating and enforcing strategic guidance. One Jiefangjun Bao article 

explained that “systems are more fundamental, comprehensive, stable, and long term. Building a system 

of party rules and regulations is of tremendous significance in ensuring the party’s absolute leadership 

over the military.”53 Similarly, the PLA has sought 

to strengthen military institutions such as the NCO 

corps to improve combat effectiveness.54 Ironically, 

the PLA’s continuation as a political military may well 

depend on the ability of the CCP to reduce further the 

political character of the military. 

CHALLENGES 

The CCP appears to have made sufficient adjustments to its overall political posture, ideology, and 

organization to enable it to lead the PLA effectively 

in its peacetime modernization activities for the foreseeable future. However, the PLA faces three major 

challenges in its pursuit of a more modern, competent 

style of political leadership. Obscured in peacetime, 

the vulnerabilities may be exacerbated in times of 

crisis. While none of these challenges are inherently 

insurmountable, effective resolution may require 

reforms that touch on the most basic principles of 

Leninist rule.
429

First, the fragmentation of party leadership opens 

areas of potential friction. The CCP’s abandonment 

of its revolutionary posture has improved its effectiveness and adaptability, but also removes the most 

compelling justification for the PLA’s automatic obedience. On the contrary, the CCP’s claim to base its 

legitimacy on competent performance as a governing 

party invites scrutiny by others, including the PLA. 

Moreover, because competent governance depends 

so heavily on specialized expertise, the CCP national 

leadership’s low level of military expertise makes 

security-related policy a key area of potential friction with the military. The well-known phenomena 

of PLA officers publicly airing their differences with 

security-related foreign policy decisions may be read 

as a symptom of this dynamic. Although evidence remains elusive that the PLA has had a decisive impact 

on any major foreign policy decision, these voices can 

shape the political environment in which China’s policymakers operate.55

This phenomenon is exacerbated by the fact that 

the PLA’s enhanced autonomy and cohesion has increased its insularity and bureaucratic power. At the 

national level, this has resulted in instances of poor 

policy coordination with other elements of the PRC 

government. The Hu years saw a spate of incidents 

such as the cancellation of a scheduled port call by the 

USS Kittyhawk in 2007, the anti-satellite test in 2007 

and the J-20 test in 2011. These incidents typically involved some military operation or activity that greatly 

impacted China’s strategic or foreign policy interests, 

often with what appears to be little coordination or 

even awareness by senior civil authorities.56 Because 

the military in each case did not challenge CCP authority, it would be inaccurate to characterize these 
430

events as examples of disobedience or defiance. It 

is perhaps more accurate to view these incidents as 

symptomatic of the military’s growing insularity and 

professional autonomy and the consequences of weak 

security expertise among national level party authorities. It also demonstrates that the PLA’s operations 

and activities are having a greater foreign policy impact than ever, due in part to the geographic reach of 

its more advanced platforms and China’s rising political profile. However, problems of coordination are not 

insurmountable. Indeed, there are signs that the CCP 

national leadership is already improving its coordination between the PLA and other bureaucracies.57

Second, the combination of the CCP’s political 

weakness and the PLA’s increased cohesion raises 

the risk of eroding military loyalty to the party. Widespread corruption, popular disaffection, and a heavy 

increase in internal security point to fundamental 

political weaknesses of the CCP that have persisted 

through the Hu years. Furthermore, China continues 

to lack strong state institutions which could help administer the military and mitigate some of the CCP’s 

weakness. Meanwhile, the PLA’s increased autonomy, 

cohesion, and professional competence has raised the 

military’s public reputation and morale. An increasingly powerful PLA operating under a weakened CCP 

within the confines of an obsolete model of Party-military relations is not a recipe for long-term stability. 

PLA commentators regularly hint at some level of 

tension between the military’s political leadership and 

the PLA’s modernization efforts. A typical commentary noted the gaps between the CCP’s capacities in 

the military and the military’s pursuit of modernization. It warned that resolving these gaps directly bears 

on the PLA’s ability to execute its missions. Among 
431

concerns cited in the article are problems of CCP organizational weakness, poor grasp of military topics, 

and corruption.58 The incessant drum beat in military 

press regarding the party’s absolute leadership of the 

military is similarly significant if for no other reason 

than that the military leadership apparently feels 

compelled to repeatedly and emphatically highlight 

this basic fact.59

The CCP’s political weakness, the lack of strong 

institutions, and the military’s cohesive semi-autonomy increases the risk that the military’s loyalty could 

erode over time. It is not inconceivable that leadership 

in the PLA may become co-opted by the military institution in some situations. Reports that Lieutenant 

General Gu Junshan resisted efforts by the national 

CCP leadership to impose discipline are a disturbing 

portent of possible troubles to come. Significantly, the 

reports stated that party authorities within the military failed to enforce discipline against the powerful 

general.60 The reported receptiveness of at least some 

in the military to Bo Xilai’s style of leadership similarly 

reflects the danger that a more cohesive military could 

pose if alienated from the national party leadership. 

While the number of troops involved appeared small 

and the threat easily contained, the danger of political disaffection within the PLA could grow should the 

CCP national leadership falter in its performance.61

Third, the persistent weakness of institutions undercuts the PLA’s transition to a more stable form 

of party leadership. The fact that the CCP has made 

so little progress in implementing a true rule of law 

and crafting viable institutions despite years of effort 

points to the immense challenge facing Beijing in its 

quest for a more stable model of one party rule. For all 

the progress that the CCP has made in improving its 
432

leadership style in society and the military, the transformation remains deeply incomplete. Symptomatic 

of the difficulties is the party’s continued heavy reliance on party committees to provide leadership and 

oversight of the many of even the most routine activities in the military. 

Having grasped the “low hanging fruit” of rationalizing less controversial procedures, rules, and 

norms, the PLA faces hard work ahead as it grapples 

with the more intractable problems such as controlling corruption and developing the mechanisms that 

can mediate the exercise of political power at the highest levels. Above all, the CCP’s insistence on maintaining accountability only to itself fundamentally 

undercuts efforts to promote institutionalization and 

rule of law in China’s polity and within the military. 

The 18th Party Congress Work Report’s highlighting 

of the importance of consolidating political institutions (制度) and systems (体系) suggests that authorities recognize the urgency of the problem.62 However, 

without major reforms that touch on the very nature 

of the Leninist structure of the party—especially the 

principle of party penetration and political control of 

all organizations—the PLA will continue to struggle 

to develop the institutions upon which its success as a 

professional military increasingly depends.

POLICY IMPLICATIONS

The analysis in this chapter suggests that the PLA 

has made the critical adjustments necessary to enable 

the party to confidently lead the peacetime modernization of the military for the foreseeable future. Because 

the reforms are designed to improve the effectiveness 

of party leadership without surrendering control, the 
433

CCP leadership led by Xi is likely to continue these 

reforms. However, the long-term success of this approach ultimately depends on the CCP’s willingness 

to adopt reforms that touch on some of the most fundamental principles of Leninist rule, especially the 

principle of party penetration and control of all organizations. This carries implications for dealing with 

the PLA in peacetime and for dealing with the Chinese leadership in crises. 

The fact that Hu made little progress in establishing a true rule of law and viable institutions should 

not obscure the military’s important political work in 

this period. Incremental progress toward the strengthening of the party as an organization, the standardization and institutionalization of the party’s role in 

the military, and the rationalization of party ideology 

to better accommodate bureaucratic imperatives have 

resulted in a more flexible, competent CCP regime 

capable of carrying out its primary responsibility of 

guiding and leading the military’s peacetime activities. So long as the CCP continues to make necessary 

adjustments to its leadership style, the PLA has considerable room to grow as a professional force even as 

it remains a party led military. 

However, the very adjustments that have improved 

the CCP’s ability to carry out long-term, peacetime 

strategic leadership of the military have opened vulnerabilities that could be exposed in moments of crisis. 

The party’s persistent political weakness, inadequacy 

of its rule of law and institutions, heavy reliance on 

antiquated systems such as the party committees for 

leadership, and the fragmentation of party authority 

are likely to exacerbate problems of command and 

control in unanticipated situations. In a security-related foreign policy crisis, U.S. policymakers may find 
434

conflicted and confused decisionmaking in Beijing. 

Understanding the difficulties inherent in the connection between PRC national level policymaking and its 

military could help policymakers more accurately interpret Chinese policy decisions in such a crisis.

ENDNOTES - CHAPTER 10

1. Ellis Joffe, “The Military and China’s New Politics: Trends 

and Counter-Trends,” James Mulvenon and Richard Yang, eds., 

The People’s Liberation Army in the Information Age, Santa Monica, 

CA: RAND 1999, pp. 22-47.

2. Andrew Scobell, “China’s Evolving Civil-Military Relations: Creeping Guojiahua,” Armed Forces and Society, Winter 2005, 

pp. 227-243.

3. Michael Swaine, The Role of the Chinese Military in National 

Security Policymaking, Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 1996.

4. Nan Li, “Chinese Civil-Military Relations in the Post-Deng 

Era,” China Maritime Studies, No. 4, Newport, RI: U.S. Naval War 

College, 2010.

5. “Revised ‘Regulations for Political Work for the People’s 

Liberation Army’,” 军队政治网 (www.allzq.com.cn), 2010. 

6. Kenneth Lieberthal, Governing China: From Revolution 

through Reform, New York: W. W. Norton, 1995, p. 171.

7. “中国共产党章程” (“Constitution of Chinese Communist 

Party”), 新华网 (www.xinhuanet.com), October 24, 2007.

8. Lieberthal, p. 177.

9. Dennis Blasko, The Chinese Army Today: Tradition and Transformation for the 21st Century, New York: Routledge, 2006, pp. 5-6.

10. Ellis Joffe, The Chinese Army After Mao, Cambridge, MA: 

Harvard University Press, 1987, p. 4.
435

11. Thomas Bickford, “A Retrospective on the Study of Chinese Civil-Military Relations Since 1979: What Have We Learned? 

Where Do We Go?” Seeking Truth From Facts, Santa Monica, CA: 

RAND, 2001. 

12. Frederick Teiwes, “Normal Politics with Chinese Characteristics,” The Nature of Chinese Politics from Mao to Jiang, Armonk, 

NY: M. . Sharpe 2002, p. 239; Thomas Bickford, “Regularization 

and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army,” Asian Survey, Vol. 40, 

No. 3, May-June 2000, pp. 456-474.

13. “中国共产党第十六次全国代表大会报道” (“Report to the 

16th National Party Congress”), “新华网” (www.xinhuanet.com), 

November 17, 2002.

14. “中国共产党第十五次全国代表大会报道” (“Report to the 

15th National Party Congress”), “新华网” (www.xinhuanet.com), 

September 21, 1997.

15. These terms are often seen in key guiding party documents, such as the party congress work reports or the PRC Defense 

White Papers.

16. David Shambaugh, China’s Communist Party: Atrophy and 

Adaptation, Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Press, 2008, p. 142.

17. Zhao Cheng, Li Bin, and Liu Zheng, “Five Years of Glory 

and Five Years of Progress—Experts Interpret Major Events Since 

the 16th CCP National Congress,” Xinhua, Ontario Securities 

Commission (OSC) CPP20071009136011, October 9, 1997, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

18. “China Overtakes Japan to become Second Largest Economy,” BBC, February 14, 2011. 

19. Chris Buckley, “China Official Says Wukan Protest Shows 

Rights Demands on the Rise,” Reuters, December 26, 2012. 

20. Ding Haiming (丁海明), “郭伯雄曹刚川徐才厚分别召开

座谈会听取对中央军委 工作的意见和建议” (“Guo Boxiong, Cao 

Gangchuan, Cu Xaihou Hold Forums Respectively to Listen to 

Views and Suggestions on the Work of the Central Military Commission”), “解放军报” (PLA Daily), March 1, 2005.
436

21. Sai Zangbao (“赛宗宝”), “大力推进军队党的先进性建设” 

(“Give Strong Impetus to Building the Party’s Advanced Nature 

in the Military”), 解放军报 (PLA Daily), August 17, 2006.

22. Tang Wu (唐武) and Sai Zangbao (赛宗宝), 从源头上保

证党员队伍的先进性纯洁性 (“Ensure Party Member Units Retain Advanced and Pure Nature”), 解放军报 (PLA Daily), March 

9, 2004.

23. Zhang Jianguo (“张建国”), “总政印发军队干部选拔任用工

作程序规定” (“试行”), “GPD Issues Regulations (Trial) for Work 

Procedures for Appointment of Military Cadres,” “解放军报” 

(PLA Daily), February 4, 2009.

24.Kristen Gunness and Fred Vellucci, “Reforming the Officer 

Corps: Keeping the College Grads in; the Peasants Out; and the 

Incompetent Down,” Roy Kamphausen, Andrew Scobell, Travis 

Tanner, ed., The “People” in the PLA, Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies 

Institute, U.S. Army War College, September 2008. 

25. 2010-2012 “年军队高中级干部学习规划” (“2010-2012 

Study Plan for Senior, Medium-Level Military Cadres”), “解放军

报” (PLA Daily), June 3, 2010.

26. Jie Zhu (解祖), “十六大以来军队党的建设的成功实践及启

示” (“Successful Practices and Inspirations from Party Building in 

the Military Since 16th Party Congress”), 解放军报 (PLA Daily), 

October 11, 2007.

27.Jonathan Watts, “Mistress Turns in ‘Corrupt’ Chinese Vice 

Admiral,” The Guardian, June 14, 2006.

28. Sai Zangbao (赛宗宝), “深入贯彻落实科学发展观推进军队

纪委工作 制度化规范化” (“Deeply Implement the Scientific Development Concept; Promote the Institutionalization and Standardization of the Work of the Discipline Inspection Commission,”) 

“解放军报” (PLA Daily), September 29, 2010.

29. “促进军队党员领导干部廉洁从政的重要举措” (“An Important Measure for Promoting Ethical Governance of Leading 

Cadres with Party Membership,”) 解放军报 (PLA Daily), June 

1, 2011.
437

30. “CCP Military Commission Laments Low Morale Among 

the Service Members,” Cheng Ming, OSC: CPP20000802000061, 

August 1, 2000. See also Willy Wo-Lap Lam, “Article on Problems Between CCP, Army,” South China Morning Post, OSC: 

FTS19991020000095, October 20, 1999.

31. Kristen Gunness and Fred Vellucci, p. 217. 

32. John Garnaut, “Rotting from Within,” Foreign Policy, April 

16, 2012.

33. Shambaugh, p. 175.

34. “PLA Issues Circular Urging Implementation of 

Regulations on Party Committees’ Work,” Xinhua, OSC: 

CPP20110209071002, February 9, 2011.

35. Si Yanwen (司彦文), “守望沧海:劲旅枕戈待旦” (“Guarding the Sea: Strong Forces Make a Pillow of Their Spear Waiting 

for Daybreak,”) 解放军报 (PLA Daily), March 20, 2010.

36. Liu Xiaojiang (刘晓江), “充分发挥党委领导核心作用” 

(“Give Full Play to the Role of Party Committees as Leadership 

Core,”) “解放军报” (PLA Daily), July 24, 2010.

37. “总政领导就修订《政工条例》答记者问” (“PLA Political 

Department Head Interviewed on Amendment to Political Work 

Regulations”), “解放军报” (PLA Daily), December 26, 2003.

38. Ibid.

39. Alice Miller, “Hu Jintao and the PLA Brass,” China Leadership Monitor, No. 21, Summer 2007.

40. Zhu.

41. “Central Military Commission Promulgates ‘Regulations 

(for trial implementation) on the Work of CCP Committees in the 

Armed Force’s,” Xinhua, OSC: CPP20040509000019, May 9, 2004.

42.“总政领导就修订《政工条例》答记者问"(“General Political Department Leader Answers Questions Regarding Amend-
438

ments to Regulations on PLA Political Work,”) 解放军报 (PLA 

Daily), December 26, 2003.

43. Kevin McCauley, “Reforming the PLA’s Noncommissioned Officer Corps and Conscripts,” October 28, 2011, China Brief website, available from www.jamestown.org/programs/

chinabrief/.

44.Kenneth Allen with John Corbett, “Predicting PLA Leader 

Promotions,” Andrew Scobell and Larry Wortzel, eds., Civil-Military Change in China: Elites, Institutes, and Ideas After the 16th Party 

Congress, Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War 

College, 2004.

45. James Mulvenon, “Chairman Hu and the PLA’s ‘Historic 

Missions’,” China Leadership Monitor, No. 27, Winter 2009.

46. “Zhu Rongji Rescues Jiang Zemin from a Siege in the 

Army,” Cheng Ming, No. 254, OSC: FTS19981208001844, December 1, 1998; “Struggle Between Jiang Zemin, Li Peng, Zhu Rongji 

at Beidaihe Meeting Viewed,” Kai Fang, OSC CPP20000918000069, 

No. 165, September 5, 2000, pp. 9-11.

47. Jia Yong, Cao Zhi, and Li Xuanliang, “Advancing in Big 

Strides from a New Historical Starting Point—Record of Events 

on How the Party Central Committee and the Central Military 

Commission Promote Scientific Development in National Defense and Army Building,” Xinhua, OSC CPP20070807338004, 

August 7, 2007.

48. Ma Hongwei (马宏伟), “中国现代军事思想与马克思主义

军事理论中国化” (“China’s Modern Military Ideology and the 

Sinicization of Marxist Military Theory,”) 人民日报 (Peoples’ Daily), June 24, 2005.

49. Timothy Heath, “What Does China Want? Discerning the 

PRC’s National Strategy, Asian Security, Vol. 8, Issue 1.

50. Jie Zhu.

51. Scobell, p. 227.
439

52. “To Follow Through the Requirements of the ‘Three Represents,’ We Must Correctly Understand and Handle the Relationship in Several Respects,” Jiefangjun Bao, OSC: CPP20000830000055, 

August 30, 2000.

53. Jie Zhu.

54. Kevin McCauley, “Noncommissioned Officers and the 

Creation of a Volunteer Force,” September 30, 2011, China Brief 

website, available from www.jamestown.org/programs/chinabrief/.

55. Michael Swaine, “China’s Assertive Behavior Part Three: 

The Role of the Military in Foreign Policy,” China Leadership Monitor, No. 36, Winter 2012.

56. Andrew Scobell, “Is There a Civil-Military Gap in China’s 

Peaceful Rise?” Parameters, Summer 2009.

57. James Mulvenon, “Evidence of Learning? Chinese Strategic Messaging Following the Missile Defense Intercept Test,” 

China Leadership Monitor, No. 31, Winter 2010. 

58. “A Major Political Responsibility of the Whole Military—First Commentary on the Spirit of the Fourth Plenum 

of the 17th CCP Central Committee,” Jiefangjun Bao, OSC: 

CPP20090921702001, September 21, 2009.

59. Michael Chase, “Army Day Coverage Stresses PLA Contributions and Party Control,” November 17, 2012, China Brief 

website, available from www.jamestown.org/programs/chinabrief/.

