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

merous nonwar activities and heavily domestic focus
of China’s armed forces in recent years to American
audiences. The Vice Chairman of the CMC gave considerable
prominence to internal security concerns,
including the multiple challenges Beijing faced in
western China. 45 The message Xu sought to get across
was: China does not pose a military threat to anyone,
including the United States.
CHALLENGES
There are a number of significant challenges that
become evident from the above contradictions. The
horizontal contradictions in MOOTW are real but do
not seem to be at the forefront of controversy within
the PLA. The vertical contradictions may become more
acute in the future but for now they remain manageable
(see Challenge #3 below). The main contradiction
at the center of the ongoing discourse among members
of the PLA is encapsulated in the so-called “two
incompatibles.” The outward contradiction will also
be a challenge.
Challenge # 1: Can the PLA Stay Focused?
The PLA may be unable to focus, be spread too
thin, and thereby “lose its way.” Indeed, this appears
to be a significant fear within China’s military. This
expansion of missions and operational capabilities
may be an inevitable consequence of the PLA beginning
to move beyond a consuming focus on the Taiwan
scenario. 46 But the process of formally defining
these missions and capabilities has come much sooner
and in a more accelerated fashion because of the
confluence of certain events in 2008—dramatically
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