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

tribution, health service support [HSS], engineering,
logistic services, and operational contract support) 37
to provide support according to the operational environment,
and to integrate this organic service support
with “the strategic sustaining base of the Nation.” 38
While U.S. logistics terms reflect its expeditionary
operations outside the continental United States, China’s
logistics terms appears to focus more on defensive
homeland mobilization concepts in the tradition
of People’s War in which civilian and military capacity
can be mobilized to support defense of China during
attack. Many of the civil-military mobilization mandates
are further under resourced and centrally managed,
allowing local experimentation and variations
that could undermine effective national mobilization.
Logistics support to offensive power-projection capabilities,
discussed more below, does not appear to be
an urgent priority and/or appreciated requirement to
offensive operations, as the gradual implementation
of joint logistics based on the Jinan MR tests begun in
2004 seems to indicate.
Comprehensive Support (综合保障).
Differences in American and Chinese military operational
concepts, as well as capacity, are also indicated
in the Chinese term, comprehensive support.
China’s concept of comprehensive support may be defined
as “a series of support measures . . . to ensure the
smooth execution of a campaign and its final victory . .
. [including] operational support, logistic support and
equipment support.” 39
This term can be compared to the U.S. military’s
joint logistics concept, which is defined as “the coordinated
use, synchronization, and sharing of two
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