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

Even though the security situation in China’s immediate
neighborhood, the Asia-Pacific region, was
viewed as stable, this stability was threatened by
several factors. The global economic crisis was creating
political instability in some countries, ethnic and
religious discontent was intense, and competing territorial
and maritime rights and interests remained
severe. The United States had sharpened its focus on
the region, was strengthening its military alliances,
and enhancing its regional military capabilities. Nontraditional
threats generated by terrorists and “separatist”
forces, and the consequences of serious natural
disasters were troubling the region. These threats to
regional stability were made even more serious by the
lack of an effective mechanism for regional security
cooperation and coordination.
China’s security environment was perceived as
improving, but continued to confront long-term and
complex security challenges. These stemmed from developed
countries’ economic, science, technology and
military superiority, and from strategic maneuvering
designed to contain China even as it suffers internally
from separatist and hostile forces, including the East
Turkistan, Tibet and Taiwan independence movements.
The latter exacerbated by continuing U.S. sale
of arms to Taiwan in what Beijing views as violation
of the three Sino-American joint communiqués.
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China’s primary strategic objective is to foster a security
situation essential for China’s “peaceful development.”
This is no doubt Beijing’s highest priority,
for nothing would have graver political consequences
and undermine China’s national development goals
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