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

• The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs was the first
U.S. official to sit in a PLAAF Su-27 fighter and
T-99 tank (March 2007).
Meanwhile, no U.S. military officials have been allowed
to visit the PLA’s command center in the Western
Hills near Beijing, even denying a specific request
by the Secretary of Defense during his visit to China
in October 2005. 84
Although it is opening up somewhat to the outside
world, the PLA still carefully selects and manages the
opportunities it gives foreign officers and media to
observe it up close. Indeed, it appears that the PLA
is becoming increasingly sophisticated in its ability to
interact with foreign observers as exemplified by the
April 2009 naval demonstration off the coast of Qingdao.
During the demonstration, which marked the 60th
anniversary of the PLA Navy, PRC President Hu Jintao
met with the heads of 29 foreign navy delegations,
including the U.S. Navy’s Chief of Naval Operations,
Admiral Gary Roughead. 85 Following maneuvers and
a parade by 52 PLA Navy vessels and aircraft off the
coast, 21 vessels from 14 countries lined up for a review.
86 The demonstration also marked the first time
that the PLA had publicly displayed its nuclear submarines;
however, they were the older Xia- and Hanclass
submarines rather than the newer Shang-, Jin-,
and Yuan-class submarines. 87 A deputy commander of
the PLA Navy, Vice Admiral Ding Yiping, told Xinhua
that foreign “suspicions about China’s being a ‘threat’
to world security . . . would disappear if foreign counterparts
could visit the Chinese navy and know about
the true situations [sic].” 88 The naval demonstration
could serve as a reassurance measure, as suggested by
Vice Admiral Ding, but it could also represent a display
of power for the sake of deterrence.
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