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

ENDNOTES - CHAPTER 6
1. I am discounting subsequent minor incidents along the
China-Vietnam border and in the South China Sea and brief engagements
in the context of UN peacekeeping missions.
2. Li You, “努力提高部队干部执行非战争行动的能力” (“Strive
to improve army cadres’ ability to carry out MOOTW”), 国防
(National Defense), Vol. 3, 2009, p. 6; Dong Zhijun and Ding Shaoxue,
“构建精干高效的政治工作运行机制” (“Build a crack, highefficiency
political work mechanism”), 中国国防报 Zhongguo guofangbao,
December 22, 2008, p. 3; Liu Demao, Zhang Yuejun, Li
Zhao and Li Xucheng, “挑起非战争军事行动的重担” (“Shoulder
the heavy burden of military operations other than war”), (China
National Defense Daily), October 23, 2008, p. 3. A reading of the
many openly published articles on MOOTW indicates that PLA
officers often find MOOTW challenging, that there is some debate
within the PLA as to the relative importance of MOOTW,
but I have seen nothing to suggest that PLA officers faced with
MOOTW responsibilities do anything other than carry out their
assigned tasks.
3. The reliance on openly published sources such as academic
journals, magazines, newspapers, and websites carries severe
limitations. Much (or all) of what appears in these formats is cautiously
written, carefully vetted, and deals with issues at a fairly
high level of abstraction. Specific details and concrete examples
are few and far between.
4. For useful overviews of the PLA’s internal security responsibilities,
see David Shambaugh, Modernizing China’s Military:
Progress, Problems, and Prospects, Berkeley: University of California
Press, 2004, pp. 20-22, 170-75; and Dennis J. Blasko, The Chinese
Army Today: Tradition and Transformation for the Twenty-First Century,
London: Routledge, 2006, pp. 171-78. In looking at “lessons
learned” from internal security operations, this chapter further
discusses some of the issues addressed by Murray Scot Tanner
(no relation to the present author), “How China Manages Internal
Security Challenges and its Impact on PLA Missions” in Roy Kamphausen,
David Lai, and Andrew Scobell, eds., Beyond the Strait:
PLA Missions Other Than Taiwan, Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies
Institute, 2009, pp. 39-98. Murray Scot Tanner’s many publica-
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