60. Garnaut.

61. Jeremy Page and Lingling Wei, “Bo’s Ties to Army 

Alarmed Beijing,” Wall Street Journal, May 17, 2012.

62.Timothy R. Heath, “The 18th Party Congress Work Report: 

Policy Blueprint for the Xi Administration,” November 30, 2012, 

China Brief website, available from www.jamestown.org/programs/

chinabrief/.

441

CHAPTER 11

TRENDS IN PEOPLE’S LIBERATION ARMY

 INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVES 

UNDER HU JINTAO

Kenneth Allen

The author would like to thank Susan Lawrence for 

being the discussant during the conference and providing valuable support in editing the chapter. Thanks 

also to John Corbett, Kevin Pollpeter, Chris Pultz, and 

Frank Miller for their edits.

Note: Concerning exercises between militaries of two 

or more countries, while the PLA uses the term “joint,” 

which it also uses to define interaction between two or 

more services, foreign militaries use the term “combined.” As a result, throughout this chapter, the author uses the term “joint” when citing PLA literature 

and “combined” when citing foreign literature.

MAIN ARGUMENT

Military diplomacy under Hu Jintao clearly expanded in scope and achieved more international visibility, indicating that the People’s Liberation Army 

(PLA) is doing a better job of influencing how foreign 

countries view and interact with it. The purpose of this 

chapter is to identify and assess international initiatives by the PLA from the time Hu Jintao became the 

Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) 

Central Committee’s Military Commission (Central 

Military Commission [CMC]) in September 2004, after having served as one of the three Vice Chairmen 

since 2002, until Xi Jinping, who had served as a Vice 
442

Chairman since October 2010, replaced him during 

the 18th Party Congress in November 2012. Xi also replaced Hu as the Chairman of the State CMC during 

the 12th National People’s Congress (NPC) in March 

2013. While it is difficult to determine which specific 

international initiatives can be directly attributed to 

Hu, it appears that employing military diplomacy to 

enhance China’s soft power was clearly implemented 

as a concept under Hu, and that the PLA began to become actively involved in international humanitarian 

assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR) and military 

operations other than war (MOOTW) activities as a 

direct result of Hu’s four historic missions. In addition, the PLA clearly improved transparency under 

Hu. Looking forward, the PLA will likely continue to 

expand the scope of its global involvement under Xi 

Jinping, thereby slowly becoming more confident and 

preparing for future conflict at or beyond its borders.

POLICY IMPLICATIONS

• Should there be civil unrest in countries where 

Chinese are living and working, the PLA will 

most likely become more actively involved in 

helping to evacuate them to safety. China’s increasing focus on HA/DR will require specific 

technological developments, including equipment, information technology, and logistics and 

maintenance support. Although these capabilities would be necessary to support an immediate need, such as a natural disaster, they would 

also enhance the PLA’s ability to support military operations beyond its borders. For the PLA 

Navy (PLAN), besides learning how to remain 

at sea for lengthy periods of time, increased 
443

deployments abroad have strengthened the 

PLAN’s foreign relations.

• The transparency of China’s military has improved in recent years under Hu. However, 

there remains deep international uncertainty 

about key areas of the PLA’s force composition 

and growing capabilities.

• Looking forward to the role of military diplomacy under Xi Jinping, the PLA will most likely continue to expand its global involvement in 

HA/DR activities and combined exercises with 

foreign countries, as well as send more delegations abroad to learn from and about other 

countries’ militaries. At the same time, the PLA 

continues to provide some training for foreign 

militaries in China.

SOURCES

The primary sources for this chapter include articles from the PLA Academy of Military Science’s 

(AMS) bimonthly periodical China Military Science, 

including a series of over 20 articles on separate topics 

during 2010 and 2011 under the general title “Research 

on Hu Jintao’s Important Instructions on National 

Defense and Army Building.” Other sources include 

articles from PLA Daily (解放军报),1 PLA Pictorial (解

放军画报), China Armed Forces (中国军队), China Air 

Force (中国空军), Blue Book on International Situation 

and China’s Foreign Affairs (国际形势和中国外交蓝皮

书), the Internet (Xinhua at chinamil.com, and the Ministry of National Defense [MND] website), the China 

National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database, 

and the biennial China’s National Defense (中国的国防), 

which is better known as the Defense White Paper (国
444

防白皮书).2 Finally, “Military Exchanges with Chinese 

Characteristics: The People’s Liberation Army Experience with Foreign Relations,” by Heidi Holz and Kenneth Allen, which was published in 2010 in The PLA 

at Home and Abroad: Assessing the Operational Capabilities of China’s Military, and various chapters in Learning by Doing: The PLA Trains at Home and Abroad provide a base for examining the PLA’s foreign relations 

program.3

The People’s Liberation Army must actively carry out 

military diplomacy, which plays an important role in 

accelerating the modernization of our armed forces 

and preparation for military struggle.

 CMC Chairman Hu Jintao, 20094

Military diplomacy is an important part of the composition of our country’s diplomacy, and it must firmly 

carry out the country’s major policies, guidelines, and 

foreign policies. Therefore, it has a very strong strategic nature, policy nature, and sensitivity. At the same 

time, military diplomacy is also the peaceful application of military strength. It not only has a soft aspect, 

but also has rigid characteristics.

MND Foreign Affairs Office, Sep 20125

BRIEF HISTORY OF MILITARY DIPLOMACY

Although the PLA’s military diplomacy6 did not 

begin under Hu Jintao, it clearly expanded in scope 

and received more international visibility under him. 

As a result, the PLA is apparently doing a better job of 

influencing how foreign countries view and interact 

with it. 
445

To understand what occurred under Hu’s leadership, this first section provides a brief background of 

the PLA’s military diplomacy since 1949. This is followed by the second section, a summary of the growth 

of PLA military attaché offices abroad and foreign attaché offices assigned to China. The third section discusses the trend in senior PLA visits abroad under Hu. 

Sixty Years of PLA Military Diplomacy.

To celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the People’s 

Republic of China (PRC) in 2009, China Military Science

published an article by Professor Chen Zhiyong from 

the Nanjing Political Academy that provides a breakdown of the PLA’s military diplomacy since 1949 into 

the following five periods:7

1. 1949 through the 1950s: During this period, China’s international strategy was based on a “leaning to 

one side” (一边倒) strategy that moved China toward 

the Soviet Union and away from the United States. 

As such, China established military attaché offices in 

several socialist countries, including the Soviet Union, 

Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, North Korea, and 

Vietnam. The PLA utilized those relations to gain experience from their militaries, import weapon systems 

and equipment, and train Chinese military personnel 

overseas. 

2. 1960s: In this period, Sino-Soviet relations deteriorated, and China shifted its “leaning to one side” 

strategy to an “anti-imperialist and anti-revisionist” 

(“反帝反修”) international united front strategy. As a 
446

result, China’s military diplomacy shifted from a focus 

on relations with the Soviet Union and East European 

socialist countries to supporting Asian, African, and 

Latin American countries’ independence and liberation movements. 

3. 1970s: In the 1970s, the Soviet Union became China’s primary security threat, and Mao Zedong tried to 

create a united front against hegemonism (反霸). The 

PRC also became a permanent member of the United 

Nations (UN) Security Council and began to establish 

military relations, especially with Western nations. 

Relations with the United States also began to thaw, 

and diplomatic relations were established in January 

1979 just before China’s border war with Vietnam.

4. 1980s: During the 1980s, China put forth the 

concept of peace and development. Following China’s 

reform and opening up, military diplomacy and exchanges expanded rapidly worldwide. 

5. 1990s to 2009: During this period, the global security situation changed, and the PRC put forth the 

new security concept of “equality (平等), mutual trust 

(互信), mutual benefit (互利), and cooperation (协作).” 

As a result, military diplomacy was closely linked 

with China’s foreign policy and the Military Strategic 

Guidelines for the New Period (issued in 1993). Military 

exchanges involved opening up and transparency, as 

well as high-level exchanges, strategic dialogue, bilateral and multilateral security forums, opening of barracks and exercises to observers, ship port visits, and 

combined exercises.

The Top Ten Firsts in Military Diplomacy.

In September 2012, the PLA Daily published an article entitled “Top Ten Firsts of Chinese Military Di-
447

plomacy from 2002 to 2012,” which are listed below 

and show a clear distinction of what happened under 

Jiang and Hu. Some of the details are discussed in 

separate sections in the chapter.8

1. 2002: First implementation of international 

humanitarian relief. In compliance with UN resolutions, China dispatched two PLA Air Force (PLAAF) 

transport aircraft to deliver much-needed medicine, 

medical equipment, and other assistance supplies to 

Afghanistan on March 25, 2002. It was the first time 

for the Chinese military to take on international humanitarian supply and relief missions.9

2. 2002: First PLAN task force around-the-world 

voyage. A two-ship task force consisting of the Qingdao guided missile destroyer and the Taicang comprehensive supply ship conducted a 132-day voyage 

(May 15 to September 23) around the world that traveled 33,000 nautical miles and visited 10 ports in 10 

different countries across five continents.

3. 2002: First Sino-foreign joint military exercise. 

China and Kyrgyzstan successfully held a joint antiterrorism military exercise from October 10-11, in the 

border areas between the two countries. That was the 

first time for the Chinese troops held a joint exercise 

with foreign counterparts.

4. 2005: First opening of the Headquarters of the 

PLA Second Artillery Force (PLASAF) to foreign militaries. U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visited the headquarters on October 19. He was the first 

foreign guest to enter the headquarters. After that, 

the PLASAF Headquarters was opened to three other 

foreign militaries. 

5. 2006: First launching of Sino-foreign joint maritime patrols. The PLAN and Vietnamese Navy organized the first joint maritime patrol in April in 
448

accordance with the Agreement between China and 

Vietnam on Joint Patrol in the Beibu Gulf, signed in 

Beijing by the two countries in October. Thirteen joint 

patrols have been held since then.

6. 2008: First opening of direct telephone line to 

MND. MND and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation opened a direct phone line between 

them on March 14. This was the first direct phone 

communication channel between MND and its foreign counterparts.

7. 2008: First introduction of news spokesperson of 

the MND. On May 18, MND held a press conference 

to introduce PLA and People’s Armed Police (PAP) 

involvement in the Wenchuan earthquake disaster 

relief operations. That was the debut of MND’s news 

spokesperson at the press conference.

8. 2008: First dispatch of vessels to participate in 

international escort missions. The PLAN sent the first 

naval task force on December 26 to carry out escort 

missions in the Gulf of Aden and the waters off the 

Somali coast in accordance with the resolutions made 

by the UN Security Council.

9. 2009: First organization of multinational naval 

and air force events. On April 23, a total of 21 warships from 14 countries joined 25 PLAN ships and 

31 aircraft during a review that celebrated the 60th 

anniversary of the founding of the PLA Navy. This 

was the first multinational maritime parade held by 

China. From November 6-7, the PLAAF held the first 

large-scale international forum, in which air force delegates from 34 countries were present to celebrate the 

PLAAF’s 60th anniversary.

10. 2011: First dispatch of troops to evacuate personnel overseas. The PLAAF dispatched four IL-76 

military transport aircraft to Libya from February 28 
449

to March 4 to pick up and transport Chinese personnel in Libya. At the same time, the Xuzhou frigate of 

the 7th Chinese naval escort task force was ordered 

to head for the waters off Libya to the foreign ships 

that were evacuating Chinese personnel in Libya. This 

was the first time for China to utilize military force to 

evacuate Chinese personnel overseas.

What is PLA Military Diplomacy?

In September 2012, the Director of the MND Foreign Affairs Office, Major General Qian Lihua, discussed the following key aspects of the PLA’s military 

diplomacy during an interview with PLA Daily.10

• Military diplomacy is an important part of the 

composition of China’s diplomacy, and it must 

firmly carry out the country’s major policies, 

guidelines, and foreign policies. Therefore, it 

has a very strong strategic nature, policy nature, 

and sensitivity. At the same time, military diplomacy is also the peaceful application of military strength. It not only has a soft aspect, but 

also has rigid characteristics. It plays a unique 

role in protecting the country’s good and safe 

environment. In recent years, the contact and 

interaction between military diplomacy and 

political diplomacy has become closer.

• When facing complicated and changeable international security situations, military diplomacy mainly plays the following distinct roles 

in creating a safe environment for the country: 

Strengthening mutual military trust, enhancing 

crisis management and control, avoiding strategic misjudgments, and deepening relations 

between countries.
450

• Military diplomacy is carried out according to 

the country’s diplomatic deployment, and the 

characteristics of our country’s military relations with other countries can be summarized 

in four key terms: 1) Military relations with 

large countries: Stable (稳); 2) Military relations 

with neighboring countries: Good (好); 3) Military relations with developing countries: Practical (实); and 4) Multilateral security dialogues 

and cooperation: Active (活).

• Joint exercises and joint training between China 

and foreign countries are an important way for 

improving the level of military training. In recent years, approximately 10 joint exercises and 

joint training events were held each year. Based 

on problems found during joint exercises and 

joint training, units have developed measures 

to improve themselves.

• In the last decade, our armed forces actively 

participated in international peacekeeping 

missions, maritime escorts, and humanitarian 

rescues, to include sending a hospital ship to 

travel around the globe to give medical treatment and to provide minesweeping support. In 

addition, after the earthquake occurred in Haiti 

in January 2010, China responded to a request 

from the UN for HA/DR support.

• In recent years, Chinese armed forces vigorously enhanced external propaganda. Consequently, remarkable progress was made in the 

armed forces’ ability to carry out soft power, 

especially through the use of military diplomacy. As such, military diplomacy is an important 

window for displaying the image of the armed 

forces. When Chinese military leaders visit for-
451

eign countries, they use multiple occasions to 

give speeches, accept interviews, hold meetings for communication, introduce the national 

defense policy and situation of army building, 

and also actively respond to the concerns of the 

outside world. As such, people and media in 

foreign countries have spoken highly of leaders 

in the armed forces.

The Growth in Military Attachés 

at Home and Abroad.

China’s exchange of military attachés with other 

countries has expanded greatly in the last 25 years 

and continued to grow under Hu Jintao.11 From 1988 

to 2012, the number of Chinese military attaché offices 

abroad nearly doubled from 58 to 109, and the number of foreign countries with military attaché offices 

in Beijing has more than doubled from 44 to 103. As 

shown later, five of the eight national Defense White 

Papers published by China since 1998 have given 

prominent mention to the number of attaché offices 

that China has around the world and the number of 

foreign attaché offices in China. Based on information 

from the biennial White Papers, Table 11-1 provides 

the number of countries with which the PLA has established military relations, the number of countries 

in which the PLA has attaché offices, and the number 

of countries that have military attaché offices in China.12 Note that the PLA does not have an attaché office 

in every country with which it has military relations.13

For example, even though the PLA does not have an 

attaché in Uganda, and vice versa, former Defense 

Minister Liang Guanglie visited Kampala, Uganda, in 

November 2011 and pledged $2.3 million to support 
452

the Uganda People’s Defense Force (UPDF) in its war 

efforts against Somalia’s Alshabab militants.14

Table 11-1: PLA and Foreign Military 

Attaché Offices.

According to a 2011 People’s Daily article, the PLA’s 

attachés range in rank from colonel to major general 

(e.g., regiment leader to corps deputy leader level) and 

normally serve 3 to 4 years in a particular embassy.16

Besides the senior National Defense Attaché (国防武

官), who is normally called the Military Attaché, some 

PRC embassies also have attachés who represent their 

individual services (e.g., Army [PLAA], PLAN, and 

PLAAF), as well as technical officers (技术军官) and 

assistant attachés (副武官). The attachés have the following responsibilities:17

• Represent China’s armed forces abroad and 

maintain diplomatic contact with the host 

country’s military to arrange reciprocal visits;

• Support or manage military assistance, military training, military products trade, militarycivil cooperation, and military technology 

transfer; and,

White Paper Countries with which China 

has Military Relations 

PLA Attaché 

Offices Abroad

Foreign Military Attaché 

Offices in China

1998 100+ 90+ 60

2000 No Information No Information No Information

2002 100+ 100+ 70+

2004 150+ 100+ 85

2006 150+ 107 85

2008 150+ 109 98

2010 No Information No Information 10315

2012 No Information No Information No Information
453

• Legal collection of military intelligence through 

direct or indirect contact that is reported to the 

relevant department in China.

The majority of China’s military attachés abroad 

are Army officers, most of whom are career intelligence officers. This is in large part a reflection of the 

PLA’s ground-force dominated culture. In early-2009, 

the PLAN had naval attaché billets in only three countries (United States, United Kingdom (UK), and Germany) and the PLAAF had attaché billets in only two 

countries (United States and UK).18 It appears, however, that the number of Air Force attachés abroad 

has expanded. According to discussions in Taiwan in 

late-2011, the PLAAF now has attachés in several additional, unidentified countries.19 In addition, according to Lieutenant Colonel Chris Pultz, who recently 

served in Mongolia as an Assistant Army Attaché, the 

PLAAF now has an attaché of Uighur descent from 

Inner Mongolia who is assigned in Mongolia.20 On the 

other hand, about 20 countries currently have air force 

and navy attachés in China.21

Even though several countries have naval and air 

force attachés in Beijing, they do not necessarily have 

the opportunity to interact with PLAN and PLAAF officers on a regular basis. Normally, the only opportunity that foreign naval and air attachés have to interact 

with PLAN or PLAAF officials is when they escort a 

visiting delegation or when they arrange for a PLAN 

or PLAAF delegation to visit their country. 
454

Hu Jintao’s Travel Abroad.

As General Secretary of the Communist Party, 

President of the PRC, and Chairman of the CCP and 

State CMCs, Hu Jintao traveled abroad wearing one 

or more hats. According to a recent book, Jiang Zemin 

travelled to 70 countries from 1989 to 2002, which is 

an average of about five countries per year.22 Based 

on information from a PRC government website23 and 

a review of the Internet, Hu traveled abroad 35 times 

since 2004, which was also an average of five visits per 

year. Both Jiang and Hu clearly exceeded any travel 

by their predecessors. Hu’s visits can be organized 

into the following four categories: 1) Economic summits, including G8; G20; Brazil, Russia, India, China, 

and South Africa (BRICS), and Asia Pacific Economic 

Cooperation (APEC);24 2) Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summits, which began in 2001; 3) 

Nuclear Security Summits, which began in 2010; and, 

4) Diplomatic visits to several countries.

