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

nomic recovery may have prevented such an increase,
but any future rise in economic and environmental
pressures could cause an upswing in nonethnic and
ethnic mass incidents. At the same time, global climate
change and its attendant consequences, including
increases in extreme weather and rising sea levels
can be expected to contribute to more frequent largescale
natural disasters. The PLA is not alone among
the world’s militaries in having to play a significant
role in emergency response and disaster relief. Scholars
note a growing trend toward military involvement
in disaster response and relief, both within individual
countries and on an international scale. 107 The question
is: What impact does that involvement have
on military budgets, training, and preparedness for
warfighting?
Faced with the apparently mounting challenges of
internal security and disaster relief, some within the
PLA have expressed concern that preparation and
training for MOOTW such as disaster relief may be
a distraction from the PLA’s core mission of national
defense. 108 Perhaps in response to these concerns, it
appears that China places a good deal of emphasis
on improving the overall quality of the militia and
reserves and training and equipping specialized militia
and reserves units to deal with specific types of
disaster (industrial, forest fire, earthquake, and so
on). These moves suggest a division of labor in which
the militia, reserves (and also specialized PAP units
including firefighting units) would be first responders
to major natural and man-made disasters, with the
PLA acting as a second echelon to be deployed in instances
of major disaster.
Aside from these concerns, however, we have no
evidence that preparation for and participation in in-
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