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

increase. In developing information technology, the
PLA will leverage information technology developed
in the civil/private/commercial sectors, but will concentrate
its own research on developing operational
command and weapons systems, and rely on commercially-provided
technologies for other systems. 24
Leap-frog Development.
The PLA will exploit advances by other countries in
information technology to assist its own development.
The PLA can acquire foreign technology, improve existing
foreign technology, learn from the experience
of foreign militaries, and use foreign technologies as
benchmarks. 25 Leap-frog development is facilitated
by the ease with which information technology can
be easily purchased (or copied), unlike other types of
military technologies, such as missiles. 26 Moreover,
the PLA should avoid the U.S. military’s mistake in
first building stove-piped systems that then had to be
integrated by developing those integrative technologies
later. 27
The PLA’s commitment to leap-frog development
is represented in the “twin important historic tasks (双
重历史任务) of transforming from a half-mechanized
force into a mechanized and informationized force.
These taskings explicitly acknowledge that the PLA is
not a fully mechanized force, yet is required to work
simultaneously to become a mechanized and informationized
force. This requirement was based on the realization
that if the PLA waited until it became a fully
mechanized force to develop into an informationized
force, then it would fall too far behind the U.S. military.
On the other hand, PLA technology limitations
render it unable to transition directly into an informationized
force. 28
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