Although Jiang and Hu occasionally met with foreign defense ministers such as the U.S. Secretary of 

Defense in Beijing and on trips abroad, a review of the 

material for each of his foreign visits found only one 

instance where a senior military officer accompanied 

them or participated in any of the meetings, including 

the nuclear security summits. That visit occurred in 

September 2001, when Jiang Zemin visited North Korea and was accompanied by General Guo Boxiong, 

who at that time was the Executive Deputy Chief of 

the General Staff.25 Although an occasional photo 

showed a military officer in the background, but they 

are most likely military attachés.26

The reason for this is not clear, but one explanation 

may be that his senior military officers, including the 
455

CMC vice chairmen, Defense Minister, and Chief of 

the General Staff (COGS) represent China at separate 

defense and security meetings, such as those held by 

the SCO and the security meetings discussed in the 

next section. Of note, however, China’s new Defense 

Minister, General Chang Wanquan, accompanied 

Xi Jinping during his visit to Russia in March 2013, 

which may indicate a change under Xi.27 For comparison purposes, senior U.S. defense officials have only 

occasionally accompanied the President of the United 

States abroad. For example, in 1998, Admiral Joseph 

Prueher, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command 

(PACOM), accompanied President Bill Clinton to 

a China Summit. In 2007, Secretary of Defense Robert 

Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accompanied President George Bush to Iraq. In addition, 

the Assistant Chief of the Joint Staff, a three-star general, usually travels with the Secretary of State and, if 

required, with the President.28

Senior PLA Leader Visits Abroad.

A review of senior PLA officer visits abroad 

through late-2008 indicated that those senior PLA officers who travel abroad do so an average of once per 

year.29 In terms of the number of trips abroad, only the 

Defense Minister and the COGS have averaged more 

than one trip abroad per year. The Defense Minister, 

who averaged two to three trips annually, traveled 

more than any other officers. Typically, he has participated in each of the SCO’s annual defense minister’s conferences since 2001 and has taken at least two 

other trips annually. While the COGS also averaged 

two trips per year, the two CMC vice chairmen only 

traveled a combined total of five times to a total of 10 
456

countries from 2001 through 2008. Most other senior 

officers did not travel abroad each year or traveled 

only once per year.

A review of information from 2009 through late2012, however, shows that, although the pattern for 

the Defense Minister and COGS has remained constant, the two CMC Vice Chairmen combined nearly 

tripled the total number of trips abroad to double the 

number of countries since 2009. Specifically, in the 4 

years from 2009 through 2012, Vice Chairman Guo 

Boxiong made seven trips to 13 different countries, 

while Vice Chairman Xu Caihou made six trips to 11 

different countries, as shown below.30 Although the 

vice chairmen visited countries in Asia, the Americas, 

Europe, and the Middle East, they did not visit any 

African countries. One explanation for the increase in 

their trips is that they both retired at the 18th Party 

Congress, so they wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to travel. Yet another explanation is that the 

PLA is clearly expanding its interaction with foreign 

countries across the board. It will be important to see 

if this pattern continues under Xi Jinping. 

• CMC Vice Chairman General Guo Boxiong:

— May 2009: Turkey, Germany, Finland

— November 2009: Russia

— May 2010: Australia, New Zealand, 

 and Indonesia

— October 2010: North Korea

— April 2011: Vietnam

— September 2011: Russia

— October-November 2011: Cuba, 

 Colombia, and Peru

• CMC Vice Chairman General Xu Caihou:

— October 2009: United States

— November 2010: United Arab Emirates 

 (UAE), Syria, and Jordan
457

— May 2011: Myanmar

— September 2011: Bulgaria, Serbia, and 

 Croatia

— May 2012: Mongolia

— July 2012: Belorussia and Lithuania

• Defense Minister General Liang Guanglie:

— September 2009: Slovakia, Serbia, and 

 Bulgaria

— November 2009: Japan

— May 2010: Pakistan, Turkmenistan, 

 Kazakhstan

— August 2010: Mexico, Columbia, and Brazil

— October 2010: Vietnam (Association of South 

 East Asian Nations [ASEAN] Defense 

 Ministers’ Meeting)

— March 2011: Kazakhstan (SCO Defense 

 Ministers’ Meeting), Uzbekistan

— May 2011: Singapore (Shangri-La Dialogue), 

Indonesia, and the Philippines

— November 2011: Visit to Ghana, Uganda, 

and the Seychelles

— May 2012: United States, Poland, and Latvia

— July 2012: Cambodia (ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting)

— September 2012: India, Sri Lanka, and Laos31

• Chief of the General Staff General Chen Bingde

— October 2009: Australia (12th Defense and 

Strategic Consultations) and Papua New 

Guinea

— May 2010: Namibia, Tanzania, and Angola

— November 2010: Venezuela, Ecuador, and 

Peru

— March 2011: Nepal

— May 2011: United States, which followed Hu 

Jintao’s visit in January 2011
458

— August 2011: Russia, Ukraine, and Israel

— November 2011: Myanmar

— May-June 2012: Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, 

Tajikistan (SCO Defense Meeting to discuss 

the Peace Mission 2012 Exercise)

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS, DIALOGUES, 

AND CONSULTATIONS

Although China began establishing strategic relations with various counties in the late-1990s under 

Jiang Zemin, the number and types of relations increased under Hu. China’s approaches are tailored 

to the different strategic priorities, importance, and 

relationships, all dealing with a high degree of attention to protocol and respect while highlighting the 

importance of the various relationships. This section 

discusses the types of relations created, as well as 

providing some background on them and the current 

situation. It also discusses other security mechanisms 

that China became involved in under Hu.

While Jiang and Hu attended various meetings 

that created some of the security dialogues, the PLA’s 

and Ministry of Foreign Affairs senior leaders have 

represented the PRC at subsequent meetings depending on the type of dialogue. Appendix 11-A provides 

a list of the countries with whom China has established strategic partnerships (伙伴), dialogues (对话), 

and consultations (磋商), as well as which senior PRC 

and PLA leaders attended the meetings. Although the 

president attended the first meeting to establish the 

relationship, the following meetings were attended by 

the premier, foreign minister, one of the vice foreign 

ministers, the COGS, or one of the deputy chiefs of 

the general staff (DCOGS), who is usually the deputy 
459

with the foreign affairs portfolio. Of note, the defense 

minister has apparently not represented China in any 

of them.

Building a Three-Tiered Structure.

China has built a three-tiered structure for strategic relations—strategic partnerships, strategic 

dialogues, and strategic consultations—with certain 

countries to discuss key issues such as nonproliferation, counterterrorism, and bilateral military and security cooperation.32 Other topics include disaster 

relief, peacekeeping, maritime safety, border joint 

patrols, and nonproliferation.33 These three tiers are 

clearly intertwined and have different combinations 

as shown below:

• strategic partnership (战略伙伴)

• strategic dialogue (战略对话)

• security consultation (安全磋商)

— Chief of the General Staff dialogue (总参谋

对话)

— defense and security consultation (防务安全

磋商/ 防务与安全磋商)

— defense and strategic consultation (防务战

略磋商)

— defense consultation (防务磋商)

— defense strategic consultation (防务战略

磋商)

— meetings (会议)

— military cooperation dialogue (军事合作对

话)

— security consultation (安全磋商)

— security dialogue and cooperation(安全对话

与合作)

— strategic and security consultation (战略与

安全磋商)
460

— strategic consultation (战略磋商)

— strategic defense consultation (战略防务

磋商)

Background.

In the late-1990s, China began to establish what 

it calls strategic partnerships with several countries, 

including Russia, Brazil, India, Kazakhstan, and the 

Philippines, as well as with international organizations, including the ASEAN and the European Union 

(EU). These partnerships have been announced during meetings of the presidents and are the highest-level relationship between China and the other countries 

and serve as a framework for bilateral relations across 

the spectrum, including military relations. 

In the mid-2000s, China began to build on its strategic partnerships and create what it calls strategic 

dialogues with several countries to “promote mutual 

trust and cooperation.”34 In 2005, China and the United States created what China called the China-U.S. 

Strategic Dialogue, and the United States called the 

U.S.-China Senior Dialogue. That dialogue was led by 

China’s state councilor for foreign affairs and a U.S. 

deputy secretary of state. In 2006, China and the United States created a Strategic Economic Dialogue, led on 

the Chinese side by the vice premier for foreign trade 

and on the U.S. side by the Secretary of the Treasury. 

In January 2008, the first military representatives—a 

PLA representative, a deputy director of the Ministry 

of National Defense’s Foreign Affairs Office, and a 

U.S. assistant secretary of defense—participated in the 

fifth meeting of the China-U.S. Strategic Dialogue/

Senior Dialogue.35 In July 2009, the strategic/senior 

dialogue with the United States was merged with the 
461

Strategic Economic Dialogue to become the strategic 

and economic dialogue (S&ED). In 2011, at the third 

round of the S&ED, the two countries created a Strategic Security Dialogue (SSD) under the S&ED, as a 

way to bring military voices into the S&ED’s strategic 

discussions. China was represented by a deputy chief 

of the general staff.36

China’s third tier is strategic consultations, which 

usually involves dialogue and military cooperation 

between the PLA’s General Staff Department (GSD) 

(usually the DCOGS who are responsible for foreign 

relations and intelligence) and the GSD’s counterpart 

organization. By the end of 2010, China had established strategic consultation and security dialogue 

mechanisms with 22 countries.37 Some of these countries include Russia, India, Germany, and New Zealand, as well as the SCO. For example, at a meeting 

of SCO leaders in August 2008, Hu Jintao stated that 

SCO members should strengthen the strategic dialogue, solidify political mutual trust, and step up strategic consultation on important sensitive issues that 

affect the security, stability, and development of the 

members and the region, coordinate our stances in a 

timely way, and take effective measures.38

Current Situation.

These types of discussions began under Jiang Zemin, but continued under Hu Jintao. According to the 

Strategic Consultations and Dialogues (战略磋商和对

话) section in the PRC’s 2010 Defense White Paper, China 

held extensive strategic consultations and dialogues 

during 2009 and 2010 with relevant countries in the 

field of security and defense to enhance mutual understanding and trust, and to strengthen communica-
462

tion and coordination.39 To date, China has established 

mechanisms for defense and security consultation and 

dialogue with 22 countries. The strategic and cooperative partnership between Russia and China continues 

to be comprehensively and vigorously reinforced. 

The two militaries established a strategic consultation 

mechanism in 1997. The 13th round of strategic consultations between the two general staff headquarters 

in 2010 resulted in consensus on the international strategic situation, issues in Northeast Asia, Central Asia 

and South Asia, and cooperation between the two 

militaries. The 15th round was held in August 2012 in 

Irkutsk, Russia. The PLA’s DCOGS, General Ma Xiaotian, and Alexander Postnikov, DCOGS of the Armed 

Forces of the Russian Federation, co-chaired the consultation. The two sides reached a consensus on such 

issues as bilateral cooperation between the two militaries as well as international and regional security 

situations of common concern.40 While the two sides 

have been discussing the same issues since the first 

dialogue, one of the most important aspects is that the 

two militaries are meeting on a regular basis at senior 

levels, where they are able to discuss a wide range of 

bilateral issues.

China and the United States maintain consultations 

on such issues as nonproliferation, counterterrorism, 

and bilateral military and security cooperation. The 

two countries established a mechanism of defense 

consultation between the two defense ministries in 

1997, and held the 10th and 11th Defense Consultative Talks (DCT) on issues of common concern in June 

2009 and December 2010, and the 5th and 6th Defense 

Policy Coordination Talks (DPCT) in February and 

December 2009. According to a report written for the 

U.S. Congress:
463

By 2011, the PLA seemed to downgrade the DPCT as 

merely ‘working-level’ talks between the U.S. Deputy 

Assistant Secretary of Defense and the Director of the 

PLA’s Foreign Affairs Office. The practice was at odds 

with the reaffirmation during Secretary of Defense 

Robert Gates’ visit in early 2011, when Defense Minister Liang Guanglie agreed that the DCT, DPCT, and 

Military Maritime Consultative Agreement (MMCA) 

were important talks. China attaches great importance 

to defense and security consultations with neighboring countries.41

China has established mechanisms for defense and 

security consultation and policy dialogue with neighboring countries including Mongolia, Japan, Vietnam, 

the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, India, 

and Pakistan, and has held regular consultations and 

dialogues at different levels with its neighbors, which 

focus on Asia-Pacific security, bilateral military relations, and regional flashpoint issues. The 2010 Defense 

White Paper states that such consultations and dialogues play a positive role in promoting mutual understanding, consolidating good neighborliness and 

friendship, deepening mutual trust and cooperation, 

and maintaining regional peace and stability. 

On behalf of China, the PLA has conducted extensive strategic consultations and dialogues with other 

countries. The meetings held during 2009 and 2010 are 

shown in Table 11-2.42
464

Date Country Dialogue

March 2009 New Zealand 2nd Strategic Dialogue

September 2009 Germany

4th Defense Strategic 

Consultations

October 2009 Australia

12th Defense Strategic 

Consultations

February 2010 United Kingdom Defense Strategic Consultations

June 2010 New Zealand 3rd Round, Strategic Dialogue

November 2010 South Africa 4th Defense Commission Meeting

Table 11-2: Strategic Consultations and Dialogues

Held during 2009-10.

China has also established mechanisms for defense 

(cooperation) commission meetings with Egypt, for 

high-level military cooperation dialogue with Turkey, and for defense consultations with the UAE, all 

of which have broadened defense exchanges between 

China and Middle Eastern countries.43

Multilateral Security Dialogues Mechanisms.

Although China has historically chosen to deal 

with countries bilaterally, according to the 2010 Defense White Paper, China under Hu began to actively 

participate in multilateral security meetings within 

the framework of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), 

ASEAN Plus One (China), and ASEAN Plus Three 

(China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea [ROK]). Initiated by China, the ARF Conference on Security Policies was officially staged in 2004, and has developed 
465

into a dialogue mechanism for the highest ranking 

senior defense officials within the ARF framework.44

In October 2010, China attended the first ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM+). In recent 

years, the PLA has hosted the China-ASEAN Defense 

and Security Dialogue (CADSD), the ASEAN Plus 

Three Forum on Non-traditional Security Cooperation 

between Armed Forces, and the ARF workshop on 

formulating legal rules for armed forces’ participation 

in international disaster relief operations. In addition, 

the PLA has been involved in or hosted the following 

multilateral security dialogues:

• The Zhongshan Forum, which was initiated in 

2009. The 2012 Zhongshan Forum was held in 

July 2012 at the Nanjing Army Command College, where more than 300 officers and experts 

from 87 countries gathered to discuss foreign 

military operation theory study.45

• The PLA Navy has been a member of the Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS) that was 

established in 1987 to discuss maritime affairs 

in the region and the possibility of cooperation 

among WPNS members. The 2012 symposium 

was held in Jakarta, Indonesia, to discuss environmental issues.46

• The PLA has attended the Shangri La Dialogue 

since 2007, which has been hosted by the UK’s 

Institute for International Strategic Studies 

(IISS) in Singapore since 2002.47

• In 2010, the China Military Sciences Society 

(CMSS) began hosting an annual Xiangshan 

Forum in Beijing. The theme for the October 

2012 forum was the “Evolution of International 

Strategic Pattern and Asia-Pacific Security,” 

where more than 100 representatives from se-
466

curity and defense research institutes and experts and scholars from 19 countries including 

China, Russia, the United States, UK, [French], 

Germany, and Japan attended.48

UN Peacekeeping Operations.

While China began taking an active role in UN 

peacekeeping operations (UNPKO) under the leadership of Jiang Zemin, China’s, and in particular the 

PLA’s, participation expanded considerably under 

Hu.49 According to the UNPKO website, since UN 

peacekeeping began in 1948 when the UN Security 

Council authorized the deployment of UN military 

observers to the Middle East, 67 peacekeeping operations have been deployed by the UN, including 54 

since 1988. Over the years, hundreds of thousands of 

military personnel, as well as tens of thousands of UN 

police and other civilians from more than 120 countries have participated in UNPKO.50 According to the 

2012 Defense White Paper, which was finally published 

in April 2013: 

To date, the PLA has dispatched 22,000 military personnel to 23 UN peacekeeping missions, of which 

three officers and six enlisted personnel have been 

killed. As of December 2012, a total of 1,842 PLA officers and men were implementing peacekeeping tasks 

in nine UN mission areas. Among them, 78 were military observers and staff officers, 218 were engineering 

and medical personnel for the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), 558 were engineering, 

transportation and medical personnel for the United 

Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), 335 were engineering and medical personnel for the United Nations 

Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), 338 were engi-
467

neering and medical personnel for the United Nations 

Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS), 

and 315 were engineering personnel for the African 

Union/United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur 

(UNAMID).51

Although the 2012 Defense White Paper states that 

“China is the biggest troop and police contributor 

among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council,” other countries that are not permanent 

members of the UN Security Council have dispatched 

more personnel. For example, whereas the United 

States had only 150 personnel involved in PKO activities at the end of July 2012, China was 16th out of 119 

countries in terms of the total number of PKO troops 

dispatched at that time.52

The PRC’s 2010 and 2012 Defense White Papers state 

that China’s involvement in peacekeeping operations 

(PKO/联合国维和行动) began in 1990 when it sent five 

military observers to the UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO).53 Since then, it has conducted the 

following activities:

• 1992: Dispatched an engineering corps of 400 

officers and enlisted personnel to the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), 

which was the first time China had sent an organic unit on a peacekeeping mission.

• 2001: Established the Peacekeeping Affairs Office in the MND.

• 2001: Established the Peace Operations Training Institute (POTI), which is also called the 

Peacekeeping Training Center, on the campus 

of the PAP Academy in Langfang, Hebei Province, for training policemen.54

• 2002: Joined the UN Stand-by Arrangement 

System.
468

• 2009: Established a Peacekeeping Center in Beijing under the MND for training international 

PKO personnel.

Based on a review the UN PKO missions that China participated in from 1990 through 2008, Chinese 

forces served in Africa, the Middle East, Southeast 

Asia, South Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe.55

No information was found to indicate that China has 

chosen not to participate in any particular region or 

country.

MND’s Peacekeeping Affairs Office (维和事务办公

室) that was created to manage all PKO operations was 

initially identified as the GSD Peacekeeping Office (总

参维和办公室) in 2003, and has apparently since been 

upgraded to a bureau.56 The Bureau is staffed with 

approximately 50 personnel, who generally have advanced degrees and extensive overseas experience, 

including peacekeeping deployments. The bureau’s 

senior officers, who speak fluent English, frequently 

observe peacekeeping exercises at the various regional training centers, such as the one in Mongolia.57 This 

is another example of MND’s use as the window for 

the PLA to conduct its foreign relations.

As noted earlier, China has created two peacekeeping training centers. POTI, which was created in 

2001 under UN auspices, covers 70,000 square meters 

and is located on the campus of the PAP Academy in 

Langfang, Hebei Province. According to Frank Miller, 

who visited the facility in March 2010, POTI trains policemen from China and other countries who already 

have at least 5 years of experience.58 In 2010, it was 

training 180 personnel at a time but would be able to 

train 300 personnel after a second phase of construction was completed. From 2001 to 2010, POTI had con-
469

ducted 33 PKO Training Courses and graduated 1,700 

peacekeepers. 

In 2009, MND established a Peacekeeping Center 

(维和中心) in Beijing for training international PKO 

personnel.59 The 16,000-square-meter facility, which 

cost 200 million yuan (U.S.$29 million) to build, also 

serves as a venue for international exchanges in peacekeeping, including international conferences and 

training peacekeepers for other countries. With 20 

classrooms, including simulation rooms for shooting 

and driving, the center offers professional courses on 

peacekeeping missions as well as English-language 

classes. It also offers training facilities for peacekeeping skills, including simulated UN peacekeeping 

camps and de-mining training grounds, as well as 

swimming and driving venues.

