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

. . . military deterrence, military diplomacy, struggles
for defense of land, maritime, and air frontiers, establishing
restricted areas, soft battle strikes, military
trade and aid, peacekeeping operations, counter-terror
operations, crackdowns on organized crime and drug
trafficking, controlling and managing refugees, armed
escort, eliminating pollution from nuclear, biological,
and chemical agents, military control, civil assistance,
protecting and evacuating nationals in foreign trouble
spots, and managing crises. National defense and army
building are themselves forms of military operations
other than war, whereas military struggle is a routine
form of non-war military actions. The contents and
modes of military operations other than war will continuously
witness new changes which will develop out
of practice. 19
DISCOURSE IN 3-D: RECONCILING
CONTRADICTIONS, CONFRONTING
CHALLENGES
PLA writers continue to grapple with the challenges
confronting Chinese military modernization
in the early 21st century. One particular challenge is
trying to make sense of the latest modifications to the
1993 MSG and what they mean to the PLA. A consistent
theme of Chinese authors is the identification of
“contradictions” (矛盾). Here I outline a handful of
contradictions identified in the discourse triggered by
the New Historic Missions and 2008 white paper and
explore what each tells us about the discourse going
on within the PLA in 2009. The first and second contradictions
are largely discussed vertically between
echelons; the third and fourth contradictions tend to
be discussed horizontally within echelons; the fifth
contradiction—is almost never explicitly stated—but
is clearly implicit in the on-going externally directed
discourse with other countries.
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