China Advocates

As the conflict over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands intensifies between Japan and China, there is a considerable section within China which appears to be hawkishly advocating in favour of the use of force to regain what China terms to be the Diaoyu Islands. Being cited in a publication of the organ of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the views need to be taken cognizance of, especially given the argument that the conflict between China and Japan will likely intensify.

In order to address this facet, Chinese analysts, Li Daguang and Li Xuejun of China’s National Defense University, while reacting to the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands issue, have more generically advocated that “appropriate preparations for military struggle are needed to curb the occurrence of war.” Li and Li have called for preparations for military struggle in wake of what China refers to as Japan’s military readiness. Both authors argue that while making necessary preparations for a military struggle, China should focus its energies by appropriately gauging the extent of foreign threat and make sure that China’s resources do not get depleted.

Besides, Li and Li aver that China should adhere to requisite preparations for a military resistance, and “should not give up appropriate and necessary preparations for a military struggle because of the excessive worry about being dragged into an arms race.” The authors go on to argue that China should certainly not blame appropriate preparations for military struggle by considering it a “mistake in strategic policy.”

It needs to be recalled that in his Selected Works volumes, Chairman Mao Zedong wrote extensively on the concept of launching a strategic offensive. In December 1935, Mao prepared a report “On Tactics against Japanese Imperialism” in which problems concerning the political line of the Party in the Second Revolutionary Civil War were systematically solved. According to Mao, China’s revolutionary war, whether civil or national, was waged in an environment specific to China, thus implying that besides the laws of war and of revolutionary war in general, it has specific laws of its own. Unless these are understood, it would not be possible to win China’s revolutionary war.

In this reference, General Secretary of CCP Central Committee and Chairman of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC), Xi Jinping called for “expanding and deepening” the military’s combat preparedness while visiting China’s Lanzhou Military Area Command. Covering the Gansu, Shaanxi, and Xinjiang provinces, the Lanzhou military region controls the largest physical area of all the military regions. Xi stopped by an air force base and the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center according to the official Xinhua news agency and stressed upon “national defence efforts, urging the military to enhance its combat preparedness and constantly improve its ability to fulfill missions and tasks.” Significantly, at the Lanzhou Military Area Command, Xi affirmed the “military’s role in safeguarding northwest China.” This brings to light Chinese policy of cracking down on separatism and extremism in the Muslim-majority Xinjiang region.

While consolidating his control over the Party and the PLA, Xi has stressed that soldiers and officers in remote areas should be given more material and financial resources, thereby attempting to strengthen the linkages between the PLA and the local government. Earlier, while visiting PLA’s Guangzhou military theatre, Xi Jinping had ordered the PLA to intensify its “real combat awareness in order to sustain military readiness.” Furthermore, CMC’s Vice Chairman, Fan Changlong urged the PLA to adopt “real combat criteria in military training so as to meet future wartime needs.”

China seems to be taking cues from history as far as preparations for a military struggle are concerned. Beijing’s new leadership is demonstrating PLA’s toughened posture as it shifts its strategy from continental to peripheral defence, thereby underlining China’s military doctrinal intent of resolving to "fight and win local wars on its borders" in addition to accentuating enhanced ability of the PLA towards becoming a more mobile and better-equipped fighting force.

The author is a Senior Fellow at CLAWS.

Views expressed are personal