The director of the PKO Office is one of the deputy directors of the GSD’s Intelligence (Second) Department, which indicates the office is subordinate 

to 2PLA.60 The office has subordinate organizations 

(军区维和事务办公室) in at least the following three 

military regions (MRs):

• The Beijing MR, which trains medical personnel for PKO operations;61

• The Lanzhou MR, which trains engineers and 

medical personnel for PKO operations;62

• The Jinan MR, which trains engineers, transportation personnel, and medical personnel 

for PKO operations.63 The director of the Jinan 

MR office is also the director of the Jinan MR 

Handover Group (济南军区交接组).64

Although most of the initial activity began under 

Jiang Zemin, the number of personnel per year and 

the countries where Chinese PKO personnel have op-
470

erated grew under Hu. Specifically, according to the 

2004 Defense White Paper, from 1990 to 2004, China sent 

3,362 military personnel to 13 UN peacekeeping missions.65 According to the 2010 Defense White Paper, the 

PLA had 1,955 officers and enlisted personnel serving 

in nine UN mission areas. In addition, from 1990 to 

December 2010, China dispatched 17,390 military personnel to 19 UN peacekeeping missions. Altogether, 

nine personnel had lost their lives on duty by the end 

of 2010. Of note, from January through July 2012, the 

PLA Pictorial published nine articles about how PLA 

peacekeeping troops (175 engineers and 43 medical 

personnel) trained with Uruguayan peacekeeping 

troops in the eastern section of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (UNMONUC). A July 2012 PLA 

Pictorial article about the 14th group of peacekeepers 

arriving in the Congo stated that, altogether, China 

has participated in a total of 23 missions and currently 

has personnel serving in 11 missions.66 According to 

the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) 2012 Report 

to Congress, the PLA has had two officers who have 

been appointed as the military leader of a UN Peacekeeping Force for a lengthy period of time.67

Military Operations Other Than War.

Although the PLA has always helped with domestic disaster relief efforts, the concept of PLA MOOTW 

(非战争军事行动) outside China’s borders can clearly 

be attributed to Hu Jintao as a result of his four historic missions, discussed in Daniel Hartnett’s Chapter 2. Specifically, the first time this term was used in 

a Defense White Paper was 2008. The MND’s website 

also has a special section devoted to MOOTW activities.68 The 2008 Defense White Paper states that the PLA 
471

is attaching more importance to MOOTW training in 

counterterrorism, stability maintenance, emergency 

response, peacekeeping, emergency rescue, and disaster relief.69

According to the 2010 Defense White Paper, China 

has increased its defense expenditures to improve its 

MOOTW capabilities in supporting earthquake rescue 

and disaster relief operations, escort operations in the 

Gulf of Aden and waters off Somalia, flood control 

and emergency rescue operations, and international 

rescue operations.70

Next, more information is provided about each of 

the three international components of MOOTW, including 1) escort operations in the Gulf of Aden and 

waters off Somalia, 2) international rescue operations 

for Chinese citizens, and 3) humanitarian assistance 

and disaster relief (HA/DR) operations. 

PLA Navy Anti-Piracy Escort Operations 

in the Gulf of Aden.

One of the most visible MOOTW activities, covered 

on an almost daily basis in China’s press and online, 

began in December 2008, when the PLAN deployed 

its first of 12 task forces to date to the Gulf of Aden, 

which is sometimes identified in articles about the deployments as the Arabian Sea or the Horn of Africa. 

As Mingjiang Li pointed out in a China Brief article in 

January 2009:71

Overall, China’s handling of the Gulf of Aden mission has been quite sophisticated and skillful. China’s 

decision to embark on the mission signals the policymakers’ growing awareness of the necessity of using 

military means for the protection of Chinese commercial interests on the seas. The practical consideration 
472

of taking advantage of the opportunity to gain naval 

battle experience also played a big role in the decision. 

Political and military confidence notwithstanding, 

it is also notable that China acted with considerable 

caution before the official decision was made public, 

which reflects China’s concern that such naval action 

might be interpreted by other powers, especially regional states, as a harbinger of Chinese assertiveness.

The caution is demonstrated in China’s probe for international responses before the official announcement 

of the decision and the high-profile public relations 

campaigns that accompanied it. The Chinese strategic community first made the proposal in the Chinese 

media to test how other parties would respond. Then 

Chinese diplomats to the United Nations followed up 

with a statement that China was considering the possibility of using its naval force to strike down piracy in 

the Gulf of Aden. Having sensed a relatively calm reaction from other states and even encouraging signals 

from the United States, Beijing officially made the announcement and followed up with high-profile public 

relations campaigns. Spokesmen at the Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry and prominent Chinese analysts strenuously attempted to justify China’s decision 

on the ground of international law (the UN Security 

Council resolutions in particular), China being victims 

of the Somali pirates, China’s commercial interests, 

international maritime security, and the operations of 

other countries. A notable point that China constantly 

emphasized was that the naval action signifies China’s 

intention and behavior to be a responsible power. All 

these aimed at forestalling any negative international 

opinion on China’s naval expedition to the region.

For a good summary of the first 10 deployments, 

see Rear Admiral Michel McDevitt’s “PLA Naval Exercises with International Partners” in Learning by Doing: The PLA Trains at Home and Abroad. As he points 
473

out, “The anti-piracy mission embraced by the PLAN 

has been a dramatic ‘accelerant’ in the development 

of the PLAN into a genuine open ocean global naval 

force.”72 Andrew Erickson and Austin Strange also 

provide a good overview of the first 11 deployments in 

their article entitled “Selfish Superpower” No Longer?73

As of December 2012, the Chinese navy has dispatched, in 13 task groups, 34 warships, 28 helicopters, 

and 910 Special Operations Force (SOF) soldiers, escorting 4,984 ships in 532 batches. Among them, 1,510 

were Chinese mainland ships, 940 Hong Kong ships, 

74 Taiwan ships, and one Macao ship. The task forces 

also rescued two Chinese ships from pirates who had 

boarded them, and 22 Chinese ships which were being 

chased by pirates.74 Each task force has averaged three 

vessels, including a combination of one replenishment 

ship along with either one destroyer (DDG) and one 

frigate (FFG) or two FFGs, and about 800 officers and 

enlisted personnel. In addition, one landing platform 

dock (LPD) participated in a deployment, along with 

a DDG. Each task force has remained on station for 

approximately 3 to 4 months. Depending on where 

the task departs from, each task force takes about 3 

weeks to arrive in the gulf. For example, the 12th Task 

Force departed Zhoushan Support Base in Zhejiang 

Province (East Sea Fleet) on July 3, 2012, and met the 

11th Task Force on July 26 to turn over the mission.75

Altogether, as of late-July 2012, the first 11 task forces 

had escorted 4,734 vessels and protected 41 of them 

from pirate attacks.76

Besides learning how to remain at sea for lengthy 

periods of time, which is an anomaly for the PLAN, 

and dealing with all of the logistics, maintenance, and 

personnel issues this entails, the deployments have 

strengthened the PLAN’s foreign relations. While the 
474

PLAN has enhanced China’s image in some countries, 

India continues to see the PLAN as a near- to long-term 

maritime threat. Most Indian writers focus on what India considers the PLAN’s strategy in the Indian Ocean 

to defend its sea lines of communications (SLOCs) by 

adopting the “string of pearls” strategy (i.e., a series 

of diplomatic and military measures aimed at acquiring access and strategic bases along more than 10,0000 

kilometers of sea lanes.)77 In November 2011, an Indian Navy officer and research fellow, Commander 

Kamlesh Kumar Agnihotri, published an article that 

did not discuss the “string of pearls,” but did summarize what the PLAN had done in the military diplomacy realm in addition to escorting ships through the 

pirates’ lair:78

There have been many positive benefits for the PLAN 

on account of various maritime and diplomatic activities which were either associated with or complemented the presence of its ships in the Gulf of Aden. These 

warships have been visiting various Indian Ocean 

littoral countries including India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand on 

goodwill visits, while transiting these waters for the 

anti-piracy mission. The PLAN’s ships even crossed 

the Suez, ventured into the Mediterranean and visited 

ports in Egypt, Italy and Greece during August 2010. 

These ships, while on deployment, have regularly visited ports in Oman, UAE, Yemen, and Djibouti, either 

for operational turnaround, rest and recreation or to 

evade bad weather. The FFG Xuzhou (Type 054 Jiangkai-II class) was diverted from the anti-piracy task to 

the Libyan coast at the end of February 2011 to assist 

in the withdrawal of Chinese citizens from the crisis 

struck Libya and worked in tandem with the PLAAF 

and civil aviation evacuation effort.
475

Since the November 2011 article, the PLAN’s 11th 

Escort Task Force, which included the Qingdao DDG, 

Yantai FFG, and Weishanhu replenishment ship, expanded the PLAN’s military diplomacy footprint. For 

example, at the end of their 4-month deployment in 

August 2012, the Qingdao and Weishanhu visited Haifa 

Port in Israel.79 Meanwhile, the Yantai paid a port visit 

to Romania and Bulgaria.80 Each of the three visits was 

the first ever to those countries for a PLAN vessel. 

In addition, several of the task force commanders have had the opportunity to interact with the 

commanders of other countries’ vessels in the gulf 

by either hosting them or visiting their vessels. For 

example, on August 8, 2012, Rear Admiral Jong An 

Ho (ROK), commander of the Combined Task Force 

(CTF) 151, which is one of the international anti-piracy 

forces in the Gulf of Aden, and his party of five people 

visited the Yiyang FFG and Rear Admiral Zhou Xuming, who was the commander of the 12th Task Force.81

He arrived via helicopter from the ROK’s Wang Geon

destroyer. Meanwhile, Illinois Senator Mark Kirk visited the 8th PLAN Escort Task Force in April 2011.82

According to Erickson and Strange, the PLAN task 

forces have operated fairly independently instead of 

with other nations; however, they have conducted a 

few joint escorts with Russian vessels, and they have 

conducted joint anti-piracy exercises with Pakistan 

and South Korea.83

Cooperation initiatives are also unfolding within 

China. A symposium hosted by the PLAN in late-February 2012 brought together naval officials of 20 countries with anti-piracy activities in the Gulf of Aden. At 

the symposium, the PLAN provided each participant 

nation with its detailed escort schedules. Additionally, the PLAN stated it will begin to cooperate with 
476

Indian and Japan naval vessels in the region to the extent that all three navies are able to adjust each other’s 

schedules. However, the plan to cooperate with the 

Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) might 

be delayed or cancelled as a result of the ongoing dispute about the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands. 

International Rescue Operations for Chinese Citizens.

Although the PLAAF always has conducted domestic disaster relief operations, such as the 2008 

Sichuan earthquake, it has conducted only a few international HA/DR efforts, all of which appear to be 

a result of Hu’s four historic missions. According to 

Xinhua: 

Since the evacuation from the riots in East Timor in 

2006, the Chinese government has rolled out dozens of 

overseas evacuation operations, extending timely rescues to tens of thousands Chinese nationals trapped in 

danger. That effort became especially important after 

thousands of Chinese nationals in the troubled North 

African country of Libya were robbed and a dozen 

were wounded as they tried to flee the violence.84

The Financial Times stated that the Libya evacuation, which involved 32,000 people over a 1-week 

period, was the PRC’s largest ever.85 Xinhua noted 

that the swift evacuation also benefited from China’s 

growing national power and the ability to mobilize all 

of the necessary resources needed. Furthermore, the 

evacuation shows that the Chinese government has 

paid more and more attention to the safety and interests of the grassroots Chinese.86

During the evacuation, the Chinese government 

chartered seven ships, sent 15 civilian flights a day, 
477

and deployed military aircraft to bring 32,000 Chinese 

workers out of Libya in just 1 week. In addition to the 

Chinese working in oil and gas fields ran by China’s 

three big state-owned oil companies, tens of thousands of others were building railroads, power plants, 

airports, cement factories, apartment blocks, and official buildings.87

Based on specific guidance from Hu Jintao, in February to March 2011, the PLAAF sent four IL-76s to 

evacuate Chinese civilians from Libya. Altogether, the 

aircraft flew 1,655 Chinese from Libya to Khartoum, 

Sudan, and then brought 287 back to China.88

As noted earlier, the Xuzhou FFG was diverted 

from the anti-piracy task through the Suez Canal to 

the Libyan coast at the end of February 2011 to assist 

in the evacuation of Chinese citizens from the crisisstruck Libya, where it worked in tandem with the 

PLAAF and civil aviation evacuation effort. Although 

the Xuzhou did not carry any evacuees, it did escort a 

Greek passenger liner carrying 2,142 Chinese out of 

Libya to the island of Crete, where they were flown 

back to China on chartered Chinese civilian aircraft.89

After the Xuzhou finished its escort mission, it deployed along with the Zhoushan FFG to Durban, South 

Africa, for a port call.90 As Gabe Collins and Andrew 

Erickson point out: 

The Xuzhou’s mission marks an important milestone 

because, to the best of our knowledge, this was the 

first ever dispatch of a PLA military platform specifically assigned to help protect a non-combatant evacuation operation (NEO) to help PRC citizens trapped 

in an active conflict zone. Chinese policymakers now 

have a precedent for future military operations in areas where the lives and property of expatriate PRC 

citizens come under threat. We expect that the Chi-
478

nese people’s popular support for the mission will be 

high.91

Fortunately, the Xuzhou was already in the Gulf of 

Aden, which was only a few days away from Libya. 

As one Chinese scholar stated: 

China’s Libya mission is a milestone for the PLAN. The 

action has upgraded and expanded the navy’s mission 

to a new level in line with President Hu’s emphasis 

for it to be prepared for contingencies in distant regions to protect China’s national interests. This is not 

simply a naval mission but more importantly is a rising power’s strategy to use military assets to respond 

to its citizens’ needs. It serves to demonstrate how an 

independent country is confident enough in its capacity to protect its nationals overseas, action which also 

builds a positive image. It is important to note that the 

PLA naval ship was on a mission to solve a humanitarian crisis and not a ploy by China to wield political 

and military influence in the Middle East.92

As China expands its business activities to more 

countries where civil unrest occurs, citizens at home 

and abroad will expect even more support on a timely 

basis, especially if foreign countries are not available 

or willing to help. As Collins and Erickson conclude, 

“We think such contingencies are very likely as China’s expatriate workers continue seeking their fortunes in potentially volatile regions such as Africa.”93

Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Operations.

Under Hu Jintao, China became actively involved 

in international humanitarian assistance and disaster 

relief (HA/DR) operations. In April 2001, the PRC created the China International Search and Rescue Team 
479

(CISAR/中国国际救援队), which is composed of members of the PLA’s engineering corps and the PAP’s 

General Hospital. Since 2002, the PLA has undertaken 

36 urgent international humanitarian aid missions, 

and transported relief materials worth more than 1.25 

billion renminbi (RMB) to 27 disaster-stricken countries.94 Since May 2003, CISAR has joined six international rescue operations, including Indonesia twice, 

Iran, Algeria, Haiti, and Pakistan, and has become the 

UN’s 12th certified international heavy rescue team.95

In 2010, Chinese armed forces provided a detailed article about the Haiti relief efforts following a magnitude-7 earthquake.96 For example, within 4 days of the 

earthquake, the PLA’s General Logistics Department 

had already requisitioned and dispatched to Haiti 

the first aircraft with relief supplies, including water, 

food, generators, and emergency lighting equipment.

According to the U.S. DoD’s 2010 annual report to 

Congress on the PLA: 

China’s increasing focus on humanitarian assistance 

and disaster relief missions will require a unique set 

of technological developments and aircraft acquisitions, including strategic airlift, to support these missions. Although these capabilities would be necessary 

to support an immediate need, such as an earthquake 

or other natural disaster, they would also enhance its 

ability to support military operations along and beyond its borders.97

PLA Air Force HA/DR Operations.

One of the first PLAAF disaster relief efforts 

abroad occurred in early-May 1991, when it sent two 

MI-8 helicopters to Bangladesh for a month to provide 

support after a typhoon.98 One of the first operations 

by PLAAF transports occurred in March 2002, when 
480

a single transport flew 400 tons of supplies to Kabul, 

Afghanistan, following an earthquake.99 The PLAAF 

did not conduct any further foreign HA/DR support 

efforts until 2011. At that point, those efforts, like the 

Libya evacuation, were most likely guided by Hu Jintao’s historic missions.

In September 2011, four IL-76s from the 13th Air 

Division in the Guangzhou MRAF took supplies to 

Pakistan following severe flooding, and in October 

2011, three IL-76s took supplies to Thailand following 

flooding there.100 According to a China Air Force article, 

the PLAAF’s aircraft transported 30 million Renminbi worth of relief supplies from Urumqi to Pakistan, 

which was 3,000 kilometers away.101 Altogether, the 

aircraft carried 390 tons of supplies, consisting of 7,000 

items. In October, three IL-76s carried about 100 tons 

of relief supplies to Thailand.102

The fact that the PLAAF is now using its IL-76s 

for foreign evacuation and HA/DR missions is significant not only for its domestic and international 

implications, but also because these aircraft are being 

used even though the PLAAF does not have enough 

to support the 15th Airborne Corps or its deployment 

of new-generation aircraft around China or to foreign countries for exercises. Today, the PLAAF only 

has about 20 IL-76s, purchased from Russia starting 

in the early-1990s with the primary aim of supporting 

the PLAAF’s 15th Airborne Division.103 The 2003 DoD 

report stated that:

The PLA’s ability to project force beyond China’s land 

borders, while improving, remains limited due to a 

shortage of amphibious ships, heavy cargo carrying 

aircraft, long-range transports, and other logistical 

shortcomings.104
481

Although the PLAAF began negotiations to purchase up to 30 more IL-76s in 2005 to augment and/

or replace the first group of aircraft, which are getting older and require more maintenance, they finally 

signed a contract in 2010 with Rosoboronexport and 

the Ilyushin Aviation Company to purchase 10 used 

Il-76MD military transport planes. The first aircraft 

were delivered in January 2013.105 The 2011 DoD 

report stated: 

The PLA’s new missions are also driving discussions 

about the future of the PLAAF, where a general consensus has emerged that protecting China’s global 

interests requires an increase in the Air Force’s longrange transportation.106

PLA Navy HA/DR Operations.

