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

Though limited in number, these exercises contribute
to China’s foreign and security policy objectives. 5
In particular, China’s exercise partners conform well
with Hu Jintao’s four-tiered diplomatic agenda: the
“great powers are the key, neighboring areas are the
primary task, developing countries are the basic work,
and multilateral relations are an important stage.” 6
The majority of exercises have been conducted with
Russia (the largest number overall) and the neighboring
Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)
members (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and
Uzbekistan). Other partners include forces from the
bordering countries of India, Pakistan, and Mongolia,
as well as the more distant Thailand, Singapore, Gabon,
and Romania. So far, the U.S. military and Chinese
forces have not conducted combined land training.
That may change in the future with some sort of
bilateral humanitarian assistance and disaster relief
exercise as discussed during the visit of the Chief of
Staff of the U.S. Army to Beijing in August 2009. 7
In addition to the variety of combined exercises
PLA Army and PAP units have conducted since 2002,
Chinese ground forces also have had other contacts
with foreign militaries beyond routine military diplomatic
visits and exchanges. For example, PLA personnel
have participated in and held multinational training
seminars, attended foreign military schools, and
conducted military training overseas. Though not the
subject of this chapter, a few of those training events
will be mentioned after more detailed discussion of
the combined ground force exercises executed since
the turn of the new century.
The Appendix to this chapter summarizes the 24
combined exercises conducted since 2002, including
names, dates, participants, location, number of per-
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