China's Strategic Modernization: The Russian Connection - outfitting People's Liberation Army - Statistical Data Included

Parameters, Winter, 2001 by Michael J. Barron

As shown by China's recent military purchases, its air, sea, and amphibious forces are being outfitted with a wide array of state-of-the-art weapon systems from Russia that will enable them to deliver a punch far beyond China's borders. These systems will begin to provide some of the capabilities needed to fight the type of conflict that Chinese strategic planners envision as most likely in the future--short, limited wars using high-technology equipment on the periphery of China. In order to fight this type of war, the PLA will need to develop the capability to project and sustain a joint, combined-arms force some distance from its borders. At the present, the PLA is not structured to do so, but is best suited to fight a defensive war on its own land mass and in its coastal waters.

In spite of numerous allegations, the transfers of strategic long-range bombers and ICBMs has not been verified. While seeking to improve its strategic capability in cost-effective ways, Beijing appears to believe that the existing PLA nuclear arsenal generally provides an adequate level of strategic deterrence, although the Bush Administration's national missile defense proposals may be causing a reconsideration of that view. (40)

As mentioned earlier, although there have been reports of new sales of ground force weapon systems, the transfer of any significant numbers of ground force equipment has yet to come to fruition. This may be because China faces no significant land threat and calculates that the amount of equipment necessary to outfit its ground forces would be cost-prohibitive as well as unnecessary. This reasoning allows for money to be better spent on weapons more likely to be needed in potential future conflicts and found in air force, navy, and missile units.

Air Force Strategy and Force Development

During the 1990s, China geared up to develop a high-technology air force. Chinese military leaders appear to believe that the sine qua non of a turn-of-the-century regional military power is a capable, combat-ready air force. (41) The PLA has set its sights on a long-term plan to modernize its aircraft completely through a combination of off-the-shelf purchases, technology transfers, and pilot training programs, mostly from the Russian Republic. The primary lesson of the Gulf War and US air operations in Kosovo, in the eyes of many PLA leaders, is the primacy of airpower, particularly the importance of controlling airspace or at least denying it to a hostile power. (42)

Naval Strategy and Force Development

In the early 1980s, the long-standing emphasis on coastal defense shifted to the "offshore active defense strategy." (43) At the core of this doctrine is a three-tiered layer of naval defenses. The first level extends from the coast to 50 nautical miles out to sea. The PLA Navy would defend this zone with shore-based anti-ship missiles, fast attack craft, minesweepers, and minefields. The second level of defense runs from 50 to 300 nautical miles from the coast. It is here that the major surface combatants (destroyers and frigates) and older submarines would deploy. Beyond this is the outermost sea space, where the navy would operate shore-based naval aircraft and submarines with ship-to-ship missiles.