The PLA at Home and Abroad - Strategic Studies Institute - U.S. Army

“under high technology conditions (在高科技条件下).”
There have been at least three modifications to these
guidelines since 1993. The first modification, issued in
late 2002 during a major defense speech by Jiang Zemin,
stipulated that the RMA had accelerated and information
technology was now the defining character
of modern warfare. Thus local limited warfare would
henceforth be waged “under conditions of informatization
(在信息化条件下).” A second modification was
reportedly announced by the new paramount ruler,
CCP General Secretary and PRC President Hu Jintao,
at an enlarged CMC meeting in December 2004. Hu
expounded a set of four “New Historic Missions.” The
third and most recent public modification to the 1993
MSG occurred in January 2009 with the official release
of China’s 2008 Defense White Paper.
This chapter looks at PLA discourse unleashed by
the most recent modifications to the 1993 guidelines.
The discourse has unfolded in three dimensions each
with its own distinct arena and audience. The first dimension
is a vertical one, the second is a horizontal
plane, and the third extends outward, perpendicular
to the other two dimensions. It is useful to think of the
PLA as a pyramid-shaped organization consisting of
three distinct echelons (see Figure 1). The majority of
the PLA can be found at the base of the pyramid: this is
the Lower Echelon consisting of the officers and men
at the level of Group Army and below. This level can
be dubbed the ‘war-fighting PLA.’ Above this layer
is the Middle Echelon which consists of the staffs of
the four General Departments (general staff, general
political, general logistics, general armaments), and
four services (ground forces, navy, air force and strategic
rocket forces). This level can be dubbed the ‘administration
PLA.’ The smallest layer is at the Higher
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