The PLA At Home and Abroad: Assessing the Operational Capabilities of China's Military

Abstract

More than 70 leading experts on the People's Liberation Army (PLA) gathered at Carlisle Barracks, PA, on September 25-27, 2009, for a discussion on "The PLA at Home and Abroad: Assessing the Operational Capabilities of China's Military." Participants sought to understand the PLA's evolving view of its roles and responsibilities amid a changing global security landscape. They first considered the PLA's relationship with the Chinese Communist Party; trends in the PLA's ongoing reforms to informationalize, mechanize, and otherwise adapt to China's evolving defense needs; and the PLA's role in tackling internal security challenges. From there, participants discussed PLA operations abroad, assessing trends in the pace, scope, goals, and success of logistics reform and the impact of these reforms on PLA capabilities. To analyze PLA capabilities, conference participants were tasked to address how the PLA is determining what types of missions it will undertake, and in doing so, analyze the process by which these missions are created and assigned. Signs are emerging that the PLA is becoming more confident about its position vis-a-vis Taiwan. At the same time, China believes that a changing international environment requires the Chinese armed forces to have more diversified capabilities. It is therefore placing relatively more emphasis on developing operational capabilities for missions other than against Taiwan (e.g., humanitarian assistance, peacekeeping operations, disaster relief, antipiracy, etc.). The implementation of Hu Jintao's "New Historic Missions" also affords the PLA the opportunity to make gains in some of its traditionally weaker areas, including logistics improvement, defense industry reform, and the implementation of joint operations. Through its 2009 Gulf of Aden antipiracy mission, the PLA Navy has shown that it is capable of undertaking certain types of operations abroad.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2010
Accession Number
ADA513161

Entities

People

  • Daniel Alderman

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy
  • C4I
  • Human Systems
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Border Security
  • Defense Industry
  • Deployment
  • Disasters
  • Domestic
  • Emergencies
  • Emergency Response
  • Governments
  • Humanitarian Assistance
  • Lessons Learned
  • Logistics
  • Logistics Support
  • Military Forces (Foreign)
  • National Security
  • Navies (Foreign)
  • Security
  • War Colleges

Readers

  • Asian Economic Studies
  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Strategic Security Studies