{"id":4144,"date":"2021-09-13T17:22:46","date_gmt":"2021-09-13T11:52:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/?p=4144"},"modified":"2024-12-27T16:16:42","modified_gmt":"2024-12-27T10:46:42","slug":"china-objectives-strategy-and-military-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/2021\/09\/13\/china-objectives-strategy-and-military-role\/","title":{"rendered":"192: CHINA: OBJECTIVES, STRATEGY AND MILITARY ROLE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #800080;\"><strong><u>China: National Political Objectives<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #000080;\">Like any other nation Chinese national political objectives can be broken into two basic categories: <strong><em>security and development<\/em><\/strong>. According to USA these objectives would include the following:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Security objectives<\/strong><\/span> would include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;\">Protection of the CPC as China\u2019s ruling party.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;\">Protection of Chinese sovereignty.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;\">Protection of borders.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;\">Internal security<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;\">Nuclear deterrence.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #993366;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Development objectives<\/strong><\/span> would include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #993366;\">Protection of Chinese economic interests at home and abroad.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #993366;\">Ensuring freedom of navigation for Chinese goods.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #993366;\">Procuring important commodities such as energy and raw materials.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #993366;\">Establishing new export markets for Chinese goods.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #800000;\"><strong><u>Chinese Grand Strategy<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #800000;\">China end state desire is to achieve a world power status.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #ff0000;\"><strong><u>Incremental Approach<\/u><\/strong>. China views this final objective as incremental: it seeks to be a \u201cprosperous society\u201d by 2035, with the CPC still remaining the dominant political entity in China. The country desires to transition to a \u201cleading world power\u201d by the year 2049 (the centennial anniversary of the country\u2019s founding), complete with a \u201cworld-class military.\u201d These objectives are written into the CPC Constitution.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #993300;\"><u>Towards this aim, smaller goals could be<\/u>:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #993300;\">Global influence.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #993300;\">Economic development.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #993300;\">Internal security.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #993300;\">CPC primacy.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #003366;\"><strong><u>Chinese Strategic Objectives<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #003366;\">China\u2019s strategic objectives support her broad political goals dominance by 2035 and becoming a leading world power by 2049. They are also influenced by certain elements of Chinese culture and history: the importance of status and honor, the desire for peace through power, and the belief in Chinese Communism, among other aspects.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #0000ff;\">Chinese strategic objectives and involvement of PLA is as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #800080;\"><strong><u>Maintain Internal Security And Stability.<\/u><\/strong> Foremost in maintaining internal security and stability is ensuring the position of the CPC as the dominant political entity in China. PLA is the military components of the government. While maintaining domestic stability is the primary mission of the civilian police force and Peoples Armed Police (PAP), in extreme situations the <em>PLA may be required to assist these forces in internal security operations<\/em>.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol style=\"text-align: justify;\" start=\"2\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #800000;\"><strong><u>SECURE AND PROTECT LAND BORDERS AND COASTLINES<\/u><\/strong>. China\u2019s long historic struggle with border security manifests itself today in a vast array of border security measures. Even China\u2019s shared border with India is a source of friction and conflict. <em>PLA needs to be geared up to meet these situations.<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol style=\"text-align: justify;\" start=\"3\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #333399;\"><strong><u>Maintain Regional Stability.<\/u><\/strong> China feels maintaining regional peace and stability is a one of its responsibility as a regional dominant Force. <em>This requires the PLA to be capable of conducting shaping and deterrence operations in the region<\/em>.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol style=\"text-align: justify;\" start=\"4\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;\"><strong><u>MAINTAIN FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION<\/u><\/strong>. China\u2019s economy is largely dependent on exports, most of which travel via the world\u2019s oceans. Maintaining safe and free passage through the international waters is necessary for Chinese political stability and economic development. <em>Expeditionary capability would be required for this<\/em>.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol style=\"text-align: justify;\" start=\"5\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #993366;\"><strong><u>RESOLVE MARITIME TERRITORIAL DISPUTES<\/u><\/strong>. China views several land masses and their surrounding territorial waters in the South China Sea and elsewhere in the Pacific as strategically important. <em>Their importance is derived from their proximity to important global shipping lanes, and also their potential usefulness as military bases (particularly for naval and coast guard ships, fixed-wing aircraft, antisubmarine warfare capabilities, and land-based antiaircraft and ant ship missile systems).<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol style=\"text-align: justify;\" start=\"6\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #333300;\"><strong><u>ESTABLISH POSITIVE CONDITIONS FOR POTENTIAL HOSTILITIES.