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

The increasing scope and sophistication of PLA
military diplomacy is representative of a larger trend
in Chinese foreign relations. Since the mid-1990s, as
China has become increasingly engaged in the international
system and progressively more adept at promoting
its influence, so too has the PLA. 111 As a result,
China could challenge U.S. interests more effectively
than it has in the past. The question U.S. policymakers
must consider is to what extent is Chinese military
diplomacy being used to further China’s interests at
the expense of or in competition with U.S. interests.
ENDNOTES - CHAPTER 9
1. Only a few authors have written detailed papers about the
PLA’s foreign relations over the past 15 years. Kenneth W. Allen
and Eric A. McVadon, China’s Foreign Military Relations, Washington,
DC: The Henry L. Stimson Center, October 1999; David Finkelstein
and Michael McDevitt, Engaging DoD: Chinese Perspectives
on Military Relations with the United States, Alexandria, VA: The
CNA Corporation, October 1999; Kenneth Allen, Showing the Red
Flag: The PLA Navy as an Instrument of China’s Foreign Policy, Alexandria,
VA: CNA, April 2003, CME D0008244.A1/Final; Kenneth
Allen, “PLA Air Force Foreign Relations,” in Chinese Military Update,
Vol 3, No. 1, London, UK: RUSI, November 2005; Shirley A.
Kan, U.S.-China Military Contacts: Issues for Congress, Washington,
DC: Congressional Research Service, August 6, 2009.
2. Robert G. Sutter, Chinese Foreign Relations: Power and Policy
Since the Cold War, New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers,
Inc., 2008, p. 37; Phillip C. Saunders, China’s Global Activism: Strategy,
Drivers, and Tools, Washington, DC: Institute for National
Strategic Studies, National Defense University, October 2006, pp.
1, 3.
3. Sutter, p. 38.
4. Saunders, p. 3.
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