Following the tsunami that hit Indonesia in 2004, 

the PLAN was unable to provide any type of HA/DR 

support, especially compared to what the U.S. Navy 

did. As a result of that embarrassment and a response 

to Hu Jintao’s historic missions, the PLAN began 

designing the Peace Ark (和平方舟) hospital ship in 

2005, which became operational in 2008.107 The Peace 

Ark, which is a converted passenger ship, has 300 

beds, eight operating rooms, and multiple rooms for 

other medical issues. The ship is primarily staffed by 

personnel from the PLAN’s General Hospital, 411th 

Hospital, and 413th Hospital. This ship operates out 

of Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province (East Sea Fleet). In 

September 2010, the Peace Ark embarked on a 3-month 

“Harmonious Mission (和谐使命) 2010” voyage to the 

Gulf of Aden with a total of 428 officers, including 

100 medical workers. While en route, the ship visited 

and provided medical treatment to people of Djibouti, 
482

Tanzania, Kenya, the Seychelles, and Bangladesh.108

In September 2011, the ship deployed for “Harmonious Mission 2011,” which lasted 105 days and included visits to Cuba, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, 

and Costa Rica.109 In addition, from 2009 to 2011, PLA 

medical teams held the “Peace Angel” joint operations 

for humanitarian medical assistance in Gabon and 

Peru, and participated in a disaster-relief exercise of 

the ARF in Indonesia.110 The PLA health service team 

staged a joint exercise on humanitarian assistance and 

disaster relief code-named “Cooperation Spirit (合

作精神) 2012” with its counterparts of Australia and 

New Zealand in October 2012.

Combined Exercises.

For all practical purposes, one can say that the issue of combined exercise (e.g., with foreign countries) 

came to fruition under Hu Jintao. Although China 

participated in a combined exercise with a foreign 

military for the first time in October 2002 when it conducted a joint anti-terrorism military exercise with 

Kyrgyzstan, the number, type, and scale of exercises 

clearly grew while Hu was the CMC chairman.111 The 

2009 and 2011 PLA conferences at the U.S. Army War 

College and their subsequent books—The PLA at Home 

and Abroad and Learning by Doing: The PLA Trains at 

Home and Abroad—have covered this topic in considerable detail. Therefore, this section provides only the 

highlights.

Over the past decade, the PLA has been involved in 

four basic types of combined exercises, which include 

from one to all three of the PLA’s services—Army, 

Navy, and Air Force. These are 1) army combined exercises, 2) maritime combined exercises, 3) SCO exer-
483

cises, and 4) air force combined exercises. No exercises 

to date have included Second Artillery (PLASAF). 

Army (PLAA) Combined Exercises.

According to the PRC’s 2010 Defense White Paper, 

as of December 2010, the PLA had held 44 joint military and training exercises with foreign troops. This 

was conducive to promoting mutual trust and cooperation, drawing on useful lessons, and accelerating the 

PLA’s modernization.112 The 2012 Defense White Paper

states that joint army training is gradually being increased in breadth and depth.113 Since 2007, the PLAA 

has conducted a number of joint training sessions with 

its counterparts of other countries. The PLAA joined 

the “Hand-in-Hand (携手) 2007” and “Hand-in-Hand 

2008” joint anti-terrorism training sessions with the 

Indian army, “Peacekeeping Mission (维和使命) 

2009” joint peacekeeping exercise with the Mongolian 

army, “Cooperation (合作) 2009” and “Cooperation 

2010” joint security training exercises with Singapore, 

“Friendship Operation (友谊行动) 2009” and “Friendship Operation 2010” joint military training of mountain troops with the Romanian army, and joint SOF 

unit training with the Turkish army. The PLAA special forces held the “Strike (突击) 2007,” “Strike 2008” 

and “Strike 2010” joint anti-terrorism training with 

their Thai counterparts, “Sharp Knife (利刃) 2011” 

and “Sharp Knife 2012” joint anti-terrorism training with their Indonesian counterparts, “Friendship 

(友谊) 2010” and “Friendship 2011” joint anti-terrorism training with their Pakistani counterparts, “Cooperation (合作) 2012” joint anti-terrorism training with 

their Colombian counterparts, and Cormorant Strike 

(鸬鹚打击) 2012 in Sri Lanka. In November 2012, joint 
484

anti-terrorism training was held with the Jordanian 

special forces and a joint humanitarian-assistance and 

disaster-relief tabletop exercise with the U.S. Army.

Maritime Combined Exercises.

The PLAN’s international exercises have primarily consisted of search and rescue exercises (SAREX), 

communication, formation sailing, diving, and escorting, but a few exercises have involved anti-piracy and 

counterterrorism training that included live firing 

against surface targets. Although the PLAN has gradually increased the number of its intra-service SAREXs, which began in the mid-1990s, it has gradually 

added several SAREX “firsts” with foreign navies:114

• In December 1998, a PLAN Houjian-class missile patrol boat from the Hong Kong Garrison 

participated for the first time in a SAREX organized by Hong Kong and the United States.

• The joint SAREX conducted off the coast of 

Shanghai in October 2003 with a visiting Pakistani naval vessel was the first SAREX held in 

Chinese territorial waters with a foreign counterpart. 

• During the visit by a task force to Southeast and 

South Asia, the PLAN conducted its first SAREX in foreign waters separately with Pakistani, 

Indian, and Thai naval forces in November and 

December 2005.

According to the 2010 and 2012 Defense White Papers, joint maritime exercises and training are being 

expanded.115 In recent years, the Chinese navy has 

taken part in the “Peace (和平)07,” “Peace 09” and 

“Peace 11” multinational maritime exercises hosted 
485

by Pakistan on the Arabian Sea. In 2007, the PLAN 

took part in the joint maritime exercise held in Singaporean waters within the framework of the Western 

Pacific Naval Symposium. Chinese and Thai marine 

corps held the “Blue Strike (蓝色突击) 2010” and “Blue 

Strike 2012” joint training exercises, which were the 

first ever joint exercises conducted by the PLAN’s marines.116 The 2010 exercise lasted for 15 days and was 

held near Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province. Blue Strike 

2012 involved 372 PLAN and 126 Thai marines.117 The 

PLA and Russian navies held the “Maritime Cooperation (海上联合)2012” military drill in the Yellow 

Sea off China’s east coast, focusing on joint defense of 

maritime traffic arteries. During mutual port calls and 

other activities, the PLAN has also carried out bilateral or multilateral maritime exercises and training in 

such tasks as communications, formation movement, 

maritime replenishment, cross-deck helicopter landing, firing at surface, underwater and air targets, joint 

escort, boarding and inspection, joint search and rescue and diving with its counterparts of India, France, 

the UK, Australia, Thailand, the United States, Russia, 

Japan, New Zealand, and Vietnam. 

Shanghai Cooperation Organization 

Combined Exercises.

The SCO was created in 2001 on the basis of the 

1996 Shanghai Five organization and currently consists of six countries (China, Russia, Kazakhstan, 

Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan). China did 

not hold its first combined exercise with one of the 

members (Russia) until 2005. According to the 2010 

and 2012 Defense White Papers, since 2009, the SCO 

has signed a succession of papers, such as the SCO 
486

Counter-Terrorism Convention. Furthermore, joint 

counterterrorism exercises continue to be formalized, 

such as the “Peace Mission (和平使命)” series among 

the militaries, and the “Norak-Anti-Terror (诺拉克反

恐) 2009” and “Saratov-Anti-Terror (萨拉托夫反恐) 

2010” initiatives among law enforcement and security 

departments.118 To date, China and other SCO member states have conducted nine bilateral and multilateral military exercises.

Hu Jintao supported the overall expansion of the 

SCO’s military exercise component. For example, in 

August 2007, Hu and the other leaders of the SCO, 

including Russian President Vladimir Putin, attended 

the “Peace Mission 2007” exercise that followed their 

SCO summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.119 In 2012, Hu 

hosted the SCO summit and emphasized the importance of the multilateral military exercises as part of 

the overall relationship.120

While several bilateral exercises have taken place, 

the “Peace Mission” exercises have been the largest exercises to date. Since 2005, they have carried 

out a series of “Peace Mission” joint exercises at the 

campaign level with strategic impact. They were the 

“Peace Mission 2005” China-Russia joint military exercise, “Peace Mission 2007” joint anti-terrorism military exercise by SCO members, “Peace Mission 2009” 

China-Russia joint anti-terrorism military exercise, 

“Peace Mission 2010” joint anti-terrorism military 

exercise by SCO members and “Peace Mission 2012” 

joint anti-terrorism military exercise by SCO members. 

These exercises served to warn and deter terrorist, secessionist, and extremist forces. The capabilities of the 

SCO members are constantly being enhanced to deal 

jointly with new challenges and new threats. So far, 

each country except Uzbekistan has hosted portions of 
487

the exercise, which often takes place in phases in two 

countries. Furthermore, Uzbekistan has frequently 

chosen only to participate symbolically by sending officers to the command post exercise because Tashkent 

has disagreed with how the multilateral consensus in 

the SCO is managed.121 So far, all of the exercises have 

involved the Army and Air Force, but only the first 

exercise involved the Navy.122

Air Force Combined Exercises.

Of particular note, the PLAAF’s airborne branch 

has been involved in Peace Mission exercises, including deploying to Russia during “Peace Mission 2007,” 

but has also begun to hold exercises outside the “Peace 

Mission” umbrella.123 For example, China’s airborne 

troops joined their Belarusian counterparts in the joint 

training code-named “Divine Eagle (雄鹰) 2011” and 

“Divine Eagle 2012,” held respectively in July 2011 

and November 2012.124 Although its previous exercises occurred with countries on China’s border, the 

“Cooperation 2011” exercise in Venezuela that involved 21 airborne special forces troops was a significant change in the model. An eight-page article in the 

new periodical, China’s Air Traffic Control, provided 

fairly detailed information about the 21-day exercise, 

which it described as undertaking the tasks of special 

reconnaissance, supporting main force operations, 

implementing unconventional warfare, and participating in MOOTW.125 In addition, PLAAF Su-27s and 

J-11s have been involved in exercises with Turkey 

(“Anatolian Eagle 2010”) and Pakistan (“Shaheen 

2011”), respectively.126
488

EMPLOYING MILITARY DIPLOMACY 

TO ENHANCE CHINA’S SOFT POWER

According to Joseph S. Nye, Jr., over the past decade, China’s economic and military might has grown 

impressively, which has frightened its neighbors into 

looking for allies to balance China’s increase in hard 

power. But if a country can also increase its soft power 

of attraction, its neighbors feel less need to balance its 

power. Understanding this, in 2007, President Hu Jintao told the 17th Party Congress that China needed to 

invest more in its soft power resources. To accomplish 

this, China is spending billions of dollars to increase 

its soft power. Its aid programs to Africa and Latin 

America are not limited by the institutional or human 

rights concerns that constrain Western aid. The Chinese style emphasizes high-profile gestures, such as 

building stadiums. Meanwhile, the elaborately staged 

2008 Beijing Olympics enhanced China’s reputation 

abroad, and the 2010 Shanghai Expo attracted more 

than 70 million visitors. China has also created several hundred Confucius Institutes around the world 

to teach its language and culture. China Radio International now broadcasts in English around the clock, 

and, in 2009-10, Beijing invested $8.9 billion in external publicity work, including 24-hour cable news 

channels. But for all its efforts, China has had a limited 

return on its investment. A recent BBC poll shows that 

opinions of China’s influence are positive in much of 

Africa and Latin America, but predominantly negative in the United States, and everywhere in Europe, 

as well as in India, Japan, and South Korea. Furthermore, in the aftermath of the Middle East revolutions, 

China is clamping down on the Internet and jailing 
489

human rights lawyers, once again torpedoing its softpower campaign.127

Based on a review of PLA Daily and China Military 

Science for China’s application of military soft power 

(军事软实力), it appears that, although the concept of 

military soft power was noted prior to 2004, it was 

only formally applied to the PLA under Hu Jintao.128

A search of PLA Daily for information about soft power found a total of 561 articles; however, only nine of 

them were published prior to September 2004 when 

Hu Jintao became the CMC chairman, which indicates 

that at least the concept of military soft power was initiated under Hu. For example, a representative article 

from June 2007 stated that, in the information age, the 

PLA must create a strong propaganda system based 

on meticulous planning that covers the full range of 

military diplomacy to show the military’s presence 

and impact across a broad spectrum.129

The first China Military Science article to cite the 

term, published in 2010, states that military soft power 

refers to how military culture, military spirit, military 

image, military diplomacy, and other nonmaterial 

forces influence and shape the government and military in order to be able to achieve military strategic 

objectives.130 The second article, published in 2011, 

states that national defense soft power is one component of national soft power, and, from a national 

security perspective, researchers must focus on strategy and integrated national power.131 The first article 

states that one aspect of achieving military soft power 

requires dealing with deterrence (威慑力). Like other 

countries, China now engages in military parades and 

combined-arms, joint, and combined military exercises as a means of shaping its image of strength and 

deterrent capabilities among foreign countries. For 

example, the second article cites two joint exercises—
490

“Strengthening Troops (砺兵) 2008” and “Stride (跨

越) 2009”—and two combined exercises—“Peace Missions (和平使命) 2005” and “2007”—as tools to help 

shape foreign views of the PLA.132 Of particular note, 

both Hu Jintao and Russia’s President Putin observed 

the “Peace Mission 2007” exercise in the Chelyabinsk 

Region of Russia to put their imprint on the series of 

exercises.133

The second article to cite the term also discusses the 

CMC’s ability to enhance China’s soft power through 

the creation of the MND (国防部) Information Office (新闻事务局) in September 2007 and a new MND 

website, with both English and Chinese versions, that 

came online on August 20, 2009.134 Although the Information Office was created under the Foreign Affairs 

Office (外事办公室) in 2007, director and spokesman 

Senior Colonel Hu Changming (胡昌明) did not make 

his debut until the afternoon of May 18, 2008, at a 

press briefing concerning the Sichuan earthquake that 

had just occurred.135 Since April 2010, Senior Colonel 

Geng Yansheng (耿雁生) has been the director and 

concurrently the MND spokesman (国防部新闻发言

人) at all press conferences.136 Although the director 

of the Information Office also serves as the primary 

spokesman, the deputy directors also fulfill that function. Starting in 2012, MND press conferences have 

been held monthly rather than on an ad hoc basis.137

There sometimes appears to be a lack of coordination 

between the MND monthly press conference and Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ (MOFA) more frequent press 

conferences. For example, when the United States 

announced the rotation of Marines through Darwin, 

MND blasted cold war thinking, while MOFA was 

much milder.
491

One of the goals of soft power is apparently to help 

influence foreign media concerning the PLA through 

the use of the PLA’s propaganda and publicity system. For example, the 2010 China Military Science article provided statistics for the number of dispatches 

concerning the PLA carried by six foreign news agencies in 2005 that cited information from China’s official Xinhua News Agency as a primary source. The 

foreign news agencies were the Associated Press (AP), 

Reuters, Agence France-Presse (AFP), Itar-Tass, Kyodo 

News, and Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA). 

Altogether, about 5,100 citations from Xinhua were 

noted in the six news agencies’ dispatches. The foreign dispatches included either the full Xinhua article 

or parts of the article. The China Military Science article 

stated that, as part of globalization, the inclusion of 

Xinhua’s information was yet another form of military 

soft power. Although not stated, other media, such as 

military specials shown on CCTV, are also shown on 

foreign broadcasts and receive considerable attention. 

Closely linked to the issue of creating military soft 

power is the lack of agreement concerning military 

transparency.

In addition to the role of the media, the PLA has 

emphasized the importance of the role of its military 

attachés and PLA delegation visits abroad in promoting military soft power. For example, the Director of 

MND’s Foreign Affairs Office stated, “Military diplomacy is an important window for displaying the image of our armed forces, and every officer and soldier 

is an image ambassador during foreign exchanges.”138

Although no annual figures are available, including 

in the biennial Defense White Papers, Defense Minister 

Liang Guanglie stated in 2008 that the PLA was sending at least 150 military delegations abroad on visits, 
492

and at least 200 foreign military delegations visited 

China.139 In the same article, Liang stated that, besides promoting military soft power, PLA delegations 

also promote China’s national interests. For example, 

when Liang visited Italy in 2008, he reported that he 

was able to receive a commitment from Italy’s Defense 

Minister that Tibet was China’s internal political matter, and that Italy did not intend to interfere.140

Difficulties Establishing Hotlines.

Although China began negotiating for hotlines 

with various countries during the early-2000s under 

Jiang, hotlines were finally established under Hu with 

the United States (2008) and India (2010); however, 

the results have been minimal.141 In addition, Beijing 

has been negotiating with Tokyo for several years, but 

a hotline has yet to be established because of continuing maritime disputes.142

Concerning the U.S.-China hotline, after staff-level 

preliminary discussions in 2003, the DoD formally 

proposed a hotline for crisis management and confidence building with the PLA at the DCT in February 

2004. During Defense Secretary Gates’ visit to China 

in November 2007, the PLA agreed in principle to set 

up a defense telephone link (DTL) with the Pentagon. 

The two sides signed an agreement in February 2008. 

Then, in May 2008, PACOM Commander Admiral 

Keating used the hotline in its first operational use to 

communicate with PLA DCOGS Lieutenant General 

Ma Xiaotian about the U.S. Air Force’s use of two C-17 

transports to deliver earthquake relief supplies to Sichuan. However, during the confrontation in March 

2009 when PRC ships aggressively harassed the U.S. 

surveillance ships, Secretary Gates told reporters that 

he did not use the hotline.143
493

PLAAF Educational Exchanges.

Finally, the PLA hosts various courses for foreign 

military officers and sends officers abroad for short- or 

long-term courses. This section provides information 

on the PLAAF Command College’s program, which is 

representative of the PLA as a whole.144

The PLAAF Command College forms the foundation for air force educational exchanges, including 

sending students and faculty abroad and hosting foreign officers. These exchanges are rapidly expanding 

to allow PLAAF officers, including pilots, to interact 

on a wider range of issues with foreign air forces. 

Each year, a PLAAF deputy chief of staff leads students from the college’s Campaign Command Course 

abroad for 2 weeks to allow them to gain first-hand 

knowledge of foreign air forces. For example, about 

30 students visited the United States in July 1998; 41 

students visited Australia and New Zealand in June 

1999; and 58 students, including eight major generals, 

visited India in November 2003. The college also has 

sent faculty members abroad to several countries, including Russia and Italy, to study for 1 to 3 years. Other PLAAF officers have studied in military colleges in 

Britain, Russia, Pakistan, Italy, and France.

In 2001, the college began providing training for 

foreign field-grade officers. As of early-2012, more 

than 600 air force officers from 75 countries had attended. The courses began with students from only 

one country, one language, or one specialty at a time, 

but that model was replaced in 2009, whereby students 

from multiple countries, languages, and specialties attend together. The new model also included PLAAF 

students, including pilots, for the first time. It was 
494

reported that 21 foreign students, including 11 pilots, 

came from 12 countries such as Bangladesh, Malaysia, 

Uganda, Nigeria, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Singapore, and Tanzania and attended one course. Each 

PLAAF officer was paired with a foreign counterpart 

during the course, and they all spoke English.

From September 2011 to January 2012, the college 

held a course that included foreign and PLAAF pilots 

with a focus on tactics, combat methods, and simulated training. Besides six PLAAF pilots, a total of 69 

officers, including several pilots, from 41 countries 

participated, including Venezuela, the Philippines, 

Pakistan, Chile, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia. During 

the training, the pilots simulated various tactics and 

techniques, including close-in engagements as well as 

reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance. 