<\/u><\/strong> China views conflict along a continuum, ranging from steady-state deterrence operations in peacetime (Grey Zone) to full-fledged combat operations. While China has mastered the art of grey zone operations, it is also expanding on overseas basing for the PLA, enabling <em>force projection outside of Chinese borders and giving Chinese leadership greater flexibility in choosing how and where to employ military force<\/em>.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #ff0000;\"><strong><u>Chinese Objectives and Military involvement <\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #ff0000;\">China\u2019s history is deeply intertwined with its military.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #ff0000;\">Relationship between the PLA and the Communist Party of China (CPC) is a complex one.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #ff0000;\">In contrast to Western militaries, the PLA is deeply politicized.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #ff0000;\">While Western militaries are generally apolitical and are divorced from political parties, the PLA is officially the armed wing of the CPC.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #ff0000;\">It retains significant ties to Maoist and Marxist-Leninist political thought and has generations-deep connections with the CPC.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #ff0000;\">Today, with the primacy of the CPC virtually assured and few internal security threats, the People\u2019s Armed Police (PAP) has taken over much of the internal security mission, while the PLA focuses primarily on development-related external objectives.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #333399;\"><strong><u>Military Modernisation<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #333399;\">Historically, the PLA had little to no expeditionary capability, minimal mechanization, low-technology systems, and a severe lack of military professionalism.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #333300;\">Chinese Objectives and strategy requires a significant enhancement of PLA capabilities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #000080;\">Chinese objectives require meaningful force projection capabilities:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #000080;\">A blue-water navy.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #000080;\">A modern air force.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #000080;\">Long-range targeting and strike capabilities.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #000080;\">Enhanced long-range air and sea strategic lift capabilities.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #000080;\">Well-trained, well-equipped, professional ground force.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #993366;\"><strong>Military modernization<\/strong> with economic development is a basic tenet of Chinese national strategy. This has guided the significant increase in annual defence budget for the past two decades.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #800000;\">This principle is now manifesting in China\u2019s <strong>Military-Civil Fusion program<\/strong>, which seeks greater cooperation between military and civilian elements in achieving shared objectives. An important objective of Military-Civil Fusion is leveraging civilian assets and capabilities as a cost-efficient method of managing limited military resources.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #333300;\">Due to one of the largest and longest economic growth cycles in history, China has been able to fund the reform and development of the PLA, modernizing it over the last three decades from a force of poorly armed and poorly trained conscripts into a viable modern military.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #ff0000;\"><u>Bottom Line<\/u><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #ff0000;\">China is marching ahead at a very rapid pace.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #000080;\"><u>Question<\/u><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #000080;\">Are we gearing up to meet future challenges?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;\"><u>Suggestions and value additions are most welcome<\/u><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #800080;\">For regular updates, please register here<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"dH4MrI9eb5\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/subscribe\/\">Subscribe<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Subscribe&#8221; &#8212; Air Marshal&#039;s Perspective\" src=\"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/subscribe\/embed\/#?secret=jpyV4qEEWf#?secret=dH4MrI9eb5\" data-secret=\"dH4MrI9eb5\" width=\"525\" height=\"296\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">References:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">https:\/\/armypubs.army.mil\/epubs\/DR_pubs\/DR_a\/ARN33195-ATP_7-100.3-000-WEB-1.pdf<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>China: National Political Objectives Like any other nation Chinese national political objectives can be broken into two basic categories: security and development. According to USA these objectives would include the following: &nbsp; Security objectives would include: Protection of the CPC as China\u2019s ruling party. Protection of Chinese sovereignty. Protection of borders. Internal security Nuclear deterrence. &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/2021\/09\/13\/china-objectives-strategy-and-military-role\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;192: CHINA: OBJECTIVES, STRATEGY AND MILITARY ROLE&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,25,68,78,28,1,115,122],"tags":[24,47,46,52,60,40],"class_list":["post-4144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","category-china","category-geo-politics","category-military-capability","category-technology","category-uncategorized","category-war-and-warfare","category-warfare","tag-china","tag-defence-services","tag-higher-defence-organisation","tag-strategic-thinking","tag-warfare","tag-world-order"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4144"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8706,"href":"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4144\/revisions\/8706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/55nda.com\/blogs\/anil-khosla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}