People‘s War Revised: Military Doctrine, Strategy, and Operations 1

Abstract

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army is in the eighth year of a wide-ranging defense modernization program, which is intended for far more than simply updating weapons and equipment. This chapter explores the changes occurring in Chinese concepts of military doctrine, strategy, and operations in order to provide a better understanding of the military objectives of the modernization program. There is considerable disagreement over the definition of “doctrine” and it is important not to impute Western meanings into the Chinese use of the concept. As the Chinese develop a strategy that will successfully defend China against a Soviet attack, there are major limitations on what they can expect to achieve over the next decade. Although Chinese strategic and operational analyses generally eschew discussion of air warfare, any investigation of Chinese strategic and doctrinal concepts for a war with the Soviet Union cannot but review the problems faced by their air forces if they are to engage the USSR.