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

2. Nanjing MR is located directly across from Taiwan and is
considered the PLA’s main force preparing for Taiwan contingency
operations. As such, many foreign exercise partners may
be hesitant to be involved in an exercise that could be construed to
threaten Taiwan. With the improvement of cross-Strait relations
in recent years, Beijing may also seek to avoid the appearance of
looking for allies in a cross-Strait military scenario. Finally, Nanjing
MR shares no land borders with foreign countries and thus
is less inclined to be involved in ground exercises with China’s
neighbors.
3. “Nontraditional security” missions are also known as Military
Operations Other Than War (MOOTW) or “nonwar/noncombat
operations.”
4. Ballistic missile forces are frequently included in unilateral
PLA joint operations training as part of the joint firepower campaign,
but are not appropriate for most nontraditional security
missions. Ground attack cruise missiles with greater accuracy,
which are now entering the PLA inventory, might be useful and
suitable for some nontraditional security scenarios, such as attacking
terrorists in caves or other isolated shelters.
5. China’s lack of formal military alliances influences the
number, focus, and duration of these combined exercises. Countries
which maintain active military alliances routinely conduct
combined exercises with much greater frequency, size, and intensity
than the Chinese exercises untaken to date.
6. Hu Jintao’s Speech on China’s Diplomatic Direction,
CPP20090805710012, Beijing, China, Liaowang in Chinese, July 27,
2009, No. 30, p. 58, translated by the Open Source Center (OSC).
7. Charlie Reed, “Casey: U.S., China to begin joint humanitarian
relief training,” Stars and Stripes, August 26, 2009, available
from www.stripes.com/article.asp?article=64377&section=104. Section
1201 of the National Defense Authorization Act For Fiscal
Year 2000 Public Law 106-65 prohibits U.S. exchanges and contacts
with the PLA that “would create a national security risk
due to an inappropriate exposure” in force projection operations,
advanced combined-arms and joint combat operations, advanced
logistical operations, and chemical and biological defense capa-
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