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

Chinese leaders are well aware of the huge challenge
in their endeavor. They do not have the luxury
to follow what the Western powers have gone through
in their RMA. First, Western powers made their militaries
transition to the information age on the basis of
their fully developed economies. China has to make
the transition while at the same time trying to develop
its economy. Second, Western military powers were
highly mechanized when they added their informationized
capabilities. China’s force mechanization is
only half-way completed. Yet China cannot afford to
wait until the completion of force mechanization to
make the transition to informationization. Its decision
is to make a “leap forward development (跨越式
发展),” striving to make mechanization and informationization
mutually reinforcing and complementary.
“Learn from the U.S. Military (向美军学习)”
The revolution in military affairs started as speculations
in the mid-1970s by the Soviet military leaders
on future ways and means of waging war but has been
turned into reality by the United States in the last 2 to
3 decades. The RMA has now come to mean the fundamental
changes that have taken place, in the words
of the Pentagon 1999 Annual Report to the President and
the Congress, in military strategy, doctrine, training,
education, organization, equipment, logistics operations,
and tactics. 24
The PLA follows closely the development of the
RMA and learns from the experience of the U.S. armed
forces in practically every aspect. The heading of this
section is actually the title of a recent article by the
PLA’s Academy of Military Science Political Commissar,
Lieutenant General Liu Yazhou (刘亚洲). It stands
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