In addition, the college offers longer courses for 

foreign students. On July 15, 2005, 88 students from 

25 countries graduated for a 1-year course with an unidentified curriculum.

TRANSPARENCY

Ever since the United States and China established 

diplomatic relations and created military attaché offices in 1979, the issue of transparency has been a 

sore point in the overall military relationship. The 

PLA began to allow more transparency under Jiang 

Zemin, and increased the level of transparency under 

Hu, much of which is a direct result of the growth in 

the Internet and social media. In addition, the PLA 

has begun to publish more books and periodicals that 

are available to the public about its history, organizational structure, doctrine, personnel, and education 

and training. As noted earlier, the MND website, its 
495

monthly news briefings, embassy and consular websites, and a growing number of PLA-related articles 

on CCTV have allowed a greater understanding of the 

PLA. 

To have a better understanding of each other, DoD 

and the PLA have interacted since the early-1980s at 

multiple levels, including senior-level visits, strategic talks, functional exchanges, education exchanges, 

agreements, commissions, training, and exercises.145

That said, however, the United States and other countries have continued to encourage the PLA to become 

even more transparent by allowing visits to more 

operational units, defense factories, and training 

exercises.

In essence, DoD has requested that the PLA provide information on the following topics:

• strategic intentions and capabilities;

• military budget and defense expenditures;

• personnel structure to include the number of 

officers, civilian cadre, and enlisted personnel 

in each service and branch by specialty and 

rank/grade; and,

• order of battle, to include the number and types 

of weapons in the active duty inventory and 

under development, as well as an open list of 

military organizations using their true unit designators (TUDs) rather than military unit cover 

designators (MUCDs).

To date, DoD has yet to receive what it considers to 

be sufficient answers to these questions, even though 

senior DoD leaders have visited previously locations 

that were off limits to all foreign military delegations. 

For example, in 2005, Secretary of Defense Donald 

Rumsfeld was the first foreign defense leader to visit 
496

Second Artillery Headquarters, and, in 2011, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen saw 

a CSS-7 (M-11) short-range ballistic missile at a Second Artillery unit, sat in a Su-27 fighter, attended a 

counterterrorist command post exercise, and visited a 

Yuan-class submarine.146

The 2011 DoD report to Congress summarized the 

current situation by stating: 

Overall, the transparency of China’s military and security affairs has improved gradually in recent years, 

highlighted by its publication of Defense White Papers, 

establishment of an MND spokesperson, the launch 

of an official MND website, wider media coverage 

of military issues, and growing availability of books 

and professional journals on military and security topics. However, there remains uncertainty about how 

China will use its growing capabilities. The latest version highlights the PLA’s growing focus on military 

operations other than war, but overall, the document 

presents only incremental new insights into the PLA’s 

structure, doctrine, and capabilities. In addition, estimating actual PLA military expenditures is a difficult 

process due to the lack of accounting transparency and 

China’s still incomplete transition from a command 

economy. Moreover, China’s published military budget does not include major categories of expenditure, 

such as foreign procurement.147

On the other hand, the PLA believes that it has become more transparent, but that there should be limits 

to its transparency. For example, the 2011 edition of 

China PLA Military Terminology has a new entry for 

military transparency that states:

Strategic intent and military capabilities are the most 

fundamental and important transparency issues, and 

they are the most important indicators of whether a 
497

country poses a threat to the international community. Each country makes its own determination about 

how transparent it wants to be concerning these issues 

based on its national interest.148

These types of issues are also covered in the CMC’s 

“PLA Security Regulations” (“解放军保密条例”), which 

was first issued in 1963 and has been updated four 

times, including the latest version in 2011.149 Following the release of the 1998 version, a lengthy PLA Daily

article stated: 

In recent years, there have been some shocking cases 

of military secrets being leaked. Some people have 

talked thoughtlessly about the designation of military 

units, active equipment, the location of their stations, 

and other military secrets, and have even released information involving military secrets on television and 

radio as well as in the open press.150

According to the 2011 regulations, classified material is divided into 13 types, which can be generalized 

as everything that has to do with the organizational 

structure, strategy, operations, tactics, weapons and 

equipment, personnel, research and development, 

budgets and acquisition, training, intelligence, deployments, missions, political work, mobilization, 

and communications.151

The 2010 Defense White Paper addressed transparency by stating: 

China attaches great importance to military transparency, and makes efforts to promote mutual trust with 

other countries in the military sphere. For example, 

since 2007, China has begun to report to the UN Standardized Instrument for Reporting Military Expenditures. China gives weight to the UN Register of Con-
498

ventional Arms and continues to submit data to the 

Register on conventional arms transfer in the seven 

categories covered by the Register.

Of note, the 2012 Defense White Paper did not even 

mention the issue of transparency.

In 2012, the Director of MND’s Foreign Affairs 

Office stated: 

Military transparency is an issue that we always talk 

about during external exchanges. To be frank, the 

United States has always asked China to have military 

transparency. In fact, the degree of transparency that 

the United States armed forces have during exchanges 

with us is not high. For example, when we visited a 

United States Air Force base, the U.S. side roped off an 

F-22 aircraft, and they did not allow us to get close to it. 

However, when the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs 

of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, visited China in 2011, 

we not only let him visit the Su-27 but also invited him 

to sit in the cockpit. Even U.S. reporters were amazed 

by the degree of our openness. In fact, all countries 

have the right to independently determine the time, 

content, and degree of military transparency toward 

the outside world according to their own security interests. One important thing is that the Chinese armed 

forces are sincere about openness. If some people always look at the Chinese armed forces with prejudice 

and bias, then this is because something is wrong with 

their position. As for this, there is no need for us to pay 

too much attention to it. Instead, we should remain 

cool-headed and calm.152

Although the PLA has not yet satisfied DoD’s specific requests for information on strategy, funding, 

personnel, and order of battle, it became much more 

transparent in several areas under Hu Jintao. The 

amount of information and detail about the PLA in 
499

the biennial Defense White Paper, which was first published in 1998, grew considerably under Hu. Specifically, one of the key components of the White Paper is 

the PLA’s growing interaction with foreign militaries, 

which, as discussed earlier, expanded under Hu. In 

addition, one can search the Internet and find supporting articles published by Xinhua, PLA Daily, or 

the MND for just about every detail in the White Paper. 

Besides the introduction of the MND website in 2007, 

the PLA increased its publication of periodicals and 

newspapers under Hu as follows:

• The 80-page PLA Pictorial, which has been in 

existence for several decades, is now published 

twice a month and is available online.

• In 2009, the PLA component of Xinhua began 

publishing a new 110-page quarterly journal 

in Chinese and English entitled China Armed 

Forces (中国军队). Since January 2012, it has 

been published bimonthly. Of note, although 

this periodical has had lead articles written by 

the defense minister, the director of each of the 

four general departments, and the commander 

of the PLAN, PLAAF, and PLASAF, as well as 

several MR commanders, there has not been a 

single article through late-2012 about or written by either of the two uniformed CMC vice 

chairmen. It is not clear why this has occurred 

other than their activities are covered by PLA 

Pictorial.

• China Air Force, which began in 1986 as a 

black-and-white bimonthly publication that 

rarely discussed current events, is now a 100-

page monthly publication with color photos of 

weapons and training events.
500

• The PLA’s service and military region newspapers, which were previously for internal use 

only, are now openly available, and the number of issues has increased from three to four or 

five per week for some of them.

• In September 2012, the PLA announced a new 

series of 10 books that will be published in three 

groups. The first group comprises three books, 

titled Chinese People’s Liberation Army, PLA’s 

Navy, and PLA’s Air Force. Unfortunately, none 

of these books have much substance. The second group of books, published in 2013, will include The PLA Aviation Corps, The PLA Marines, 

and The PLA Airborne Force. The third group of 

books, to be published in 2014, contains four 

volumes: The Chinese Naval Escorts in Aden Gulf, 

Chinese Peacekeepers Overseas, The Chinese Army 

and International Security Cooperation, and The 

Chinese Army and Humanitarian Relief. They will 

be published in six languages, including English, French, Russian, Spanish, and Arabic in 

hard copy and as e-books, as well as audio and 

video versions.153

• In September 2012, the PLA National Defense 

University’s College of Defence Studies (国

防大学防务学院) created a website about the 

college and the PLA that has tabs for five languages (Chinese, English, Russian, French, and 

Spanish).154

Although most foreigners understand the PLA’s 

current rank system, they do not understand the 

15-grade system. As a result, one of the most significant issues of transparency that has occurred both 
501

internally and externally since the PLA was formed 

in 1949 and ranks were reinstituted in 1988 was the 

addition in 2007 of ribbons on uniforms to identify the 

officer’s grade.155 The ribbons contribute to the understanding of the PLA’s officer structure, and hence the 

PLA’s command, control, and coordination structure. 

The new uniforms issued in 2007 also included name 

tags and patches with the person’s organization (GSD, 

GPD, Air Force, Navy, etc.). Taken together, information about officer grades, ranks, and positions available in the PLA’s growing open source media helps 

analysts determine the PLA’s organizational structure.

Finally, when taken together, these publications 

plus information available on the Internet from the 

PLA provides a much broader understanding of the 

PLA than prior to when Hu became the CMC chairman. One of the biggest complaints from the U.S. 

military, however, is that most of the information is 

available in Chinese only, and, therefore, it is still a 

transparency issue. Although the same could be said 

about the lack of information published by the U.S. 

military in Chinese, one of the biggest differences is 

that China has a high proportion of analysts who can 

read English, while the U.S. military has only a very 

small percentage of analysts who can read Chinese. 

CONCLUSIONS

As noted in the opening paragraph, the biggest 

challenge is to make a distinction between what occurred under Hu’s leadership and what occurred as a 

result of his personal initiatives. For the most part, the 

differences are not evident; however, there are clear 

trends in what occurred under Hu. While Hu’s collected speeches and writings will offer more information, 
502

they will not be available for at least a couple of years. 

For example, Jiang Zemin’s selected works were published in late-2006 in Chinese and 2011 in English.

Based on the information available, it appears that 

employing military diplomacy to enhance China’s 

soft power was clearly implemented as a concept 

under Hu. In addition, the PLA began to become actively involved in international HA/DR and MOOTW 

activities as a direct result of Hu’s four historic missions. Although the PLA’s involvement in strategic 

dialogues and consultations, combined exercises, and 

UN peacekeeping operations began under Jiang, they 

increased under Hu. Finally, the amount of transparency, including the creation of the MND spokesman, 

clearly expanded under Hu, even though there are 

still key areas that remain opaque.

Under Xi Jinping as the CMC Chairman, the PLA 

will most likely continue to expand its global involvement in HA/DR and combined exercises, as well as 

send more delegations abroad to learn from other 

militaries. Should there be civil unrest in countries 

where Chinese are living and working, the PLA will 

most likely become more actively involved in helping to evacuate them to safety. All of these events are 

slowly helping the PLA to become more confident and 

to prepare for any type of future conflict at or beyond 

its borders.
503

ENDNOTES - CHAPTER 11

1. The Chine se version of PLA Daily, which is sometimes 

identified as Liberation Army Daily, was accessed using East View 

Press’s online database that begins in the 1980s. The online version of PLA Daily is available from www.chinamil.com.cn/, and the 

English version is available from english.chinamil.com.cn/.

2. The 2012 Defense White Paper, published in April 2013, is 

available from eng.mod.gov.cn/TopNews/2013-04/16/content_

4442750.htm (in English) and www.mod.gov.cn/affair/2013-04/

16/content_4442839.htm (in Chinese). 

3. Heidi Holz and Kenneth Allen, “Military Exchanges with 

Chinese Characteristics: The People’s Liberation Army Experience with Foreign Relations,” in Roy Kamphausen, David Lai, 

and Andrew Scobell, eds., The PLA at Home and Abroad: Assessing 

the Operational Capabilities of China’s Military, Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College, June 2010; Roy 

Kamphausen, David Lai, and Travis Tanner, eds., Learning by 

Doing: The PLA Trains at Home and Abroad, Carlisle, PA: Strategic 

Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College, 2012.

4. “Hu Jintao Presides over Central Military Commission 

Meeting,” PLA Daily, February 2, 2009, p. 1.

5. Gao Jiquan, “Ministry of National Defense Foreign Affairs 

Office Director Qian Lihua Interviewed on Military Diplomacy,” 

PLA Daily online, September 25, 2012, available from military.china.com.cn/2012-09/25/content_26623447.htm. 

6. The PLA’s terms for military diplomacy and military exchanges are junshi waijiao (军事外交) and junshi waiwang (军事外

往), respectively. 

7. Chen Zhiyong, “Retrospect and Thinking of the 60 Years 

of Military Diplomacy in the New China,” China Military Science, 

No. 5, Issue No. 107, 2009, pp. 34-39.

8. Li Meng, “Top Ten Firsts of Chinese Military Diplomacy 

from 2002 to 2012,” PLA Daily, September 25, 2012, available from 

english.peopledaily.com.cn/90786/7960693.html. The information 

came from MND’s Information Office.
504

9. As noted later in the chapter, this is not accurate. One of the 

first PLAAF disaster relief efforts abroad occurred in early-May 

1991, when it sent two MI-8 helicopters to Bangladesh for a month 

to provide support after a typhoon.

10. Gao Jiquan, “Ministry of National Defense Foreign Affairs 

Office Director Qian Lihua Interviewed on Military Diplomacy,” 

PLA Daily online, September 25, 2012, available from military.china.com.cn/2012-09/25/content_26623447.htm. Additional information on PLA military diplomacy goals can be found in Holz and 

Allen, “Military Exchanges with Chinese Characteristics.”

11. Most of the information in this paragraph comes from 

Holz and Allen, “Military Exchanges with Chinese Characteristics,” pp. 435-437. Information about the number of attaché offices 

in 1988 comes from the files of Kenneth Allen, who was assigned 

to the U.S. Defense Attaché office in Beijing at the time. In 1998, 

China reportedly had military attaché offices in more than 90 Chinese embassies abroad, and approximately 60 countries had military attaché offices in China. For information on the number of attaché offices in 1998, see 1998 Defense White Paper, Beijing, China: 

Information Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of 

China, July 1998. For a list of the foreign military attaché offices in 

Beijing in 1988 and 1998, see Kenneth W. Allen and Eric A. McVadon, Appendix B, China’s Foreign Military Relations, Washington 

DC: The Henry L. Stimson Center, October 1999, p. 95. 

12. The information in this table comes from the biennial 

Defense White Paper for the years 1998 through 2012.

13. A list of all the 185 countries that currently have embassies in China is available from www.fmprc.gov.cn/chn/pds/fw/lbfw/

zhwjgmd_lbfw/. 

14. Mohamed Abdi, “China Pledges Military Aid to Uganda,” 

December 1, 2011; and Michelle Cantos, “USAFRICOM: China 

Pledges $2.3m to Uganda in Military Assistance,” Agence-France 

Press, November 30, 2011, available from c4ads.org/latest/?=p403. 
505

15. Although the 2010 Defense White Paper did not have any 

statistics, based on correspondence in mid-2012 with the U.S. Defense Attaché Office in Beijing, 103 foreign countries had military 

attaché offices in Beijing.

16. Of note, several PLA attachés have served for up to 5-6 

years in Washington, DC.

17. Su Yincheng, Zhang Yanzhong, and Wu Xu, “August 1st 

Voice: Opening the Secret of the World of China’s Military Attachés, Dual Identities Shoulder Dual Missions,” People’s Daily

online, December 2, 2011, available from military.people.com.cn/

GB/16471538.html. 

18. Information is based on correspondence with the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

19. Interviews with Taiwan Air Force personnel and a former 

U.S Assistant Army Attaché to Mongolia.

20. Discussion with Lieutenant Colonel Chris Pultz in October 2012.

21. Information is based on correspondence with the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Some of the Navy and Air Force attachés are concurrently the Defense Attaché, so these are not necessarily considered permanent Navy and Air Force billets as the billet is rotated 

among the services. Only a few countries have permanent navy 

and air force billets in addition to the defense attaché billet.

22. For a Better World: Jiang Zemin’s Overseas Visits (为了世界

更美好:江泽民出访纪实), Beijing, China: World Affairs Press of 

China, July 2006.

23. See english.gov.cn/2008-04/03/content_935716.htm. 

24. Information on the Group of Eight (G8), formed in 1975, is 

available from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G8. Although China is not an 

official member, it has attended the annual meetings since 2005 as 

part of a grouping known as the G8+5. Information on the Group 

of Twenty (G20), created in 2008, is available from en.wikipedia.

org/wiki/G-20_major_economies. Information on BRICS, formed in 
506

2009, is available from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRICS. Information on 

the APEC forum, formed in 1989 and which China joined in 1991, 

is available from www.apec.org/. 

25. For a Better World: Jiang Zemin’s Overseas Visits, pp. 568-573.

26. For example, a photo of Hu arriving in Italy for the 2009 

G-8 Summit shows an Army colonel standing behind him with an 

attaché aiguillette on his shoulder. Information is available from 

english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90883/6693481.html.

27. “Russia shows Chinese defence minister possible impact 

of US missile shield,” BBC, March 24, 2013, available from www.

accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-323487635/russia-shows-chinese-defence.html. 

28. The information concerning defense personnel traveling 

with the President came from discussions with former U.S. Government officials.

29. The information in this paragraph for travel through mid2009 comes from Holz and Allen, “Military Exchanges with Chinese Characteristics,” June 2010, p. 441. 

30. Information since mid-2009 is from individual volumes 

of Qu Xing, ed., International Situation and China’s Foreign Affairs, 

Beijing, China: Shijie Zhishi Chubanshe. Each volume has a separate section on PLA foreign diplomacy. Additional information 

comes from Zhang Zhe, “Liang Guanglie Visits the Three Countries in America and Europe,” PLA Pictorial, Issue 2, June 2012, 

pp. 4-5; Zhang Zhe, “Liang Guanglie Visits Cambodia for ASEAN 

Defense Ministers’ Conference,” PLA Pictorial, Issue 2, June 2012; 

Zhang Zhe, “Chen Bingde Visits Three Central Asian Countries,” 

PLA Pictorial, Issue 1, July 2012, pp. 32-36; Wu Xiaoyi, Guo Hngtao, and Li Xiaowei, “Xu Caihou Visits Mongolia,” PLA Pictorial, Issue 2, June 2012, pp. 4-7; “Xu Caihou Visits Two European 

Countries,” PLA Pictorial, Issue 2, August 2012, p. 18-20.

31. “India and China to Hold Joint Military Exercises,” available from www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-19473365#story_

continues_1. Liang’s visit was the first to India by a defense minister in 8 years. China and India began holding combined exercises 
507

in 2007, but the exercises were put on hold after 2008 following a 

series of diplomatic disagreements over visa issues.

32. PRC 2010 Defense White Paper.

33. The additional topics were taken from a compilation of 

multiple sources.

34. “State councillor tells Negroponte China ‘hopes for healthy 

ties with US’,” Xinhua in English, January 7, 2009. A search of Xinhua articles indicates that China has established strategic dialogues with at least the following countries and organizations: 

Japan, the United States, Brazil, India, South Africa, Singapore, 

Germany, Mexico, Pakistan, France, Australia, the UK, the ROK, 

Israel, and the EU. Most of these were established in 2008.

