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

PLA LONG-TERM STRATEGIC CONCERNS
Once one moves beyond the situations across the
Taiwan Strait and the Korean Peninsula, PLA concerns
become more long-term and strategic in their
focus. Whether these concerns originate in South and
Central Asia, a potentially militarily powerful Russia
in Asia, conflicting maritime and territorial claims in
the East and South China Seas, a militarily assertive
Japan, issues with the United States over what is legally
permissible in terms of foreign military activities
in China’s maritime Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ)
and air space beyond the accepted 12-mile limit of
sovereignty, the effectiveness of China’s nuclear deterrent
or United States’ long-term intentions toward
China, these are not issues where the PLA anticipates
a near-term major military confrontation. Certainly,
the PLA must be prepared for a show of force when
Beijing believes it is necessary to demonstrate China’s
position on any particular issue, but not a war. These,
however, are the strategic issues that appear to be of
most concern to the PLA. It is these long-term strategic
concerns that now drive China’s military modernization
programs and have driven much of the PLA’s
regional military diplomacy.
What China confronts is a classic “security dilemma”
where what Beijing views as security policies and
military modernization programs designed to equip
and train the PLA to perform defensive missions are
viewed by other governments as potentially if not
probably offensive in their purpose. Beijing is fully
aware of this dilemma and has been for a number of
years as its constant battle against the “China threat”
thesis demonstrates. Most recently, for example, in an
assessment of Japan’s 2009 Defense White Paper, a PLA
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