35. “First Chinese military official attends China-US Strategic 

Dialogue,” Xinhua in English, January 17, 2008.

36. “U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue 2011 Outcomes of the Strategic Track,” U.S. Department of State Media 

Note, Office of the Spokesman, May 10, 2011, available from www.

state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2011/05/162967.htm. 

37. PRC 2010 Defense White Paper.

38. Chen Hegao and Qian Tong, “Hu Jintao Attends, Delivers 

Speech at SCO Summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan,” Xinhua in English, August 30, 2008.

39. PRC 2010 Defense White Paper. The 2012 Defense White Paper did not discuss strategic relationships.

40. Information available from www.defpro.com/news/details/38651/. 

41. Shirley A. Kan, “U.S.-China Military Contacts: Issues for 

Congress,” June 19, 2012, p. 26, available from www.fas.org/sgp/crs/

natsec/RL32496.pdf. 

42. PRC 2010 Defense White Paper.
508

43. Ibid.

44. Ibid.

45. Dai Feng and Feng Guoxiong, “2012 Zhongshan Forum,” 

PLA Daily, July 4, 2012, available from eng.mod.gov.cn/MiltaryExchanges/2012-07/04/content_4382811.htm.

46. “14 countries participate in Western Pacific Naval Symposium,” Antaranews.com, June 13, 2012, available from www.

antaranews.com/en/news/82814/14-countries-participate-in-westernpacific-naval-symposium. 

47. PRC 2008 and 2010 Defense White Papers.

48. Liu Liqun and Zhou Feng, “The Third ‘Xiangshan Forum’ 

held in Beijing,” PLA Daily in English, October 25, 2012, available 

from eng.mod.gov.cn/DefenseNews/2010-10/25/content_4203316.htm. 

49. See “China’s Growing Role in UN Peacekeeping,” Asia 

Report No. 166, New York: International Crisis Group, April 17, 

2009, for a detailed history of China’s role since the 1960s.

50. See www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/operations/history.shtml. 

51. 2012 Defense White Paper.

52. See www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/contributors/2012/july12_1.

pdf. The other 15 countries ahead of China were (alphabetically): 

Bangladesh (most troops with 9,098), Brazil, El Salvador, Ethiopia, 

Ghana, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Nepal, Nigeria, Palau, Rwanda, 

Senegal, South Africa, and Uruguay. 

53. PRC 2010 and 2012 Defense White Papers.

54. The institute’s website, www.peaceopstraining.org/poti/, has 

tabs for Chinese, English, Spanish, French, Russian, and Arabic. 

55. “China’s Participation in UN Peacekeeping Operations 

(1990-2008),” available from www.china-un.org/eng/zt/wh/t534321.

htm. 
509

56. “Chinese Peacekeepers in the African Wilderness Can 

Surf the Internet,” February 14 2003, available from www.cctv.

com/news/other/20030214/100287.shtml; “The Second Group of 

Chinese Peacekeepers in the Sudan Begin Training in Beijing,” 

July 31, 2012, available from www.mod.gov.cn/djxw/2012-07/31/

content_4388129.htm. 

57. Information on the bureau’s personnel is based on an interview with U.S. Army Attaché, Lieutenant Colonel Chris Pultz, 

who served in Mongolia from 2011 to late-2012 and had the opportunity to interact with the PLA peacekeeping officers.

58. According to Colonel Frank Miller (USA Retired), the 

briefer during the visit noted the academy was established in 1981 

and reports to the Ministry of Public Security. 

59. “China opens 1st peacekeeping training center,” Xinhua, June 25, 2009, available from www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-06/25/content_8324367.htm; “Ministry of National Defense 

Peacekeeping Center Inaugurated in Beijing’s Huairou District,” 

available from forum.home.news.cn/thread/68174850/1.html. 

60. See www1.clzg.cn/xinwen/2007-07/30/content_829610_2.

htm, go.ourgo.com/Bbs/showtopic-15158.aspx and www.mod.gov.cn/

djxw/2012-07/05/content_4382945.htm. 

61. See news.qq.com/a/20090222/007495.htm. 

62. See news.163.com/11/0729/15/7A51SU2600014JB5.html. 

63. See news.sina.com.cn/o/2007-09-20/060712601700s.shtml. 

64. See chn.chinamil.com.cn/wh/2011-12/12/content_4739

389.htm.

65. PRC 2004 Defense White Paper.

66. Cheng Jingbin and Zhang Yao, “Lake Kivu: China’s Blue 

Helmets Complete Their 13th Rotation,” PLA Pictorial, Issue 2, 

July 2012, pp. 60-61. The article states that the 14th group was replacing the 13th group, and that, based on an agreement with the 

UN, each group remained on station for 8 months.
510

67. Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2012, Office of the 

Secretary of Defense, p. 4.

68. The MOOTW component of MND’s website is available 

from eng.mod.gov.cn/Database/MOOTW/index.htm. 

69. PRC 2008 Defense White Paper.

70. PRC 2010 Defense White Paper.

71. Mingjiang Li, “China’s Gulf of Aden Expedition and Maritime Cooperation in East Asia,” Jamestown Foundation’s China 

Brief, Vol. 9, Issue 1, January 12, 2009. The author is a Ph.D. Assistant Professor of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies 

at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

72. Michael McDevitt, “PLA Naval Exercises with International Partners,” Roy Kamphausen, David Lai, and Travis Tanner, 

eds., Learning by Doing: The PLA Trains at Home and Abroad, Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College, 2012.

73. Andrew Erickson and Austin Strange, “Selfish Superpower” No Longer? Harvard Asia Quarterly, Vol XIV, Nos. 1&2, 

Spring/Summer 2012, pp. 92-102. 

74. PLA 2012 Defense White Paper, available from www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-07/31/content_15634801.htm. 

75. “China to send 12th escort fleet to Somali waters,” Global Times, June 28, 2012, available from www.globaltimes.cn/content/717717.shtml; and “Two Chinese naval escort taskforces meet 

in Gulf of Aden,” People’s Daily, July 26, 2018, available from english.peopledaily.com.cn/90786/7888110.html.

76. Ibid.; “China to send 12th escort fleet to Somali waters,” 

Global Times, June 28, 2012, available from www.globaltimes.cn/content/717717.shtml. 

77. A good example of this thinking is found in an article by 

Indian Navy officer Captain Antony George, “Deployment of PLA 

Navy Ships in the Gulf of Aden for Countering Piracy: Ramifica-
511

tions for India,” Vol. 70, Indian Navy’s Naval Despatch, September 

2010, available from www.irfc-nausena.nic.in/Naval_Despatch_2010.

pdf. At the time he wrote the article, Captain George was the Command Antisubmarine Warfare (ASW) Officer in the Eastern Naval 

Command.

78. Kamlesh Kumar Agnihotri, “Military Operations Other 

Than War: PLA Navy’s Role in Peaceful Development of China,” 

Indian Military Review, November 2011, available from maritimeindia.org/article/military-operations-other-war-pla-navys-role-peacefuldevelopment-china. At the time he wrote the article in late-2011, 

Commander Agniohotri was a Research Fellow with the China 

Cell of the National Maritime Foundation in New Delhi, India. 

79. “11th Chinese naval escort taskforce arrives in Israel for 

visit,” PLA Daily, August 14, 2012, available from eng.mod.gov.cn/

MiltaryExchanges/2012-08/14/content_4391961.htm. 

80. “Chinese frigate begins five-day goodwill visit to Romania,” Xinhua, August 2, 2012, available from eng.mod.gov.cn/

MiltaryExchanges/2012-08/02/content_4388520.htm; and “Chinese 

warship wraps up first visit to Bulgaria,” PLA Daily, August 10, 

2012, available from eng.mod.gov.cn/MiltaryExchanges/2012-08/10/

content_4391089.htm.

81. “Chinese naval escort task force commander meets with 

counterpart of US-Allies Task Force 151,” PLA Daily, August 10, 

2012, available from eng.mod.gov.cn/MiltaryExchanges/2012-08/10/

content_4391087.htm. The Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) established Combined Task Force 151 (CTF-151) on January 8, 2009, 

specifically for counterpiracy operations. CTF 151 is presently 

commanded by the Thai navy. It has previously been commanded by the Denmark navy, Korean navy, Pakistan navy, Turkish 

navy and the U.S. Navy. The command staff is comprised of personnel from a number of coalition countries and manages daily 

operations from aboard RFA Fort Victoria. Information available 

from www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=41687 and www.

cusnc.navy.mil/cmf/151/index.html. Rear Admiral Zhou Xuming is 

one of the deputy chiefs of staff of the East Sea Fleet.

82. Erickson and Strange, p. 98.
512

83. Ibid., p. 98.

84. “China’s Libya evacuation highlights People-First nature 

of government,” Xinhua.net, March 3, 2011, available from news.

Xinhuanet.com/english2010/indepth/2011-03/03/c_13759953.htm. 

85. Leslie Hook and Geoff Dyer, “Chinese oil interests attacked in Libya,” Financial Times, February 24, 2011, available 

from www.ft.com/cms/s/0/eef58d52-3fe2-11e0-811f-00144feabdc0.html

#axzz2AXLrDZhL. 

86. “China’s Libya evacuation highlights People-First nature 

of government.” 

87. “Libya unrest tests China’s interests in the Middle East,” 

Christian Science Monitor, March 2, 2011, available from www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2011/0302/Libya-unrest-tests-Chinas-interests-in-the-Middle-East. 

88. “Hu, Wen order ‘all-out efforts’ to secure life of nationals,” 

Xinhua, February 22, 2011, available from english.sina.com/china/2011/0222/361035.html. Additional information is available from 

www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-03/02/content_12103843.htm,

www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-03/05/content_12121535.htm, 

and english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90883/7308966.html.

89. “China continues to evacuate nationals from Libya,” available from usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-03/01/content_12099707.

htm and www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?196307-Today-s-Photos-Monday-April-4th-2011. 

90. See www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?196307-

Today-s-Photos-Monday-April-4th-2011. 

91. Gabe Collins and Andrew Erickson, “China dispatches 

warship to protect Libya evacuation mission: Marks the PRC’s 

first use of frontline military assets to protect an evacuation mission,” Chinasignpost.com, February 24, 2011, available from www.

chinasignpost.com/2011/02/24/china-dispatches-warship-to-protectlibya-evacuation-mission-marks-the-prcs-first-use-of-frontlinemilitary-assets-to-protect-an-evacuation-mission/.
513

92. Cai Penghong, “Libya Rescue Mission and the Prospects 

of US-China Cooperation for Non-traditional Security at Sea,” 

March 14, 2011, available from www.chinausfocus.com/peace-security/libya-rescue-mission-and-the-prospects-of-us-china-cooperation-fornon-traditional-security-at-sea/. Cai is Senior Fellow at the Institute 

for Asia Pacific Studies and Director of the APEC Research Center, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

93. Collins and Erickson, “China dispatches warship to protect Libya evacuation mission.”

94. PLA 2012 Defense White Paper.

95. China’s International Rescue Operations, International Communication Bureau, Ministry of National Defense brochure handed out at the PRC Embassy on the PLA’s Anniversary in July 2012. 

Unfortunately, no information was found that explains what a 

certified international heavy rescue team is; however, one article 

states that CISAR was the 2nd international heavy rescue team 

in Asia and the 12th group in the world to have secured official 

approval from the United Nations. See www.cbi.gov.cn/wisework/

content/111834.html. 

96. Tong Shenghai, “China’s Emergency Military Procurement,” China Armed Forces, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2010, pp. 40-45.

97. Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2010, Office of the 

Secretary of Defense.

98. “1991 May-July,” China Air Force, Issue 4, 1991, p. 1; 

“China’s Flight Crews in Bangladesh,” China Air Force, Issue 5, 

1991, p. 25. 

99. Xu Feng, Wang Shuo, Fu Ruogui, and Luo Erwen, “Extended Power: Focus on the Development of the Chinese Air 

Force’s Air Transports,” China Air Force, July 2012, pp. 12-23.

100. Wang Shuo, He Jiantao, and Zhang Xuefeng, “Fly to Karachi,” China Air Force, December 2012, p. 28-31, available from 

china-defense.blogspot.com/2011/10/china-airlifts-third-batch-of-flood.

html, and www.defence.pk/forums/ china-defence/130971-chinese-airforce-il-76-aircrafts-pakistan-humanitarian-aid.html.
514

101. Wang Shuo et al., China Air Force, December 2012, 

pp. 28-31.

102. Xu Feng et al., China Air Force, July 2012, pp. 18-19.

103. “The AMR Regional Air Force Directory 2012,” Asian 

Military Review, February 2012.

104. Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2003, Office of the Secretary of Defense.

105. Information on the number of possible future IL-76s 

available from een.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peoples_Liberation_Army_Air_

Force, which identified its source as “The AMR Regional Air Force 

Directory 2012,” Asian Military Review, February 2012; “Il-76MD 

Transport Plane Delivered to China,” The Moscow Times, January 

25, 2013, available from www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/

il-76md-transport-plane-delivered-to-china/474560.html. 

106. Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2011, Office of the Secretary of Defense.

107. Guan Bolin, Zhou Guotian, and Bai Yun, “On the Peaceful Use of Chinese Navy Hospital Ships,” Medical Journal of Chinese 

People’s Liberation Army, Proceedings of International Congress 

on Military Medicine, Vol. 36, 2011-1, pp. 16-18; Wang Yuewen, 

Chen Wei, and Ju Zhenhua, “An Island Hospital’s Voyage,” PLA 

Pictorial, Issue 2, April 2012, pp. 46-49. Background on the 413th 

Hospital available from hospital.zgkw.cn/2282/default.aspx. 

108. See www.chinadaily.com.cn/slides/2010-09/01/content_

11241842.htm and news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-11

/27/c_13624288.htm.

109. See china-defense.blogspot.com/2011/09/plans-hospital-ship

-to-visit-latin.html and eng.chinamil.com.cn/special-reports/2011-12

/30/content_4757252.htm. 

110. PRC 2012 Defense White Paper.
515

111. PRC 2002 Defense White Paper.

112. PRC 2010 Defense White Paper.

113. PRC 2012 Defense White Paper.

114. Holz and Allen, pp. 450-451.

115. PRC 2010 and 2012 Defense White Papers. For a brief history of the PLAN’s port calls, see Holz and Allen, “Military Exchanges with Chinese Characteristic.” While the number of regular port calls abroad has not increased appreciably since 2009, the 

PLAN has taken advantage of its counterpiracy task force deployments to visit countries in the region.

116. Ibid.

117. Qiao Tianfu, “China-Thailand Naval Marine Corps Hold 

Combined Training,” PLA Pictorial, Issue 2, June 2012, pp. 6-7; 

“Marine forces of China, Thailand hold joint training,” Xinhua, 

May 12, 2012, available from china-defense.blogspot.com/2012/05/

photos-of-day-china-thailand-joint.html. 

118. PRC 2010 Defense White Paper.

119. “Russia, China Hold Joint War Games,” August 

17, 2007, available from archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/8/17/82646.shtml.

120. “Top Chinese leader Hu Jintao meets SCO heads of 

state,” June 16, 2012, available from www.diplonews.com/feeds/

free/6_June_2012_294.php. 

121. Roger McDermott, “China Showcases Expeditionary 

Military Power in Peace Mission 2010,” October 12, 2010, available from www.worldsecuritynetwork.com/China-Russia-Asia/

McDermott-Roger/China-Showcases-Expeditionary-Military-Powerin-Peace-Mission-2010.

122. PRC 2010 Defense White Paper. Information on the 2010, 

2011, and 2012 exercises available from www.sinodefenceforum.com/

strategic-defense/peace-mission-2010-a-5238.html, vestnikkavkaza.net/
516

news/politics/21987.html, english.peopledaily.com.cn/90786/7838414.

html, and therearenosunglasses.wordpress.com/2011/12/04/two-hundred-and-first-hdr-in-tajikistan-run-for-new-methods-of-eliminationof-militants-in-the-mountains/.

123. PRC 2012 Defense White Paper.

124. Information on the Belorussia exercise available from 

english.cri.cn/6909/2011/07/19/2821s649394.htm; PRC 2012 Defense 

White Paper.

125. Zhao Qihong, Jiang Long, and Wu Fengyu, “Expedition 

of ‘Leishan’ in South American Jungle,” China Air Traffic Control, 

Issue 2, March 2012, pp. 94-101.

126. Allen and Kelly, “Assessing the Growing PLA Air Force 

Foreign Relations Program”; China Air Force, 2010-11, pp. 11-26; 

see also tp.chinamil.com.cn/news/2010-10/16/content_4315067.htm, 

www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=chinese-warplanes-refueled-iniran-enroute-to-turkey-2010-10-11, eng.chinamil.com.cn/news-channels/china-military-news/2011-03/06/content_4396357.htm, and english.cri.cn/6909/2011/07/19/2821s649394.htm.

127. Joseph S. Nye, Jr., “China’s Soft Power Deficit,” The Wall 

Street Journal, May 8, 2012, available from online.wsj.com/article/SB

10001424052702304451104577389923098678842.html. 

128. According to a search of East View Press’s PLA Daily electronic database, 561 articles were found using the term soft power 

(软实力), 46 for military soft power (军事软实力), and three for 

national defense soft power (国防软实力). Of these articles, fewer 

than 10 of the soft power articles were published before Hu Jintao 

became the CMC chairman in 2004, and all of the other categories 

were published after he took office. Of note, the 2011 edition of 

China’s People’s Liberation Army Military Terminology (中国人民解

放军军语), published by the Academy of Military Science Press, 

does not have an entry for any of the three terms. The reason for 

this may be that the PLA has yet to codify the basis of its theory 

of military soft power.

129. Wang Xingsheng and Wu Zhizhong, “Discussion on Military Soft Power (军事软实力刍论),” PLA Daily in Chinese, June 

7, 2007.
517

130. Tian Xiang, Chen Yongqiang, and Ding Jun, “An Analysis of PLA’s Image: Building from the Perspective of Military Soft 

Power,” China Military Science, No. 4, Issue No. 112, 2010, pp. 116-

124. The authors, who range from first lieutenants to majors, are 

graduate students affiliated with the Nanjing Army Command 

Academy.

131. Xiao Jingmin, “A Theoretical Exploration into the Soft 

Power in China’s National Defense,” China Military Science, No. 3, 

Issue No. 117, 2011, pp. 131-138. The author is a special technical 

senior colonel assigned as a researcher to the Academy of Military 

Science’s War Theory and Strategy Research Department.

132. See Dennis Blasko, “Clarity of Intentions: PLA TransRegional Exercises to Defend China’s Borders,” Roy Kamphausen, David Lai, and Travis Tanner, eds., Learning by Doing: The 

PLA Trains at Home and Abroad, for further information on each of 

these exercises.

133. “Putin, Hu to meet Aug. 16-17 during regional antiterrorism drill,” RIA Novosti, August 10, 2007, available from en.rian.ru/

world/20070810/70829110.html. 

134. Xiao Jingmin, “A Theoretical Exploration into the Soft 

Power in China’s National Defense,” and “The Ministry of National Defense (MND) will launch an official bilingual website on 

Aug 1,” available from china-defense.blogspot.com/2009/07/ministryof-national-defense-mnd-will.html. The literal translation for the Information Office is the News Service Bureau, and it is just one of 

several MND bureaus. 

135. “PRC Defense Ministry Spokesman Makes Debut at 

News Briefing on Earthquake Rescue,” Xinhua, May 18, 2008.

136. See www.cninfo360.com/xwrw/20110428/190902.html. A review of PLA Daily indicates that, since 2010, three officers have 

served as the MND spokesman, including Geng Yansheng (耿

雁生) and two deputies, De Like (德里克) and Yang Yujun 

(杨宇军). Based on the uniform Geng is wearing in his photo, his 

grade is that of a division leader (正师职), which means that is 

also the grade of the Information Office. The Foreign Affairs Office is a corps leader-grade (正军职) organization.
518

137. Information on the monthly conferences, which are usually held on the last Thursday of the month, is based on a review 

of the MND website’s press briefings tab, available from eng.mod.

gov.cn/Press/index_3.htm. 

138. Gao Jiquan, “Ministry of National Defense Foreign Affairs Office Director Qian Lihua Interviewed on Military Diplomacy.” 

139. Liang Guanglie, “General Liang Guanglie Discusses Chinese Military Foreign Diplomacy Is In Step With the Times,” PLA 

Daily in Chinese, December 23, 2008, available from news.Xinhuanet.com/mil/2008-12/23/content_10547367_1.htm. 

140. Ibid.

141. For information on the China-India hotline, finally established in 2010, see “Finally, a hotline between India and China,” 

NDTV, November 2, 2010, available from www.ndtv.com/article/

india/finally-a-hotline-between-india-and-china-63893. 

142. For information on the China-Japan hotline, see “JapanChina ‘hotline’ unlikely in ‘12,” Yomiuri Shimbun, October 21, 2012, 

available from www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T121020001963.htm.

143. Shirley A. Kan, U.S.-China Military Contacts: Issues 

for Congress, Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, June 19, 2012, p. 27, available from fpc.state.gov/documents/

organization/194794.pdf. None of the PRC’s biennia Defense White 

Papers have mentioned the issue of a hotline.

144. The information concerning the PLAAF’s foreign relations comes from Allen and Kelly, “Assessing the Growing PLA 

Air Force Foreign Relations Program.” 

145. For an excellent history of U.S.-China military relations, 

see Kan, U.S.-China Military Contacts. 

146. Ibid.

147. Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2011, Office of the Secretary of Defense.
519

148. China’s PLA Military Terminology (中国人民解放军军语), 

Beijing, China: Academy of Military Science Press, December 

2011, p. 1064. The 1997 edition did not have an entry for transparency, which indicates this is a key issue for the PLA. In fact, the 

2011 issue has an entirely new Military Diplomacy section with 

over 50 terms devoted to the subject.

149. “Jiang Zemin Signs Promulgation of `PLA Security Regulations’,” PLA Daily, March 27, 1996; PLA Security Regulations, 

available from baike.baidu.com/view/1091425.htm; “Security Committee,” in PLA Military Terminology, December 2011, p. 198. Although this dictionary translates baomi (保密) as security, other 

dictionaries translate it as secret or secrecy. See A New EnglishChinese Chinese-English Dictionary of Military Terms, Beijing, China: National Defense Industry Press, October 1999, p. 254. While 

baomi security covers classified material and its transmission from 

one point to another, baowei (保卫) security covers personal and 

facilities security. 

150. “Article Warns of Intelligence Theft,” PLA Daily, 

May 14, 1998.

151. PLA Security Regulations (中国人民解放军保密条例), 

March 13, 2012, available from www1.dg.gov.cn/business/htmlfiles/

dgbmj/s10899/201203/479322.htm. 

152. Gao Jiquan, “Ministry of National Defense Foreign Affairs Office Director Qian Lihua Interviewed on Military Diplomacy,” PLA Daily online, September 25 2012, available from military.china.com.cn/2012-09/25/content_26623447.htm. 

153. Qin Zhongwei, “Book series seeks to unravel the PLA’s 

mysteries,” China Daily, September 1, 2012, in English, available 

from www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2012-09/01/content_15725851.

htm; and Yan Meng, “First series of books on Chinese Army officially unveiled,” People’s Daily online, September 1, 2012, in 

English available from english.peopledaily.com.cn/90786/7932564.

html. A Chinese version of the information available from war.163.

com/12/0902/14/8ADDGPH000011MTO.html. 

154. The English tab for the website available from www.

cdsndu.org/index_en.htm. 
520

155. Although the PLA reinstituted a rank system in 1988 after 

having abolished it in 1966, almost every grade has two assigned 

ranks, and each rank can have up to four grades. As a result, two 

major generals who meet each other for the first time still have 

to ask each other what their grade is so that they can figure out 

where they stand in the pecking order.
Appendix 11-A

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS, DIALOGUES, 

AND CONSULTATIONS

Table 11-A provides a list of the countries with 

whom China has established strategic partnerships 

(伙伴), dialogues (对话), and consultations (磋商), 

as well as which senior People’s Republic of China 

(PRC) and People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leaders attended the meetings. Some information for when the 

relationships were established and who attended was 

not found. Although the president attended the first 

meeting to establish the relationship, the following 

meetings were attended by the premier, foreign minister (FM), one of the vice foreign ministers (VFM), the 

chief of the general staff (COGS), one of the deputy 

chiefs of the general staff (DCOGS), who is usually the 

deputy with the foreign affairs portfolio, or a member 

of the China Institute for International Strategic Studies (CIISS). Of note, the defense minister has apparently not represented China in any of them.

Country Year Person Year Person Year Person

Africa Cooperation 

Forum

2006

African Union 2008

Algeria 2004 President

Argentina 2004 President

ASEAN 2003

Australia 2008 President 2007 FM 2003

2005

2008

COGS

Belarus 2007 President

Brazil 1993 President 2009 VFM

521
522

Country Year Person Year Person Year Person

Canada 2005 President 2004

Chile President

Denmark 2004 Premier

Egypt 1999 President 2008 FM

European Union 2007 President 2005 PM/

VFM

Finland 2008 President

France 2004 President 1997

Germany 2005 President 2006 VFM 2004

2007

2009

DCOGS

Greece 2006 President

India 2005 Premier 2007 VFM 2007

2008

COGS

Indonesia 2005 President

Israel 2007 CIISS

Italy 2004 President

Japan 2009 President 2005 VFM 2008 DCOGS

Jordan 2007

Kazakhstan 2005 President

Laos 2009 President

Malaysia 2009 President

Mexico 2003 President 2008 2004

Mongolia 2008 ACOGS

New Zealand 2007 DCOGS

Nigeria 2004 President 2008

Pakistan 2005 President 2009 VFM 2003

2006

2007

2008

COGS

Peru 2008 President 2008
523

Country Year Person Year Person Year Person

Philippines 2005 DCOGS

Poland 2004

Portugal 2005 President 2009

Russia 1996 President 2008 COGS 

(Peace 

Mission 

Exercise)

Saudi Arabia 2000 President

SCO 2008 COGS

Senegal 2006 President

Serbia 2009 President

Singapore 2008 DCOGS

South Africa 2004 President 2008 VFM

South Korea 2008 President 2008 VFM

Spain 2005 President

Syria 2009 FM

United Kingdom 2007 Premier 2005 VFM 2003

2004

United States 2005 VFM

Venezuela 2001 President

Vietnam 2008 President 2009 DCOGS

Table 11-A. China’s Strategic Partnerships, Dialogues,

and Consultations.

525

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

KENNETH ALLEN is a Senior China Analyst with 

Defense Group Inc. (DGI), where he focuses on China’s military organizational structure, personnel, education, training, and foreign relations with particular 

emphasis on the PLA Air Force. During 21 years in 

the U.S. Air Force (1971-92), he served as an enlisted 

Chinese and Russian linguist and intelligence officer 

with tours in Taiwan; Berlin, Germany; Japan; Pacific 

Command Air Force Headquarters, China; and Washington, DC. From 1987-89, he served as an Assistant 

Air Attaché in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. He was 

inducted into the Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA) 

Defense Attaché Hall of Fame in 1997. Mr. Allen holds 

B.A.s from the University of California at Davis and 

the University of Maryland and an M.A. in international relations from Boston University.

WANDA AYUSO is an analyst in the Asia Pacific 

Analysis division at the DIA. Wanda joined DIA as 

a DoD civilian in 2006. Her primary expertise is on 

Chinese military operations, specifically strategic missiles and joint training. Prior to joining DIA, she was 

a contractor for CACI working China military issues 

and also served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. 

Air Force and Air Force Reserve. She has been mobilized in support of Operations ENDURING FREEDOM and IRAQI FREEDOM. Ms. Ayuso is a graduate 

of the Joint and Combined Warfighting School and 

Air Command Staff College. She holds a B.A. in business management from the University of Puerto Rico 

and a M.S. in strategic intelligence from the National 

Defense Intelligence College.
526

DENNIS J. BLASKO, a U.S. Army (Retired) Lieutenant Colonel, served 23 years as a Military Intelligence 

Officer and Foreign Area Officer specializing in China. He was an army attaché in Beijing from 1992-95 

and in Hong Kong from 1995-96. He also served in 

infantry units in Germany, Italy, and Korea and in 

Washington at the DIA; Headquarters, Department of 

the Army (Office of Special Operations); and the National Defense University War Gaming and Simulation Center. Mr. Blasko has written numerous articles 

and chapters on the Chinese military and defense 

industries and is the author of the book, The Chinese 

Army Today: Tradition and Transformation for the 21st 

Century, 2nd Ed. (Routledge, 2012). Mr. Blasko is a 

graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and the Naval 

Postgraduate School. 

MICHAEL S. CHASE is an Associate Professor in 

the Warfare Analysis and Research Department at 

the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, RI. He also 

directs the War College’s Mahan Research Group, focusing on strategic deterrence issues. His main areas 

of research include Chinese nuclear policy, strategy, 

force modernization, U.S.-China relations, Taiwan’s 

defense policy, and Asia Pacific security issues. Professor Chase previously served as a faculty member 

in the War College’s Strategy and Policy Department, 

a research analyst at Defense Group Inc., and an associate international policy analyst at RAND. Professor 

Chase holds a B.A. in politics from Brandeis University, an M.A. in China Studies and a Ph.D. in international relations from the Johns Hopkins University 

School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
527

NEIL J. DIAMANT has been a professor at Dickinson 

College, Carlisle, PA, since 2002. He has also taught 

at Tel Aviv University, Israel, and the University of 

Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA. Dr. Diamant has received 

research and teaching grants from Fulbright, the Luce 

Foundation, the Freeman Foundation, the Howard 

Foundation, and the Chiang Ching Kuo Foundation. 

He is currently studying veteran politics in the 21st 

century as well as Chinese Constitutionalism in the 

Mao era. Dr. Diamant is the author of Revolutionizing 

the Family: Politics, Love, and Divorce in Urban and Rural China, 1949-1968 (2000) and Embattled Glory: Veterans, Military Families and the Politics of Patriotism in 

China, 1949-2007 (2009). He has co-edited, with Kevin 

J. O’Brien and Stanley Lubman, Engaging the Law in 

China: State, Society and Possibilities for Justice (2005). 

His articles have appeared in The China Quarterly, The 

Journal of East Asian Studies, Politics and Society, Modern 

Asian Studies, the Law and Society Review and the Journal of Conflict Resolution, among others. Dr. Diamant 

holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University 

of California, Berkeley.

DANIEL M. HARTNETT is a Research Scientist in 

CNA’s China Studies Division. Prior to joining CNA, 

he was the Senior Policy Analyst for Military and 

Security Affairs at the congressionally mandated 

U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Mr. Hartnett began his career as a Russian and 

Serbo-Croatian linguist in the U.S. Army, where he 

employed his language skills during the civil war in 

Bosnia. He also worked in the Department of Energy’s 

National Nuclear Security Administration, where he 

assisted the department in nuclear nonproliferation 

negotiations with Beijing. An accomplished linguist, 
528

he has attended several language schools including 

the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA; the 

Sprachen und Dolmetscher Institute in Munich, Germany; and the Beijing Language and Culture University. His research interests include China’s security and military affairs. Mr. Barnett holds an M.A. in 

Asian studies from the Elliott School of International 

Affairs at the George Washington University and a 

B.A. in Chinese from the University of Massachusetts 

at Amherst. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in political science at George Mason University. 

TIMOTHY R. HEATH is Senior Analyst for the U.S. 

Pacific Command China Strategic Focus Group. He 

has over 12 years’ experience as a China specialist in 

the U.S. Government. He has published several academic articles on topics related to Chinese strategy, 

military, and leadership. Mr. Heath earned his M.A. 

in Asian studies from George Washington University. 

LONNIE HENLEY is the Senior Defense Intelligence 

Analyst for China at DIA and a member of the Defense Intelligence Senior Level executive service. He 

has been a China specialist since his undergraduate 

studies in the mid-1970s, including 22 years as a U.S. 

Army military intelligence and foreign area officer 

and the past 12 years as a civilian. His post-Army positions include Defense Intelligence Officer for East 

Asia; Senior Defense Intelligence Expert for Strategic 

Warning; senior analyst at CENTRA Technology, Inc.; 

Deputy National Intelligence Officer for East Asia 

(ODNI Senior National Intelligence Service); and his 

current position since 2008. Mr. Henley holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering and Chinese from the U.S. 

Military Academy, West Point, and master’s degrees 
529

in Chinese language from Oxford University, where 

he was a Rhodes Scholar; in modern Chinese history 

from Columbia University; and in strategic intelligence from the National Defense Intelligence College. 

ROY KAMPHAUSEN is a retired U.S. Army China Foreign Area officer, Senior Advisor for Political and Security Affairs at The National Bureau of 

Asian Research, and an adjunct associate professor 

at Columbia University’s School of International and 

Public Affairs.

DAVID LAI is a Research Professor of Asian Security 

Affairs at the Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) of the 

U.S. Army War College. Before joining SSI, Dr. Lai 

was on the faculty of the U.S. Air War College. Having 

grown up in China, Lai witnessed China’s “Cultural 

Revolution,” its economic reform, and changes in China’s foreign relations (the most important of which is 

U.S.-China relations) over the years. Dr. Lai’s most recent publication is Asia Pacific: A Strategic Assessment

(2013). Dr. Lai holds a bachelor’s degree from China, 

and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in political science 

from the University of Colorado.

NAN LI is an associate professor at the China Maritime Studies Institute of the U.S. Naval War College. 

He has published extensively on Chinese security and 

military policy. Mr. Nan’s writings have appeared in 

Security Studies, China Quarterly, China Journal, Armed 

Forces & Society, Issues and Studies, and many others. 

He has contributed to edited volumes from RAND 

Corporation, Clarendon Press, National Defense University Press, and M. E. Sharpe. He has also published 

a monograph with the U.S. Institute of Peace. He is the 
530

editor of Chinese Civil-Military Relations: The Transformation of the People’s Liberation Army (Routledge, 2006).

JOE McREYNOLDS is a researcher at Defense Group 

Inc.’s Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis. 

His research interests primarily center on China’s 

cyber warfare capabilities and defense science and 

technology development. He has previously worked 

with the Council on Foreign Relations and the Pacific 

Council for International Policy. Mr. McReynolds is a 

graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and Graduate Security Studies programs.

JAMES MULVENON is Vice-President of Defense 

Group, Inc.’s (DGI) Intelligence Division and Director 

of DGI’s Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis. At CIRA, Dr. Mulvenon runs teams of nearly 20 

security-cleared Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Pashto, 

Urdu, and Dari/Farsi linguist-analysts performing 

open-source research for the U.S. Government. A 

specialist on the Chinese military and cyber warfare, 

Dr. Mulvenon’s research focuses on Chinese command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, and reconnaissance, defense research, development, and acquisition organizations and policy, 

strategic weapons programs (computer network operations and nuclear warfare), cryptography, and the 

military and civilian implications of the information 

revolution in China.

TRAVIS TANNER is a Senior Project Director and 

Director of the Pyle Center for Northeast Asian Studies at The National Bureau of Asian Research. Prior to 

joining NBR, he was Deputy Director and Assistant 

Director of the Chinese Studies Program at The Nixon 
531

Center. He also worked as a research assistant at the 

Institute for International Economics in Washington, DC. Mr. Tanner’s interests and expertise include 

Northeast Asian regional security, China’s economy 

and foreign affairs, and Taiwan politics. Mr. Tanner 

holds a B.A. from the University of Utah in Chinese 

language and literature and an M.A. in international 

relations from both the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and the HopkinsNanjing Center in Nanjing, China.

CHRISTOPHER P. TWOMEY is a tenured Associate Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. In 2004, 

he joined the NPS faculty, later serving as Associate Chair for Research and as Director of the Center 

for Contemporary Conflict from 2007-09. Today, he 

works closely with the Departments of Defense and 

State on a range of diplomatic engagements across 

Asia and regularly advises Pacific Command, Strategic Command, and the Office of Net Assessment. He 

has previously taught or researched at Harvard University, Boston College, RAND, the Chinese Academy 

of Social Sciences, and the University of California 

Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, and 

has been researcher for the National Bureau of Asian 

Research in various capacities continually since 2010. 

Dr. Twomey’s book, The Military Lens: Doctrinal Differences and Deterrence Failure in Sino-American Relations

(Cornell University Press, 2010), explains how differing military doctrines complicate diplomatic signaling, interpretations of those signals, and assessments 

of the balance of power. He edited Perspectives on SinoAmerican Strategic Nuclear Issues (2008), and his work 

has appeared in journals such as Security Studies, Jour-
532

nal of Contemporary China, Asian Survey, Nonproliferation Review, Contemporary Security Policy, Asia Policy, 

Current History, and Arms Control Today, in addition 

to a dozen edited volumes. Dr. Twomey holds a Ph.D. 

from MIT in political science.
U.S. ARMY WAR COLLEGE

Major General Anthony A. Cucolo III

Commandant

*****

STRATEGIC STUDIES INSTITUTE

and

U.S. ARMY WAR COLLEGE PRESS

Director

Professor Douglas C. Lovelace, Jr.

Director of Research

Dr. Steven K. Metz

Editors

Mr. Roy Kamphausen

Dr. David Lai

Mr. Travis Tanner

Editor for Production

Dr. James G. Pierce

Publications Assistant

Ms. Rita A. Rummel

*****

Composition

Mrs. Jennifer E. Nevil
Assessing the People

s Liberation Army in the Hu Jintao Era

Travis TannerDavid Lai

This Publication SSI Website USAWC Website

FOR THIS AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS, VISIT US AT 

http://www.carlisle.army.mil/

U.S. ARMY WAR COLLEGE